Thread by @PennyDaflos

When Dr. Henry said ON is about a month ahead of BC in terms of variants, I asked her whether we should be proactive and take the similar measures now rather than wait a month -- especially given concerns doctors are raising about overflowing ICUs ⬇️
bc.ctvnews.ca/it-really-hit-…

I also pointed out she seemed to be minimizing the presence and impact of variants here, but she insisted they're treating each case as if it's a variant & responding aggressively.
A few things to unpack. Let's start w testing, which is consistent low despite more cases:

DBH said contact tracing continues and providing help to isolate from family/roommates also being done, which is great. But is that a response commensurate with the surge we've seen, which is being driven by variants? She insists they're doing that "as aggressively as we can".

But she also said "we're treating all of these as if they are variants" which I found interesting. She says we're a month behind Ontario (which has 60%) but I wonder if that remark was an acknowledgement of what @sarperotto discusses here: bc.ctvnews.ca/researchers-be…

I asked Dr. Da Roza if they know whether a patient has a variant. He said sometimes they don't because it's up to public health to test for it, but it doesn't really matter. Several acute care docs tell me they simply provide the care each patient needs.
bc.ctvnews.ca/drowning-on-la…

Frontline doc are adamant: patients they're seeing are younger & some VERY sick.
Dr. Da Roza told me about a 30 yo parent who's been on life support for wks.
His ICU is already overflowing and he's looking at contingency plans for RCH.
More: bit.ly/3rS6IsU @CTVVancouver

Finally, Dr. Tam revealed yday that medical health officers from across Canada had a mtg to discuss the P.1 variant in BC & Whistler (our province now has 877 cases).
With few questions allowed, I didn't have a chance to ask Dr. Henry about that meeting.
bit.ly/3rS6IsU

Last point re: the tweets/msgs in response to my ?s yday. Thank you.
But I want to be really clear that I'm not looking to score points or foster drama and those pushing me to do that are missing the point.
I'm just honestly looking for answers to questions I think are important.