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?
But the City doesn't tell you the $17m/yr is a mortgage payment, of which only the interest portion is operating revenue.
The City lies to you these are all Lease Payments.
On this mortgage, at best the City is getting a breakeven. The City is showing no Interest Income on it.
Let's pretend this is a lease:
• payments starting at $17m/yr
• rising at ridiculously low 1%/yr
• as if CSEC is an affordable housing client needing a rent cap.
CSEC gets ALL the revenues of $1.2b of taxpayer dollars, custom-built, for only $17m/yr.
🧵 Stampede Park Arena aka "future Culture & Entertainment District Event Centre"
City of Calgary's presentation of the financials is deceptive:
• overstating direct benefits to City
• overstating CSEC investment
• understating City investment
• especially from Reserves
Citizens of Calgary do not get a referendum on the deal. In fact, "public consultation" was limited to an announcement on 25 April 2023, releasing this deceptive report.
Our "Referendum" is the Provincial Election Monday 29 May, and its advance voting.
How is City's report deceptive?
• Pretends $316m worth of CSEC mortgage repayment over 35 yrs is upfront capital investment
• Hides the fact the City needs another $316m up front to build arena complex - from Where?
• Disguises $17m/yr of mortgage payments as Lease Income
@JorgeDe83010797 Hi. The other night we chatted briefly about locomotive axle bearings on @MriyaReport and I decided to get up to speed on it a bit. If you want to chat about this on the Spaces, let me know. I can cover generally while you dive deeper.
@JorgeDe83010797@MriyaReport This video goes deeper into the assemblies. I gathered from the Spaces that Russia does not make the bearings themselves, but was curious about their domestic capability for fabrication and maintenance of all parts of the axle box, or even the bogeys.
Let me know if I misunderstand.
• 2 wheels + axle + gear = WAG = wheel set
• 2 or 3 wheel sets assembled into bogey aka truck(?)
• axle box contains the (tapered) roller bearing and transfers load to axle
• have to track roller bearing wear & replace
🧵 Gov of Alberta's Backdoor Prohibition
on School Mask Mandates
IMO, this is the policy holding back EPSB and other school boards in mandating masks in any school, for any period of time, no matter how bad the outbreak.
How is a 6 Sep 2022 Policy a collateral attack on a 26 Oct 2022 Decision?
Because Justice Dunlop made it clear in August that Minister Lagrange would have to enact a Regulation to prohibit masks, not just write a letter and threaten school boards.