Hospitalization: Inpt: Last Tues +14 to 1071 (revised from 1070 yest 1043 Fri 1031 Thurs and 993 Wed) Wed +35 to 1106 (revised from 1103 yest 1068 Fri and 1023 Thurs) Thurs +52 to 1158 (revised from 1153 yest and 1084 Fri). 3/
Fri +46 to 1204 (revised from 1197 yest), Sat +6 to 1210 (revised from 1198 yest) Sun +49 to 1259 (revised from 1241 yest), Mon +44 to 1303 (new pandemic record) (revised from 1266 yest) Yest -21 to 1309 (subj to revision). 7d rise to Fri of 34.6% (yest 38.4%). 4/
ICU Mon +2 to 113 (revised from 111 yest) (new #weararespiratorwave record). Yest -4 to 109 (subj to revision). 7d rise to Mon of 7.6%. Paeds admits 11 incl 1 to ICU (10-19 year old). 6/
Deaths 22. That's an awful lot for one day. Now getting daily deaths of around 13-15/day. As a lagging indicator this will surely rise going forward. Higher deaths than 3rd wave, unsure where this will peak (still worried deaths may be even laggier for Omicron that past waves. 7/
Today Denmark announced a new "let 'er rip" policy, removing all pandemic restrictions on Feb 1st (next Tuesday). This apparently was based on their ICU curve, which has remarkably plummetted in the last few weeks. 8/ ft.com/content/789f07…
This is despite massive ongoing exponential growth, probably driven by the new unnamed variant BA.2 (now >50% of Denmark's cases). 9/
and rapid growth of inpt hospitalizations (similar to back home here). 10/
And deaths still generally climbing slowly. 11/
As for any variant it will be keen to watch the countries with early cases. (France being the other one). I fear where the Let 'er Rip strategy will take Denmark, and of course, Canada. Watch this space. fin/
Thanks to AB Health and @ArynToombs for the graphics.
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I think we need to talk about the Infection Prevention and Control- Canada organization (IPAC-Canada). @IPACCanada, who has their annual conference starting Sunday. 1/
I was lucky enough to present at last year's convention at the invite of @BarryHunt008, on environmental impact of masking policies, with a focus on airborne protection.
You can see my presentation here: 3/
It's out! The @WHO's new wordsmithing report on airborne transmission. I'm going to do a little dissection on the good and the bad, who wins and who loses. 1/ cdn.who.int/media/docs/def…
the TLDR is: "through the air" is the old "droplet" and "airborne" transmission modalities combined. "inhalation" is the new "airborne". "direct deposition" is the new "droplet" 2/
The great: finally an acknowledgment that short-range airborne transmission is an integral component of all (not just COVID) airborne transmission. This is huge. It means that workers esp. HCWs need respirator masks (FFP2/3, N95) when interacting with concerning patients. 3/
Apparently many in the Canadian ID community on this platform are weighing in that paxlovid should no longer be recommended to high-risk (elderly, immunocompromised) outpatients with confirmed covid.
I think we should take a look at the evidence they've presented.
(a thread) 1/
So far there has been no evidence presented, none, except for the blogpost posted in the first tweet.
No peer reviewed science. At all.
And a reminder that there are still >500 inpts in Alberta with covid, and 10-20 patients dying each week (all likely high risk patients).
2/
Another reminder is I reviewed the paxlovid evidence in a thread a few weeks ago, in response to a paxlovid-minimizing news story by @LaurenPelley of @CBCNews.
You can check out the thread here: 3/
At least @ChrisVarcoe mentioned the climate crisis concerns this time.
"The oil and gas industry is the largest emitting sector in Canada. The Liberal government has introduced a series of policies as concerns around climate change mount" 2/
But this is sloppy and "news release" journalism:
"CAPP noted emissions from the conventional oil and gas sector fell by 24 per cent, while production grew by 21 per cent between 2012 and 2021."
How many ways does this article anger me?
Let me count the ways...
#debunktionjunktion
(although, honestly, fighting @calgaryherald on climate issues is rather pointless, in the past @ChrisVarcoe has often been better than this)
Thread calgaryherald.com/opinion/column…
1) I realize I'm like a broken record. But having an article, on a climate issue, without mentioning the word "climate" once, is not cool. Of course people don't want to do hard things, unless they know why they need to do it. (see search in upper left corner)
2) Zero interviews from anyone, aside from the federal government, as to why this cap is necessary. All industry or industry-adjacent voices.