This weekend feels like seeing a Cat 5 hurricane bearing down on a remote island on Fri evening, knowing we won't hear for some days until power & telecom are back, praying for few deaths & devastation when they're out.
Except we're not a remote island in open ocean. We're in Alberta, supposedly a modern society.
The hurricane has not passed. We've just had outer bands pass through. Rain, wind, storm surge, etc.
The 250 km/h eyewall is still coming. Major casualties. Hail & Devastation.
Modern society? Let's compare AB to City of Chicago
Oh yes: R, test positivity and cases showing 2 Albertas. Cities going down, Zones going up.
Problem: we all need the same Hospitals. Whether we come from the upper 3 curves, or the lower 2 curves.
Shown with/without Alberta Avg.
We have record Hospitalization, in every way:
• ICU
• ICU Surge Capacity
• non-ICU Wards like Internal Medicine taking COVID-level ICU patients to save lives
• transporting patients from one Zone to another to use every last bit of capacity
HCW breaking, to slow AB dying.
Weeks ago, I was critical of Alberta Health showing Surge Capacity growing, thinking it was unachievable because you can't just clone record numbers of:
• Respiratory Therapists
• Critical Care Nurses
• ICU Docs
• Pharmacists
• Anaesthetists, etc.
like it's a video game.
I'm one of the many voices saying you can't keep stressing healthcare workers to deal with this kind of workload.
But our CMOH, Health Minister du jour, and Premier keep doing it.
I work with many of these people in @PopAlberta. Under huge stress, they are innovating too.
@PopAlberta One innovation? Putting ICU-level COVID-19 patients in non-ICU Wards like internal medicine.
I relayed @NeejaB work with a team of devoted people, which is happening in every major hospital.
But cancelling surgeries doesn't magically clone ICU staff.
I'm an engineer/project manager with background in electronics manufacturing.
• New product introduction, starting from zero, to pilot, to ramp up. All the problems you face as you grow.
• Bringing on other plants to add capacity/enter new markets. The stress of transferring.
These amazing people are doing it all simultaneously:
• from 80 people on 24 July
• to 1061 on 24 September
• 13.3x in 2 months
• using multiple sites
• try raising capacity of any manufacturing or organization process that fast
Imagine rush hour traffic 13.3x in 2 months.
These are human beings in our hospitals, not wireless telecom in a factory. They're about as fragile and perishable as a "product" can get.
And we're still not seeing how complex this picture.
Last week AHS CEO Dr Verna Yiu said deaths were making room for new admissions.
At the same time, I was working with a skilled "data wrangler" in Edmonton, who uses Tableau to illustrate complex concepts simply.
@jkparker taught me how to show the daily admissions, average daily deaths, and running count of patients in ICU.
So, looking at her Tableau, you can see:
• the running count at end of day understates the problem
• our Healthcare workers have to handle 50+ admissions PER DAY
• and absorb a rising AVERAGE of 11 deaths per day
• daily admissions fluctuate widely
• one day 53; next day 17
Last Friday, you got to see me cry on YouTube.
This Friday I got to watch my dear new friends, who are doing laudable work to save lives in Alberta, artful innovation and brute force pushing themselves.
Some were crying. Some numb. Some stoic. Some ??.
You can't do this to people. It's grotesque & sadistic.
@jvipondmd calls this the #IntentionallyCruelWave
• Not just to people dying.
• HCW breaking to stop it
• Family & friends of people in Hospital
• People whose surgeries were cancelled AGAIN to make room for COVID-19
@jvipondmd Kids age 5-11:
• started school in Sep
• too young to be vaccinated
• rooms with inadequate ventilation or filtration
• inadequate masks, if at all
Look how "Best Summer Ever" changed once school started.
These aren't just lines on a graph. They're people, with families.
But we can't ignore the Deaths happening in our province.
See that jump to steeper rate of death at end August? You can see it better compared to a straight line.
We know, that wave after wave, around world, when you change public health measure, there is a cadence:
• leading indicators change in ~2 wks
• Hospitalization in ~3-4 wks
• Deaths in ~4 wks
So what happened at end July for Deaths to📈~4 wks later?
🧵Respected Alberta political scientist @DuaneBratt posted in the friendlier place this same-day review of Health Min LaGrange's Statement of Defence in wrongful termination lawsuit from fired AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos.
@DuaneBratt AB Justice Minister posted a link to the Statement of Defence from the Dropbox of a Heather Jenkins, who appears to be the Ministry's Press Secretary.
@DuaneBratt GoA is again using external counsel rather than (excellent) in-house lawyers, just as they did in CM v Alberta in 2022, when LaGrange was Minister of Education.
Taxpayers paid for their representation + Justice Dunlop's penalty to pay Plaintiff's Costs.
I've tagged my MLA Kathleen Ganley on this, as she is a lawyer and former Justice Minister. I am neither, so I would appreciate her review of this, with advisors at @albertaNDP as required.
It is baffling to me, but as a layperson I looked deeper...
You're apparently renovating the bathroom above my friend's high-rise condo suite in NW Calgary, and here's what you (?) have done to her ceiling. Your "installer" apparently ran down to say he would "clean it up".
Sunday Brunch Buffet at @HyattCalgary with my sister for her birthday tomorrow. All this chef-prepared food, on heavy plates and silverware, and graceful perfect service for $45.
Don’t tell her I could probably afford this more than once/year.
@AdrianaLaGrange @ABDanielleSmith @JMeddings @alanna_smithh @TheBreakdownAB @JenLeeCBC @PfParks @LukaszukAB @reportrix @CheSkulskiCTV @ByMatthewBlack @DuaneBratt We know 120 mg/5 mL is European concentration, and 160 mg/5 mL is N American.
Yet you paid MHCare Medical $70m for 5m bottles (10-14x Canada's annual demand) of European concentration, when Atabay would have happily mixed the Canadian concentration in this custom order for us.
@AdrianaLaGrange @ABDanielleSmith @JMeddings @alanna_smithh @TheBreakdownAB @JenLeeCBC @PfParks @LukaszukAB @reportrix @CheSkulskiCTV @ByMatthewBlack @DuaneBratt This "risk was identified" AFTER this thick suspension clogged the tiny diameter gastric feeding tubes of infants in Neonatal ICU, not "children under two years of age".
Evasive minimizers!
And you still defended this off-label use afterwards.
I have friends in Ukraine, including one in the Armed Forces. I did not speak with him this morning (would never reveal when I did) but I spoke to other friends about this proposed unsellable, expiring inventory dump disguised as an "aid shipment."