SamirS_H Profile picture
1 Jan, 22 tweets, 16 min read
I got home this morning after an overnight shift in the pediatric emergency department.

I rarely share personal reflections based on my clinical work as a #pediatrician via @twitter, but I'm allowing myself this exception.

#omicron #COVID19Qc #N95sForAll

A thread 🧵 1/21...
2/ I started my winter holiday stretch of shifts by working on #Christmas evening and finished it by ringing in the #NewYear last night while taking care of sick & injured children with a phenomenal (but overworked & somewhat demoralized team) at the children's hospital.
3/ Let me re-iterate at the outset that I've always been opposed to @francoislegault @coalitionavenir's imposition of the #curfew because of its harmful impacts on many of the most marginalized people in society.
cbc.ca/news/canada/mo…
4/ The curfew is a draconian & authoritarian move by the @coalitionavenir gvmt who time and time again chooses its electoral interests over #publichealth.

Relying on police repression to manage a #pandemic is a flagrant failure of public health policy.
iwc-cti.ca/end-curfew-rep…
5/ I was surprised by how busy the overnight shift was.

Families came despite the #curfew. Many were scared and needed reassurance.

Reassurance families is an integral part of what we do as #HealthCareWorkers
6/ On the overnight shift, there's only one licensed MD who is expected to see all the kids coming through the #ER doors: from the adolescent with a twisted ankle to the baby in septic shock.

It's demanding, but it provides us with a better sense of what's happening "out there"
7/ Since the beginning of the #pandemic up until barely a month ago, it was kind of exceptional for us to see more than one child with #COVID19 during an entire day. When it happened, you definitely got word about it (including contact tracing) b/c it felt like a major breach.
8/ Yet, last night, I saw several kids with #COVID19 over the span of a few hours. Even if the child didn't have #COVID19 (yet!), one of the parents or caregivers did. It's basically normalized now. This is very telling about how wide-spread the #omicronvariant has likely become.
9/ The @coalitionavenir gvmt must be praying (despite its claims to being secular!) that #omicron is less virulent than previous strains. But, until we know that for certain, #HealthCareWorkers must be protected, including by being universally offered the option to use #N95 masks
10/ The science was there from as early as March 2020 to suggest that #SARSCoV2 spread not only by droplet transmission but also by #aerosol.
wired.com/story/they-say…
11/ If it wasn't accepted by elected officials for purely political reasons when consensus was developing around it months later, so be it.

But it is a travesty that @ArrudaHoracio's #publichealth team in #Quebec didn't recognize aerosol spread early on.
who.int/news-room/ques…
12/ Meanwhile, as @rkhamsi has explained multiple times, it is particularly harrowing that @ArrudaHoracio still seems to deny the benefit of #N95 masks (versus surgical masks) on the preposterous claim that no studies yet prove their superiority.
13/ No one's ever conducted a study proving that parachutes prevent deaths for people ejected from a plane, but no one would deny themselves of a parachute if ever in that situation...
14/ I've been wearing an #N95 mask for every single clinical encounter pretty much since #omicron made its entry to #Quebec.

I have a bruise on my nose to prove it (#HealthCareWorkers unfortunately know what I'm talking about).
15/ At some point and despite my best efforts, I may get contaminated by #SARSCoV2 like many of my colleagues have in recent weeks. However, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be wearing #N95 masks.
17/ Since last week, @CNESST has called for the expanded the use of #N95 masks for #HealthCareWorkers in #Quebec
montrealgazette.com/news/local-new…
18/ Until this wave starts showing signs of calming, #healthcare providers need every chance we can get to limit our risk of getting infected, esp when the #healthcare system is already on the brink of collapsing - a consequence of successive #neoliberal gvmts in this province.
19/ Lastly, I'd like to send a special shout-out to all my #pediatric emergency colleagues (nurses, MDs, orderlies, unit coordinators, janitors) both at the @HopitalChildren & at @urgencehsj who work so hard to ensure that children can receive emergency medical care 24/7/365.
20/ And, to my colleagues on the frontlines of healthcare in the "adult world", I suspect that the next few weeks are going to be rougher on you than they will be on us in the "pediatric world"...
21/ We should always prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.

Despite the predictable, avoidable and demoralizing situation we now find ourselves in (here & across the world), I hope that we get through this.

Together. In #Solidarity.

#LeaveNoOneBehind
I should have mentioned at the top of this thread that it was originally written while sleep-deprived post-overnight shift, and then posted on twitter in French.

Pour les francophones, voici la v.o. de cette enfilade twitter, en français:

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with SamirS_H

SamirS_H Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @SamirS_H

1 Jan
Je suis rentré à la maison plus tôt ce matin après un quart de nuit au service des urgences pédiatriques.

Je partage rarement mes réflexions nourries de mon travail clinique comme #pédiatre via @twitter, mais je me permets cette exception.

#omicron #COVID19Qc #N95

🧵 ... 1/21
2/ J'ai commencé ma série de quarts du temps des fêtes en travaillant le soir de #Noël et je l'ai terminée en sonnant le #NouvelAn la nuit dernière tout en m'occupant d'enfants malades et blesséEs avec une équipe formidable (quoique surchargée et parfois démoralisée) à l'hôpital.
3/ Permettez-moi de réitérer d'emblée que je suis opposé à l'imposition du #CouvreFeu par @francoislegault @coalitionavenir en raison de ses effets néfastes sur bon nombre de personnes les plus marginalisées de notre société.

Voir @PivotQc:
Read 22 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(