Thread by @KatharineSmart

I’m a Pediatrician = ❤️👶🏽🧑🏻👩🏾. I have worked in Children’s Hospitals, on medivac teams and now in the North. These are my thoughts on what we are facing with #Delta going into the fall

1. Wave 4 of #COVID will be a pandemic of #misinformation, under-vaccination and inadequate mitigating public health interventions (removing mask mandate, not addressing school ventilation, etc). We have reached the limits of what “encouraging people to get vaccinated” can do.

2. Who will pay the price? #Children, esp children < 12 who can’t be #VaxXed. It is misleading to say “not that many kids die”. #Mortality is a pretty crude outcome measure in #Pediatrics. What about disability, medical trauma, impact on families, mental health?

3. These things are real and the impacts are lifelong. Preventable death/disability should not be acceptable. Let me say that again- the death/disability of children (or anyone) is not ok. As the denominator of children with #COVID increases so will the bad outcomes. It’s math

4. Critical care for children is limited and only available in major centres. Medivac is complex and resource limited. I have spent many nights waiting beside over 24 hours to move a critically ill baby/child from the north to a Pediatric ICU. Our resources are maxed.

5. We have the solutions:

Increase #FullyVaccinated with ALL the levers we have- mandatory vaccines, #VaccinePassports, address structural barriers #PaidSickDays, pop up clinics- whatever it takes. Keep masking in indoor space. Ventilate schools properly. #BacktoSchool2021

6. Politicians this is your time lead . Make the principled call based on #science and protecting the vulnerable- esp children rather than on politics. Do what is right. Children deserve better- all the time and every time.

@CanPaedSociety @CMA_Docs @JustinTrudeau

@JillianHortonMD @TehseenLadha @NaheedD @ChildHealthCan @EGruenwoldt @austinsaral @picardonhealth @drgigiosler @AlikaMD @DrAnnCollins @DocSandyB @jvipondmd @CdnWIM @drdagly @drmwarner @AntibioticDoc #cdnpoli #cdnhealth #codePINK