Thread by @sunnshiiny

It amazes me how misinformed many people are about viral transmission and how pointless absolute travel bans are.

The myth that the virus is being transmitted by people arriving at airports is just that, a myth.

https://twitter.com/HopeAldridge/status/1384838493122269185

While the virus must be brought into the environment by a traveller, it’s easily contained if caught early and contact tracing is completed.

Alberta demonstrated this during the first wave of covid. Timely and efficient contact tracing and quarantine limited the viral spread.

The public’s memory is short and fickle. When covid came to North America, it was allowed to spread without any containment for months in the United States under the Trump administration. A dearth of tests and testing materials was blamed.

But Canadian medical authorities were more vigilant in some provinces. BC, AB, SK, and Maritime provinces experienced limited spread. All due to timely and effective contact tracing and isolation for those with positive test results.

Some provinces encouraged spring break travel and suffered the consequences. Quebec saturation of covid was astronomical after spring break. Covid infection exploded in late March 2020.

Ford publicly assured Ontarians that the family vay cay to sun spots was fine. Go have fun!

This was expressly contrary to the public health recommendations from the federal government and Public Health Agency of Canada. Ontario and Quebec, and to a degree, BC, had prolific covid spread right from the beginning. Only BC maintained contact tracing.

It was BC contact tracers who discovered through contact tracing that LTC facilities staffing policies were exacerbating the spread of covid in seniors in LTC facilities. Immediately staff were restricted to one LTC facility for shifts.

Ontario and Quebec seemed unaware of the proclivity for LTC facilities to hire part time staff, rotate the workers among several facilities and avoid full time benefits to workers while paying them low wages.

Ontario and Quebec experienced significant losses of seniors in LTC.

Reports of the conditions in LTC facilities in these two provinces were disturbing and repulsive, documenting that seniors were being housed like farm animals and denied basic needs like food, hygiene and forced to lay in their own waste because so many workers were sick or quit.

Discovery that up to 40% of infections were caused by asymptomatic spread of covid came late in the game. The disease gained a strong foothold because of the lag between scientific research and spread around the globe.

However, by the time asymptomatic spread was understood scientifically, many places across the globe had already descended into chaos, prolific spread and multiple deaths. A warning to those nations whose transmission rates lagged behind Italy, France and Germany.

Many of us watched in horror with mouths agape as the rising death tolls kept multiplying exponentially and exhausted medical staff were forced to make unthinkable decisions when infections exceeded capacity.

We also witnessed the seemingly coordinated efforts of some politicians to chase herd immunity naturally. Or as Trump described it, “to let the virus wash over the population.” Much to Dr. Fauci’s chagrin and incredulity.

And we also witnessed the about face of several premiers regarding contact tracing. Once asymptomatic spread was confirmed, Alberta briefly began testing for asymptomatic carriers. “Super spreaders” they were called. One asymptomatic covid infected person could infect dozens.

Additionally, the question whether children were able to transmit covid began to gather evidence when France shut down schools less than a week after reopening them. That was May 2020.

By mid August 2020 it was established that covid transmission was not only possible, but children were more likely to be asymptomatic, and thus super spreaders.

I remember distinctly tests for asymptomatic covid were ceased right before the school year commenced.

I warned of an impending implosion of covid. I wasn’t wrong. While children had mostly avoided contagion all summer, within 2 months indoor facilities proved covid would continue unabated. It was schools where contact tracing collapsed in Alberta.

There simply weren’t enough contact tracers because the spread of the disease was so prolific. Teachers and school administrators began taking over the role of contacting students exposed to someone with a confirmed case of covid. That was unsustainable.

At that point, contact tracing was abandoned in Alberta. Some people’s contacts were traced and informed, but the system had collapsed. The spread was now too prolific in the community to effectively trace its origins and prevent spread.

That was a policy decision.

Collapse of contact tracing in Alberta at least, was the result of removing testing for asymptomatic carriers to root out super spreaders.

I believe the CMOH mentioned asymptomatic transmission wasn’t driving spread in Alberta at the time.

But that was during the summer, when children weren’t in close quarters in stuffy, overloaded classrooms.

UCP chose to do nothing to prepare schools for covid. Each child received 2 masks and some hand sanitizer. That’s it. Barely any precautionary measures were taken by govt.

By December 2020 the virus had spread prolifically. Saturated the community. Schools weren’t listed as high contagion zones, but there is no data to confirm or refute any suspicion that schools fuelled the second wave, in Alberta. Because AHS doesn’t collect the data.

Contact tracing is a decades old practice. Because it works.

Measles is another airborne virus that is contagious after a carrier leaves a room. Since anti vaxxers have emerged, contact tracing has helped reduce the spread in the overall community. Measles is highly contagious.

But so is covid. And now we have variants that are even more contagious than measles or the original strain of covid.

Contact tracing in Nova Scotia is successful because it’s quick, thorough and efficient at determining where the virus is spreading.

Potentially infected individuals can be isolated and stop the spread.

That’s what responsible public health intervention is. Protecting the public from contagion.

It isn’t responsible to chase natural herd immunity by implementing policy that allows unmitigated spread.

As we have witnessed in most other provinces outside Atlantic Canada.

Funny how ideology impacts us all, whether we vote or not.

Covid should inspire every eligible citizen to vote. Your life may depend on it.