Thread by @freespiritus

1/ I find it gobsmacking that there are journalists that can’t seem to comprehend that BC is deliberately under testing so the @bcndp can say our numbers are low— go out & shop.

The numbers testing positive are deliberately low, but there are thousands in BC with COVID. #bcpoli

2/ BC’s dashboard has claimed that we were in the 400 to 600 range for the past week.

The University of Washington projections say that we should have approx. 4266 positive cases in BC.

That means there are thousands of BCians who are positive and don’t know it. #bcpoli

In terms of projected deaths — we are doing worse than Ontario, which has 3 times the population of BC.

Meaning BC would have 51 daily deaths if we had the same population as Ontario.

BC is becoming famous for categorizing what should be COVID deaths as Excess Deaths.

#bcpoli

According to Stats Can, BC had over 807 excess deaths over the course of Aug & Sept.

They suggest that perhaps it could be attributed to overdose deaths but if you have a look at the BC coroner’s report, excess deaths would be the difference in deaths from 2019 to 2020. #bcpoli

So what does it mean to have thousands of BCians walking around, COVID + & unaware?

Here’s a graphic to help you understand some of the implications asymptomatic people can have on a school community.

Now imagine deliberately missing thousands of cases on a daily basis. #bcpoli

What is another reason to artificially keep COVID positive rates low?

Then you can try & justify that schools are safe to be kept open.

-Despite there being a ridiculously high +vity rate which proves that we are not testing enough. Anything over 10 shutdown material. #bcpoli

Thanks to @imgrund, we know the daily Ro value for FH & VCH.

Once again, FH is in the red by all metrics— which is another shutdown indicator. VCH is on the uptick & could soon be in the red.

The Variant can add 0.4 & 0.7, meaning exponential growth happens ⬆️ quickly. #bcpoli

Sept 10 - Under 19, 532 COVID cases
Dec 31 - Under 19, 6835 COVID cases

That’s an 1185% increase since September.

And those are just the cases we know of.

There are thousands of asymptomatic cases that we don’t. #bced

Danger not knowing whether children had COVID?

MIS-C is a post-viral syndrome. That means that if a child has had COVID, they could develop MIS-C in the weeks after.

Usually happens 2-6 weeks after COVID.

No + test means parents aren’t on the lookout for MIS-C symptoms. #bced

If a child has COVID, their body starts to develop immunity.

For some children, when they are re-exposed to COVID, their immune system can overreact with life threatening symptoms.

BC is not testing asymptomatic people.

Children are largely asymptomatic when positive. #bced

WHO guidelines say to count a case as MIS-C if there is no other explanation to why child may be experiencing symptoms.

BC changed guidance to say, they may only count case as MIS-C if they were exposed to a known + case.

We hardly test, so many won’t be counted as MIS-C. #bced

BC also does very little education for parents regarding the characteristics of MIS-C.

Don’t think 811 is screening for MIS-C in their symptoms either.

Why might the PHO and @CDCofBC deliberately miscount the number of cases of MIS-C in BC?

#bced #bcpoli

Here’s BCCDC’s new MIS-C guidelines for physicians. Appendix A in particular:

bccdc.ca/Health-Profess…

Here are the WHO guidelines:

who.int/news-room/comm…

Here are the CDC guidelines:
cdc.gov/mis-c/hcp/

American Pediatric Association
downloads.aap.org/AAP/PDF/COVID%…

To provide some context to just how low BC’s testing is.

Denmark has the same population as BC. They are averaging over 100,000 tests per day.

New Zealand, also has same pop. as BC. They have no cases and are still testing about the same rate as BC, 5000/ day.

#bcpoli #bced

Denmark is testing to find all known cases. This allows them to ensure + cases are isolated so they can’t infect other. This breaks chains of transmission.

BC is not testing, & are not breaking the chains of transmission. We are allowing the virus to run wild = ⬆️deaths. #bcpoli

Long-haulers are real.

“There’s a growing body of evidence to suggest that a surprising number of people are, in fact, COVID long haulers, & that hospital emergency departments and clinics may be dealing with them for many months to come.”

scientificamerican.com/article/the-pr… #bced #bcpoli

In not breaking the chains of transmission, that means more and more people are being infected by COVID-19.

This also means that there will be a greater percentage of people who develop long haulers—this will have large economic impacts on workforce and on health care. #bcpoli

In summary, BC is doing the lowest testing in 🇨🇦. That will have huge long-term ramifications on our population—in terms of #s of deaths & long-haulers.

Greater % of children and families will experience trauma from MIS-C, due to not breaking chains of transmissions. #bcpoli

A visual to show just how little BC is testing in comparison to other Provinces.

Remember the Atlantic Provinces are in a bubble and have a much lower population than BC and have very few cases as well.

#bced #bcpoli #COVIDzero

Here are the University of Washington’s Covid projections for BC.

Have look at what they project for BC & other Provinces.

Since BC does not require masks in schools, we do not have a universal mask policy.

covid19.healthdata.org/canada/british…

#bced #bcpoli