Thread by @TRexMD780

The very public mistake that @CMOH_Alberta made with the 14yr old who passed of cancer, not COVID, earlier this week is not a minor event that she can simply apologize for.

This was a really stupid error, and as someone who works in palliative care, I'll tell you why

🧵👇 1/11

First & foremost: What a horribly public way to disrupt a family's grieving process. I hope they find a way to forgive Dr.Hinshaw & public health, because holding resentment can be toxic to healing, but I wouldn't blame them if they were angry for a long time.

2/11

I have filled many death certificates. They are not easy. But in this pandemic, all MDs in this area of work know how important it is to distinguish causes of death from COVID. See @noelgibney 's excellent examples of how in this article:

3/11

cbc.ca/news/canada/ed…

I hold the CMOH office to a higher standard of interpreting death certificates, aka: THEY SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER. They set the precedent for the rest of us. They should never have released that information without a detailed & in depth assessment of the situation.

4/11

Why does this matter?

1. Reporting comorbidities without context minimizes the seriousness of COVID. Too many patients tell me "Well I'm healthy, so why does it matter? I don't need the vaccine". They don't trust these stats anymore because they can't interpret them.

5/11

2. Making a serious error like this one tells the public that the CMOH might not be properly investigating COVID deaths correctly. This breeds conspiracy theories that we are hearing in clinic all the time, such as "People aren't actually dying of COVID, the govt is lying"

6/11

3. It confuses the hell out of the MDs in the community! Who do we advise to be extra cautious? Who do we stress over? We only see the stats like this, but what does it really mean? We interpret from research but we don't have guidance from the govt

alberta.ca/stats/covid-19…

7/11

4. An error like this also breeds anxiety for those who don't know if their co-morbidity is truly a major risk or not. They feel left in dark & scared. Parents were terrified. And why wouldn't they be? What has the govt done to truly comfort the Alberta population?

8/11

And in the end, you know what makes me the most angry? That the CMOH office won't even see the downstream effect of this error. But you know who will? The Family/Community Docs when their angry patients show up w/more conspiracy theories & irrational fears of the vaccine.

9/11

This is unacceptable. I expect better of the @CMOH_Alberta. Either list all comorbidities w/each #COVID19AB death or list none at all. And I want @GoAHealth to start giving context for comorbidities, provide interpretations the public can understand, not just listing stats

10/11

We can not expect the public to trust us or the medical system if those at the top are making egregious errors like with this young teenager. They are breeding the conspiracy theories & mistrust.

And it is not my job to fix this

This is for @jkenney & Dr.Hinshaw to fix

11/fin