Thread by @TRexMD780

I've heard lots of people, including the UCP Caucus Chair, say we just need to "let #COVID19AB run its course" and "learn to live with it"

What would that look like? Let me try to make some suggestions as an Albertan doc

Thread 👇🧵 1/x

1. We need field hospitals & field ICUs because currently our hospitals do not have capacity for a 4th wave. Also, we are Alberta, not California, so it needs to be field hospitals that can handle winter. This costs $$ but we know @jkenney hasn't used all his fed funds yet. 2/x

2. We need more nurses, doctors, RTs and other HCWs to staff these hospitals. We can no longer just rely on their good will, they are burnt out. So we are going to need to exponentially increase pay for everyone to work in field hospitals, with better benefits & paid leave 3/x

3. We need to incentivize vaccines to keep the above costs low. Lotteries clearly don't work. Mandating vaccines for access to goods & services will. Similar to banning smoking in public areas, unvaccinated individuals will also need to be prevented from spreading covid 4/x

4. We will need to step up our game to reach unvaccinated individuals who just can't access it. That means every rural politician will need to create local vaccination programs to improve access in their area. If they don't, they are removed from their position. 5/x

5. Schools will need to be upgraded significantly. Barriers between desks, better ventilation, mandatory masks, vaccine clinics on campus, mandatory vaccination for university students, mandatory vaccination for teachers and mandatory rapid testing for schools. 6/x

6. Paid sick leave will need to be provided by the province for all individuals who are sick OR if they are a caregiver for someone who is sick (e.g., parents). This responsibility will not be on the employers but the government in order to ensure people isolate properly 7/x

7. We will need to redirect resources towards creating long COVID clinics which will need staffing as well. These will need to be very dedicated staff as they will be caring for patients for months/years so expect this to be a permanent feature of our healthcare system 8/x

8. That superlab we cancelled and turned into a park? Rip it up and let's start again. To process all the labs that come with being sick with covid, we need to have more lab capacity than we do now

Oh. We need more staff for that too

9/x

9. We don't want to keep doing this forever so we will need to truly close all borders & start implementing rigorous screening & isolating for all travellers, international or otherwise. Sorry BC and Sask, it's not personal, we love you but it's too crazy in 'Berta right now 10/x

10. Fines for breaking isolation rules need to steeper and actually enforced. Jail time for egregious breaches. Police need ability to actually enforce this. Maybe it will help pay for all the above costs? 11/x

Does that sound too radical to you? It sounds pretty scary to me too. But that's the way you keep Alberta functional while allowing covid to spread unchecked. It will cost people's lives and a hell of a lot of $$.

@Alberta_UCP & @CMOH_Alberta are you ready to do that? 12/fin