Thread by @FurnessColin

I've been quiet this summer, in ECM (existential contemplation mode) since the Ontario provincial election when we collectively decided that ignoring COVID was good policy.

It was pretty much the only thing all major parties seemed to agree on.

Where to go from here?

1/14

Public Health leadership has switched from protecting health to pacifying the public by minimizing knowledge. It's appalling, IMO.

To a large degree, mainstream media has gone right along with it. Also appalling, IMO.

2/14

At the beginning of the pandemic, I asked myself what I could do about this catastrophe. I devoted a lot of time to reading, writing, and speaking about what we need to do to protect ourselves.

This advocacy was meant to influence public policy. It sure didn't work.

3/14

So it has been a dispiriting 2.5 years. But as someone said to me recently, I may have helped a lot of individuals who have been listening and wanting to stay safe. I certainly have a long list of public health heroes who I have been watching do exactly that.

4/14

That is something I intend to continue working at - here on Twitter helping with knowledge translation for people who want to be safe, but are getting lousy (or even overtly harmful) advice from government and media.

I may move to protected Tweets, not sure yet.

5/14

Challenging misinformation matters a lot. Churchill once opined that lies travel half-way around the world before truth gets its trousers on.

(He may well be guilty of understatement, IMO.)

6/14

I expect to continue pushing back against misinformation and misunderstanding. But I likely won't spend much time calling out politicians for harmful decisions because that now seems futile.

Better to leave room for a far more important voice ...

7/14

Clinicians. We need to hear more from clinicians, about their front-line experiences.

Why clinicians?

If government and media won't talk about the plight of our ailing healthcare system and tragic COVID outcomes, they can. They are direct witnesses to it all.

8/14

It's asking a lot from this group that has suffered so much and continues to suffer.

But while the public has become inured to death statistics, I believe we remain able to respond with empathy to individual stories of deteriorating health and healthcare.

9/14

It's clear politicians from all parties won't act until there is public outrage. And there can't be public outrage if the public is in the dark.

Every clinician who speaks up is on my Heroes list. And they get badly attacked for it. (Because that's what fascists do).

10/14

Beyond wanting to make room for clinician voices, I will also be quietly continuing work writing expert witness reports for grievances and lawsuits over COVID safety.

Where our politicians have dropped the ball, the courts may be our only tool to make safe workplaces.

11/14

For example, I have seen some success persuading employers to provide free respirator masks to those who are informed enough to know they need them.

These are cheap when purchased in bulk, but unaffordable to many for whom this is essential safety equipment.

12/14

In this way we may slowly replace dangerous workplace policies with safe ones, despite our CmOh and its unscientific and reckless approach to public safety.

The first frontier was a right to respirator masks at work.

Maybe indoor air quality standards could be next.

13/14

So if I seem quieter, it's because I'll be trying to support clinician voices, paying less attention to politicians, and orienting to court-ordered safety in lieu of competent public health policy.

But I'll still provide my own take here, for people who happen to want it.

14/14