2022 Toronto Auto Show Canceled Due to COVID Concerns
It’s deja vu all over again.
After we managed to squeeze a few auto shows — Chicago, Detroit/Motor Bella, and Los Angeles — in during 2021, we’re back in a place of scheduling uncertainty and possible event cancellations due to the rise of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Yes, it’s true that we still are learning about Omicron, and there are some reports that it may be milder than Delta, but it also appears to be far more transmissible, and even if a small percentage of folks get severe disease, well a small percent of a very large number ends up being a large number.
More to the point of this piece — auto shows aren’t exempt from local restrictions. With Ontario putting out provincial restrictions that cap indoor venues that can hold more than 1,000 people to 50 percent capacity — and not giving the restrictions an end date as of now — it was likely easier, from a logistics standpoint, for the show to shut it all down now, before any automaker committed resources to building a booth/stand and started shipping cars.
“It is with great regret that we have to make this announcement, but the health and wellbeing of our community needs to be our first priority,” Jason Campbell, General Manager of the Canadian International AutoShow, said in a statement. “What has been clear over the past few months in our discussions with our consumers and our manufacturer partners is how much they all value our in-person live AutoShow event experience, and how hungry they all were for it to return.
“We had been working hard in recent months for the AutoShow to return in a big way, but in light of the recent developments, and in consultation and agreement with our manufacturer and sponsor partners, we have agreed that it’s best to set 2022 plans aside to best support the health and safety of our community. We want to thank all of our AutoShow partners, sponsors, exhibitors and consumers for their interest in coming back in 2022, but can assure them we’ll be back bigger than ever in 2023 for what will be our 50th year.”
Toronto was slated to take place later in February than the Chicago Auto Show, but as of now both that show and January’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas are still on.
This is a reminder to get vaccinated if you haven’t done so and to get boosted if you’re vaccinated and haven’t done so. Before you accuse me of getting political, let me just say that I’m not being political when I recommend you get a vaccine that’s safer than COVID and effective against severe disease, if not always against infection. It’s no more political than if I told you to put a band-aid on a bleeding cut.
Hopefully, between continued mask-wearing, more vaccination, boosting, and the advent of anti-viral pills, this show will be the last to be binned.
[Image: Toronto Auto Show]
Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
More by Tim Healey
Comments
Join the conversation
The link is: https://coronavirus.house.gov/sites/democrats.coronavirus.house.gov /files/SSCCInterimReportDec2021V1.pdf First thing that jumps out - democrats.coronavirus.house - says to me many facts will be of the alternative nature. Secondly I can't seem to find an author(s) but I have noted Representative Clyburn (Chairman of the Subcommittee) mentioned 86 times in the 46 page document (nearly all in the references). This suggests his staff were likely the primary authors of the document, and given his background bias the credibility of the document drops to maybe 10% (if he were not the majority of the sources it wouldn't drop so low)? This might have well been The World According to Jim since he personally/his staff is the primary source of information. While there are a few interesting tidbits and some data which may be of interest, its use should mostly be for toilet paper. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Clyburn "Pressured the Food and Drug Administration to Authorize Ineffective Coronavirus Treatments – Documents obtained by the Select Subcommittee showed that Trump Administration political appointees attempted to exert pressure on the Food and Drug Administration to authorize ineffective coronavirus treatments, such as hydroxychloroquine and convalescent plasma, over the objections of career scientists.41" Reference 41 points to a letter I presume from February 8, 2021 which is dated February 8, 2020, working link below. https://coronavirus.house.gov/sites/democrats.coronavirus.house.gov/files /2021-02-8.Clyburn%20to%20Cochran%20re%20WH%20Failures%20on%20Pandemic%20.pdf From 41: "These documents show that after FDA revoked its emergency use authorization (EUA) for hydroxychloroquine on June 15, 2020, Dr. Alexander repeatedly reached out to top Trump Administration officials to promote the drug as a treatment for coronavirus. For instance, on July 19, he wrote to Dr. Hahn and another top FDA official about a study purporting to show benefits of hydroxychloroquine when used in combination with other treatments. Dr. Alexander stated that he was sharing the study prior to publication, explaining, “I want to help the administration,” and complaining, “we are being fought by the other side and media which is horrendous.”29 On August 18, Dr. Alexander wrote to Mr. Caputo to chide Dr. Fauci for publicly stating that there is a lack of evidence to indicate that hydroxychloroquine is an effective coronavirus treatment. Dr. Alexander wrote: “he is very wrong. He misspoke. He knows it.”" So Dr. Alexander, senior adviser to HHS, felt the FDA was wrong in stopping hydroxychloroquine use about June 2020. The Europeans did the same but by the end of the year it was being prescribed as a treatment again per this link: https://www.nature.com/articles/d43978-020-00035-w So the FDA *was* wrong, and I'm not sure what Fauci's comments were but he's been proven wrong many times so I'm sure he was wrong on this too. So while "the other side" as Dr. Alexander put it allowed an unknown number of deaths by NOT allowing hydroxychloroquine in the summer of 2020, Rep Clyburn's staff want to argue Dr. Alexander's repeated disagreements were evidence of: "Trump Administration political appointees attempted to exert pressure on the FDA to authorize ineffective coronavirus treatments, such as hydroxychloroquine and convalescent plasma, over the objections of career "scientists" [WHO WERE WRONG ABOUT HCQ]". Sorry Jim, not today and if this is the bullsh!t you're pitching it makes me wonder how full of lies your "report" actually is... but until you dig into the references, its not easy to refute these somewhat laughable claims. I will say the references cited are *very* interesting reading and recommend them if truly interested in this stuff. It paints a nice picture of the events leading up to the Brandon coup, gov't really did fight tooth and nail against Trump's people. If they were buffoons then they were right to do so, but I don't think they all were just by examining that reference. But don't expect State Media to inform you of actual facts.
