1) One success story in the #pandemic in Quebec that's not getting much attention by the news media are dental clinics. To my knowledge, there has been only one #COVID outbreak in a dental clinic. What is the secret of the dental clinics and how could this be applied elsewhere? 
2) Dental clinics in Quebec have been required by the Health Ministry since May 2020 to improve the ventilation in their facilities. Dentists wear N95 masks, face shields and clinics use portable air purifiers with HEPA filters.
3) My dentist, Peter Weinstein (who graduated at the top of his class at McGill University’s dentistry school), uses not one but 2 air purifiers in the small confines of his dental suite. He told me today — as he replaced one of my crowns — he hasn’t had a single #COVID outbreak.
4) Perhaps Quebec could apply what has been learned in dental clinics to its school system and improve ventilation in classrooms. La Presse reported on Saturday that Quebec has spent to date just $20 million out of $432 million in federal funds to make schools safer.
5) Since schools reopened a week ago, the Institut nationale de santé publique du Québec is already reporting 20 active #COVID outbreaks across the province. Please consult the chart below, courtesy of the ever-resourceful Olivier Drouin, founder of covidecolesquebec.org .
6) Since August 2020, I have urged the Quebec government in my nightly Twitter threads to improve ventilation in schools. Years before the #pandemic, reports completed at both the provincial and federal levels recommended improvements in school ventilation. Yet nothing was done.
7) School outbreaks lead to more community transmission of the #coronavirus. More transmission leads to more hospitalizations. And unfortunately, more hospitalizations lead to more deaths during this Omicron-driven 5th wave.
8) The chart below shows that the mortality wave in Quebec appears to have surpassed the last one in January of 2021. Since only Jan. 1 of this year, the Health Ministry has thus far recorded a total of 1,127 #COVID deaths. That’s a staggering death toll.
9) Last November and December, outbreaks in schools quietly seeded infections in this 5th wave in Quebec. Given that poorly ventilated schools reopened since last week, they might yet seed a resurgence of infections again. End of thread. Please go get your #COVID shot.
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