Thread by @MoriartyLab

#Canadian scientists, science communicators, HCPs who vaccinate and is scientifically knowledgeable about #COVID19 vaccines

Are you frustrated by slow vaccination rates, vaccines being thrown out? Do you want to help now?

There one very big way we can help now.

Many HCWs scheduled to be vaccinated now are nervous about the vaccine and would like to be able to talk to knowledgeable experts and have supportive, non-judgemental discussions.

It is incredibly important that we provide support and information and conversation about the COVID vaccines to people who live, work in & visit long-term care and retirement homes in Canada. And we need to do it NOW.

Every single vaccination of someone who works, lives in or visits LTC can save 1 life or more. I've been tracking Canadian COVID-19 deaths & deaths in LTC & RHs for months. More than 3,000 Canadians will likely die in the next 28 days.

My back of the envelope projections predict that in next 28 days nearly 8,000 Canadians who live in LTC & RHs will contract a fatal case of COVID-19, based on current rates of case increases in general population.

I'll add the data for these predictions at the end of the thread.

Every single hour of delayed vaccinations will cost lives right now. Many, many lives. Most of us know this, which is why we're desperate.

A huge concern that we can ALL help with right now is vaccine hesitancy among people working, living in & visiting LTC & retirement homes.

Although evidence shows that there are ways to effectively share accurate vaccine information on social media, what we do know is that NOTHING can replace non-judgemental, compassionate, person-to-person conversations.

These take a lot of time, but there are many of us.

I started doing Zoom sessions last night where LTC/RH-linked Canadians who want to ask questions about COVID-19 vaccine safety can attend, anonymously if they want. There were 3 scientists, including me @KrishanaSankar @thekimgauthier who dropped in to help. It was great.

Thanks to @OntarioHealthC , who quickly got word out to ON unions representing LTC workers, and to LTC & RH homes themselves, there is now substantial interest in these Zoom sessions.

There are MANY people who are scheduled to receive vaccinations in the coming days and hours who still feel worried and need to be able to talk to someone who knows a lot about the vaccines. We need to provide this support, and it is something all of us can do right now.

I have a professional Zoom account. I can obviously only do a couple of hours each day of talking to people because of my job. But what if many of us could spare an hour once or twice a week to get on Zoom to listen and talk? What if we could do this 16 h/day?

What if we did this in multiple languages, so that people could attend the sessions where they feel most comfortable asking questions?

It wouldn't be hard to do--just requires organization and scheduling & a list of names & availabilities.

We'd all be doing this in our personal capacities, the way we all talk to our families, neighbours, friends. It's informal--we'd make ourselves available as fellow citizens with specialized knowledge who can help those experiencing some of the worst of the epidemic.

If you'd be interested in doing this, just send me an email at tara.moriarty(at)utoronto.ca. If this gets out of hand I'll figure out a smarter way to handle the information flow, but for now, let's see how many people out there would be interested in doing this.

I'm so incredibly tired, and angry, watching the deaths mount, and knowing we're not going fast enough. But making ourselves available to those who are worried about the vaccines is URGENTLY important, and this is something we can do right now that will make a difference.

Below are the death data I "promised" earlier in the thread. Much love to all the many wonderful people who have been writing wanting to help & to the staff, loved ones & residents of Canadian long-term care & retirement homes who have been & are still living through a nightmare.

#Canadian #COVID19 deaths, as of Jan 4, 2021

Projected number of #Canadians who will die of #COVID19 in the next 28 days, based on rate of increase in deaths on Jan 4th (VERY rough estimate):

#Canada 5,887
ON: 1,923
QC: 1,757
AB: 1,331
BC: 708
MB: 270
SK: 160
Atlantic 4
North 0

Projected number of #Canadians LIVING IN LTC/RHs who will contract fatal #COVID19 cases in next 28d, based on rate of increase in gen pop cases Jan 4 (estimate). Most deaths won't be posted till Feb

#Canada 7,913
BC: 3,082
QC: 1,806
ON: 1,182
AB: 1,052
SK: 746
MB: 98

Most of these projections are not hugely accurate right now. They're bouncing around a lot for individual provinces b/c we've seen such uneven reporting for the last 2 wks. By mid-next wk we should have more stable numbers.

But the point is that every single vaccination in LTC & RHs in the coming hours, days, weeks is utterly crucial to save thousands of lives.

Everything those of us with specialized skills can do to help support ppl in these settings worried about vaccine safety can save lives.

Over & out. Gotta go do my day job for a bit, but I'll set up a Google form where those who want to volunteer to do this can provide their email (non-publicly). I'll put the link at the end of an email auto-reply I'm sending out for those who want the Zoom link.

We'll need to streamline this process, probably w/ help of the long-suffering, always working staff & volunteers of @COVID_19_Canada & our Volunteer Program Director @KrishanaSankar . But I'm starting inefficiently right now because every hour counts. Please just be patient!

Finally, we'll provide a succinct list of information sources that those volunteering for these sessions can use to quickly look up information if they need it. @crackedscience has already provided some.

We can build a Google doc 1st w/ the resources, then migrate it to pages on the Cracked Science site or covid19resources.ca. Or at #ScienceUpFirst, an independent Canadian anti-COVID19-misinformation that will formally launch in next couple of days: scienceupfirst.com