Thread by @jaycurrie

Hibernation Day #154 | Much of Canada will be dropping the COVID restrictions and mask mandates in the next few days. A good thing as very few of them were effective. Take up of the 3rd jab has dropped dramatically. #honkhonk 1/

Does this mean COVID is over? I doubt it. The NPIs and the jabs were a response - and not a very good one - to an actual virus which is, as we speak, out there mutating away. Yes, there was a lot of BS surrounding COVID but it actually revealed a bunch of issues. #honkhonk 2/

First, Canada and British Columbia have a really rickety Health Care system and no one seems willing to even begin to fix it. We lack the ability to rapidly surge ICU capacity. We lack that ability not because we don't have the room, rather because we don't have the people. 3/

This lack of capacity existed long before COVID as hospitals were overwhelmed by seasonal flu almost every year. So, what are we doing about this? Apparently, nothing. The number of ICU beds remains where it was at the beginning of COVID. #HonkHonk 4/

The response to COVID also revealed a passivity in the medical community. Doctors and researchers appear content to follow "standard of care" even when the outcomes are not at all good. COVID was met with medical inertia. #honkhonk 5/

That inertia was reinforced with regulatory sloth. Right now there is a nasal spray, developed in Vancouver, which is showing remarkable results against COVID in Israel. It is not available in Canada and is not expected to be for some time. #honkhonk 6/

There are early treatment protocols which show great promise in reducing the severity and lethality of COVID. And we have learned a lot about how not to contract COVID in the first place. #honkhonk 7/

While I want BC to join the rest of Canada in lifting mandates and killing the vax pass, I want that because the NPIs did not work and were founded on at least one, huge, error: they assumed the VID was spread by droplets. #honkhonk 8/

It is increasingly clear that COVID is and has always been airborne. Which means the sanitary theatre and most masks are a total waste of time. Good ventilation is worth all the plexiglass cages our front line workers are stuck in. #honkhonk 9/

Dropping the NPIs and mandates is a good idea largely because they were useless if not counter-productive; but it would be a very good idea to turn our attention to things which actually work as we hit the next lull in the virus cycle. #honkhonk 10/

I say "lull" simply because we know that respiratory illnesses are seasonal. COVID may disappear entirely but, more likely, it will abate over the Spring and Summer and be back in some form in Fall. #honkhonk 11/

So, instead of wasting the lull as we did with the last two, we need to take full advantage. Rather than trying to get a 3rd jab into everyone, it would be a good idea to actually plan ICU surge capacity. Review files and see which care protocols worked best. #honkhonk 12/

Allocate some funds to training a cadre of surge nurses (and rehire, if you can, the HCW let go because of the bone head vax mandates). Figure out how upgrading the training of existing nurses and having a pool of trainees could meet the surge. #honkhonk 13/

Install and incetivize good ventilation and air circulation. This is not rocket science. Having fresher air indoors is a good thing in itself, it could be critical if the VID comes back. LTC homes, schools, hospitals all need better ventilation. #honkhonk 14/

Create a pro-active, tune your immune system, public health program. Exercise, weight loss, vitamin D supplementation can all be encouraged to prepare for next Fall's virus season. A healthier population is our best defence. #honkhonk 15/

Pay attention to how we can protect our most vulnerable : LTC needs to be looked at very carefully. Locking the elderly in their rooms is not an acceptable response. #honkhonk 16/

Prepare and announce a real circuit breaker plan. The ad hoc "lockdowns" did next to nothing to defeat COVID but they knocked the Hell out of people's lives and our economy. Avoid making the breaker mandatory. We have had enough orders. #honkhonk 17/

End the fear narrative. One of the worst elements of our response to COVID was the creation of an exaggerated level of fear. The reality is and was that COVID was a nasty virus but it was not airborne Ebola. Legacy media, PHO and pols went all in for fear. #honkhonk 18/

Frightening people into compliance has huge, unintended, consequences. Panic on a population wide level means that people's decision making, risk assessment and behaviour are compromised. #honkhonk 19/

We are going to emerge from the restrictions and the mandates soon; but we need to take the lull in the virus to calmly plan for the possibility it will come back. Spring is Coming! #honkhonk 20/20