Dr. Katharine Smart Profile picture
Aug 10, 2021 8 tweets 9 min read Read on X
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

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More from @KatharineSmart

Nov 7, 2022
Some thoughts on immunity- a 🧵
1/ Immunity to disease happens 2 ways- you have the disease or you get vaccinated for it. When you haven’t been exposed to a virus you have no immunity- thus the #COVID19 pandemic= very bad
2/ When you have pandemic protections that made many endemic viruses disappear and prevented many people- including young children from encountering these viruses you have waning immunity in people with previous exposure and no immunity in those never exposed
3/ Then you remove all pandemic protections and these viruses all come back at once into a population of children who are all now all getting exposed and infected at once = bad. At a population level this is an issue and is resulting in many children sick at the same time.
Read 9 tweets
Aug 21, 2022
1/ As I complete my term as president @CMA_Docs I want to extend a deep thank you to my colleagues 🙏🏼

I am proud to be a physician and to have had the opportunity to represent you during this incredible time in history

I am inspired by your advocacy and value your friendship
2/ Your words of support made all the difference and kept me optimistic and hopeful during the past year

Our #healthcare system is the people and all of you are exceptional- skilled, compassionate and dedicated

You continue to show up for your patients and each other
3/ I am privileged to have been your voice and I learned so much

➡️We must continue to speak the truth
➡️Have the hard conversations
➡️Never choose silence
➡️Use our power and privilege in service of others (including each other)
Read 4 tweets
Dec 17, 2021
A few thoughts on #Omicron and our healthcare system:

1️⃣ Our system is ALREADY overwhelmed- hundreds of thousands of people have been denied care and are waiting for critical procedures- the existing backlog will take YEARS to clear.
2️⃣ Triage IS occurring NOW - people are dying who have been unable to access care because the acute care systems is overwhelmed with #Covid. Thousands, yes thousands, of 🇨🇦’s have lost their lives for this reason.
3️⃣ Cancer screening has dropped by 25-35%- these people will show up eventually - they will be much sicker and will need more resources to treat them and their outcomes will be worse than they could have been.
Read 7 tweets
Nov 29, 2021
1/ With #Vaccines approved for 👧🏽👦🏾 5-11 yo parents have a decision to make. #Omicron reminds us we aren’t through this yet.

As a #Pediatrician I have spent my career helping parents make health care decisions about their kids. This🧵is about #risk and the decision to #Vaccinate
2/ The decision to #Vaccinate means you believe the benefit outweighs the risk - so let’s break it down starting with- what #risk does #Covid19 pose to our #kids?
3/ Acute risk in 5-11 yo from 🇨🇦 data:

Hospitalizations 🏥 in 0.2%
Death in 0.002%
#LongCovid in 2-5% (still learning)
#MIS-C 1/3500 cases (most common in 5-11 age group)

Let’s remember kids rarely die so this is on par with other diseases we prevent with #vaccination
Read 8 tweets

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