Far fewer patients were coming in with COVID related complaints and only 23 patients in my 8hrs sample got chest X-rays.
That's down from 40 patients/8hrs 2 weeks ago, and 50 patients/8hrs the week prior.
The crowd is thinning out.
/2
Of those patients that did get chest X-rays, 20 showed no evidence of a COVID pneumonia, and only 3 showed mild pneumonias which were not even definitively COVID pneumonias.
There were no moderate or severe pneumonias.
/3
What has changed?
Clearly the most important change is the prevalence of Omicron in the community. Omicron peaked early January in Ontario and has been dropping almost as quickly as it rose.
/4 globalnews.ca/news/8578162/o…
Unfortunately, this isn't the whole story.
Currently at my large urban general hospital we still have days where we are admitting more COVID-19 patients than we are discharging.
This leaves us with a sizable number of COVID patients requiring a high level of care.
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There is also a sad reality that while the Omicron wave is quieting down, many inpatients are still battling pneumonias some of which will progress in severity.
/6
Take home messages?
1. The drop in ER visits supports the waste water data showing that the Omicron wave is coming to an end.
2. It will take time to clear out the hospitals.
3. Omicron is still very dangerous, especially to the unvaccinated.
The crowd chants 'long live the Intifada', and then 'resistance is justified'.
Let's explore what Intifada means for Jews in the context of the conflict in the Middle East.
/1
The First Intifada began in 1987 and ended in 1993. Palestinian militants killed 100 Israeli civilians, 60 soldiers, and executed 800 Palestinians accused of collaboration.
3,100 Israelis were injured.
/2
The Second Intifada ran from 2000 to mid-2005 resulted in 1,000 Israelis killed and thousands wounded. It was marked by waves of suicide attacks often targeting civilians on buses.
Other tactics included shooting, stabbing, mortar and rocket fire, kidnapping, and lynching.
This has been making the rounds. It's a guide on how to disrupt the healthcare system.
Disrupting patient care isn't protest, it's illegal, and it's immoral.
/1
#HamasTerrorists
It features charming suggestions such as 'bird-dogging', which is essentially harassment.
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#HamasTerrorists
There's the ever popular walkout, a great way to deny patients life saving care and ratchet up pressure by leveraging their health for your cause.
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#HamasTerrorists
These outdated guidelines cost the lives of almost 300 young women a year in Canada.
Instead of inviting experts to ask question of @ChooseWiselyCA, the organization needs to do a proper review of current studies and listen to what the experts are telling them.
/1 #MedTwitter
The Pan-Canadian study demonstrated a 40% reduction in mortality with screening mammography for women in their 40s.
/2 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25274578/
The Recent study by Wilkinson and Seely compare jurisdictions in Canada that do screen women 40-49 against those that do not and showed a higher percentage of advanced breast cancers in the non screeners.
/3 mdpi.com/1718-7729/29/8…
I'm wrapping up my afternoon/evening/overnight shift.
I know I promised that I wouldn't be giving anymore updates, but the hysteria on social media over dropping the mask mandate warrants a reality check.
/1 #COVID19@HRHospital
Over an 8 hour sample period 28 chest X-rays were taken in ER.
26 had no signs of COVID pneumonia.
1 had mild COVID pneumonia (although I did get some pushback on the diagnosis from the ER doc).
1 had a mild pneumonia that could be COVID.
Hardly a cresting wave of COVID.
/2
In the lead up to dropping the mask mandate and the first week since it ended, Ontarians have been treated to a level of moral panic not seen since the early days of the pandemic.
/3 cbc.ca/radio/asithapp…