@arthur The link is: https://coronavirus.house.gov/sites/democrats.coronavirus.house.gov /files/SSCCInterimReportDec2021V1.pdf First thing that jumps out - democrats.coronavirus.house - says to me many facts will be of the alternative nature. Secondly I can't seem to find an author(s) but I have noted Representative Clyburn (Chairman of the Subcommittee) mentioned 86 times in the 46 page document (nearly all in the references). This suggests his staff were likely the primary authors of the document, and given his background bias the credibility of the document drops to maybe 10% (if he were not the majority of the sources it wouldn't drop so low)? This might have well been The World According to Jim since he personally/his staff is the primary source of information. While there are a few interesting tidbits and some data which may be of interest, its use should mostly be for toilet paper. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Clyburn "Pressured the Food and Drug Administration to Authorize Ineffective Coronavirus Treatments – Documents obtained by the Select Subcommittee showed that Trump Administration political appointees attempted to exert pressure on the Food and Drug Administration to authorize ineffective coronavirus treatments, such as hydroxychloroquine and convalescent plasma, over the objections of career scientists.41" Reference 41 points to a letter I presume from February 8, 2021 which is dated February 8, 2020, working link below. https://coronavirus.house.gov/sites/democrats.coronavirus.house.gov/files /2021-02-8.Clyburn%20to%20Cochran%20re%20WH%20Failures%20on%20Pandemic%20.pdf From 41: "These documents show that after FDA revoked its emergency use authorization (EUA) for hydroxychloroquine on June 15, 2020, Dr. Alexander repeatedly reached out to top Trump Administration officials to promote the drug as a treatment for coronavirus. For instance, on July 19, he wrote to Dr. Hahn and another top FDA official about a study purporting to show benefits of hydroxychloroquine when used in combination with other treatments. Dr. Alexander stated that he was sharing the study prior to publication, explaining, “I want to help the administration,” and complaining, “we are being fought by the other side and media which is horrendous.”29 On August 18, Dr. Alexander wrote to Mr. Caputo to chide Dr. Fauci for publicly stating that there is a lack of evidence to indicate that hydroxychloroquine is an effective coronavirus treatment. Dr. Alexander wrote: “he is very wrong. He misspoke. He knows it.”" So Dr. Alexander, senior adviser to HHS, felt the FDA was wrong in stopping hydroxychloroquine use about June 2020. The Europeans did the same but by the end of the year it was being prescribed as a treatment again per this link: https://www.nature.com/articles/d43978-020-00035-w So the FDA *was* wrong, and I'm not sure what Fauci's comments were but he's been proven wrong many times so I'm sure he was wrong on this too. So while "the other side" as Dr. Alexander put it allowed an unknown number of deaths by NOT allowing hydroxychloroquine in the summer of 2020, Rep Clyburn's staff want to argue Dr. Alexander's repeated disagreements were evidence of: "Trump Administration political appointees attempted to exert pressure on the FDA to authorize ineffective coronavirus treatments, such as hydroxychloroquine and convalescent plasma, over the objections of career "scientists" [WHO WERE WRONG ABOUT HCQ]". Sorry Jim, not today and if this is the bullsh!t you're pitching it makes me wonder how full of lies your "report" actually is... but until you dig into the references, its not easy to refute these somewhat laughable claims. I will say the references cited are *very* interesting reading and recommend them if truly interested in this stuff. It paints a nice picture of the events leading up to the Brandon coup, gov't really did fight tooth and nail against Trump's people. If they were buffoons then they were right to do so, but I don't think they all were just by examining that reference. But don't expect State Media to inform you of actual facts.