Dr. @DrFiliatrault of @Protect_BC is introducing "Covid in the House: Protect Your Loved Ones" and is making a land acknowledgment. First guest today is a professional mechanical engineer @joeyfox85, with a decade of HVAC experience & is a school board engineer. #bcpoli
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85 Our second guest is @amandalhu who is a Clean Air advocate & certified filter technician. They will help us to understand what we can do in the home to prevent others being infected in the home when a house/family member is infected. It can be done!
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@DrFiliatrault talking about the reasons to avoid infection rather than giving in: risk of long-term damage to any organ system in the body as well as the risk of long-covid.
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@DrFiliatrault is reminding us that, as discussed in our prior briefing with experts @kprather88 and @jljcolorado, Covid is airborne. Simply breathing and talking are aerosol generating procedures, & Covid can hitch a ride on those aerosols you produce.
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@kprather88@jljcolorado@DrFiliatrault reminding us that while airborne particles are in greater density close to a person, particles can concentrate far from the source and hang there, if you spend a lot of time in a space, esp if it's small, you risk infection even if the room has been vacated.
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@kprather88@jljcolorado Engineer @joeyfox85:
Masks are the best line of defence! Respirators (like N95) are best and are actually more functional. Surgical masks are far better than cloth masks but not as good as N95s. Choose a comfortable respirator - many diff types of N95. Just find one that fits.
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@kprather88@jljcolorado Caveat with this chart is that it was designed for earlier and less transmissible variants but it still applies.
It's not true that an N95 needs to be fit-tested.
Non-fit-tested respirators (N95) still vastly outperform cloth masks and surgical masks
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@kprather88@jljcolorado Another myth about N95s is that they are one-time use. They're not - even 3M says you can reuse masks, as long as you haven't damaged or dirtied them too much. This makes them more affordable. If you still can't afford N95, there are other options. Surgical masks acceptable..
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@kprather88@jljcolorado Now @joeyfox85 is talking about ventilating your living space. 2 types:
natural ventilation, ie bringing fresh air into your house (windows)
and
mechanical ventilation.
To boost natural ventilation, turn on bathroom/kitchen fans & open a window, or...
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@kprather88@jljcolorado If your house has a furnace, you can use the furnace's air circulation system to filter the air. You can replace the furnace's filter with a MERV13 filter, which does a good job of filtering furnaces out of the air. Some houses also have an HVAC system - it too has a filter.
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@kprather88@jljcolorado Now we're hearing from @amandalhu on filtration. A mask as a filter for your face, but to filter the air in spaces, a cost-effective way of doing this is to build your own Corsi-Rosenthal box. You need 4 MERV 13 square filters, a square box fan, some duct tape & cardboard.
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@kprather88@jljcolorado .@amandalhu It seems intimidating at first to build your own air filter, but it comes together really easily! Please remember air filters have a direction - make sure that the arrows point inwards to the centre of the box. Air will go in thru the filters, out through the fan...
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@kprather88@jljcolorado .@amandalhu - There are actually many different ways to build a Corsi-Rosenthal box (C-R box) - you can even build a triangular one with fewer filters! There are many resources online to help you find one to build - see Clean Air Crew and others.
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@kprather88@jljcolorado The more filtration (say, MERV13 vs MERV11) and the more filters you use, the more filtration you get. The more filtration you can get, the better. Put the filter as close to the person who's infectious as possible.
There are also commercial versions available; more $$$$ tho.
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@kprather88@jljcolorado@marwa_zaatari How do make an isolation room in a house or apartment? The weak point is the bathroom, which is a shared room. The sick person isolates in the BR. The red cloud is emanating from the infected person. They should mask as much as poss, & in those shared spaces. Others also wear N95
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@kprather88@jljcolorado@marwa_zaatari Open as many windows as you can in the sick room. If you have a fan that can blow air out a window, that's also helpful. If you have a filter near the person, that also helps. Keep their door closed, and block the bottom of their door with a towel/blanket. But when door opens...
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@kprather88@jljcolorado@marwa_zaatari While the sick person exits their isolation room, others should go out or on a balcony. While that's going on, make sure all extraction fans in the home are turned on. Do vent rooms the infected person has been in for at least half an hour, before you unmask. @joeyfox85 agrees.
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@kprather88@jljcolorado@marwa_zaatari@joeyfox If you don't have mechanical ventilation in your home, but need to move air from green zone to red zone & not other way around, do this with windows and fans.
The window is key because if you create negative pressure in a room, you can draw bad exhaust from appliances into room.
It will depend on whether you can create negative pressure in that room, and exhaust its air to the outside.
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@kprather88@jljcolorado@marwa_zaatari@joeyfox Humidity does 3 things: 1. The virus doesn't live well at 40--60% humidity - it does well at both ends of the spectrum. 2. Your immune system also does poorly at v low humidity 3. Low humidity increases aerosols in the air because it reduces droplet size thru evaporation
This is not its main use. It's more for measuring public spaces, but it's a measurement of the ventilation of the space generally.
@DrFiliatrault@joeyfox85@amandalhu@kprather88@jljcolorado@marwa_zaatari@joeyfox@amandalhu saying that she actually prefers to keep the spaces isolated from each other. The only danger would be if the isolation room had no window, & your gas appliances could suck carbon monoxide etc. into the neg pressure room. Then you need air from green zone to enter red
What is different with Omicron and Rapid Antigen Test?
Swab BOTH throat and nose as per this video.
Make sure not to drink for 30 minutes prior to swabbing. Nova Scotians were early adopter of Rapid Antigen Testing, here is what they say. globalnews.ca/video/8530698/…
Test to "play" with Omicron: no symptoms and want to make sure not to infect the vulnerable person you are visiting, test immediately prior to your visit. Remember no test is 100% sensitive, always consider adding other layers of protection. #N95#COVIDisAirborne#CleanTheAir
Our "Covid Doesn't Take Breaks, Neither Can We" Briefing #14 begins shortly! Please join @Protect_BC's livestream at the link below; no registration required.
We will livetweet the briefing here; please follow along & send in your Q for our experts. #bcpoli
This will be our live tweet thread 🧵of the provincial #bcpoli#COVID19 presser today, which we expect will include new information on rapid test distribution plans. Will they finally admit that COVID is airborne? Probably not, but we really hope they do! #FreetheRATs!
We begin with Dr. Henry reminding us that they removed some public health protections last week, just before at least 44 people died of COVID over the weekend. For her, this is "on track", "positive, encouraging trends". She looks forward to removing more protections ASAP.
Dr. Henry introduces Novavax, a new vaccine that uses a moth cell line & soap bark tree extract. This is different/more traditional than MRNA vaccines. Rather than emulating COVID proteins, it generates proteins from moth cells that stimulate antibody protection, w/ 90% efficacy.
"Knowledge is Power - So Why is BC Hiding #COVID19 Data?" - this discussion starts at noon today, featuring @brish_ti @seanmholman
& @Protect_BC's @kerricoombs. We will be live-tweeting it - follow along here.
If you have Qs for the panelists, tweet them to us! #bcpoli
If you have Qs for the panel, you can tweet them at us.
@kerricoombs is talking about BC having been forced to admit, early on when challenged by SARS Inquiry head Mario Possamai, that it had been hiding data. @seanmholman now talking of the damage to democracy & trust in govt when information is withheld - incl conspiracy theories.
🧵As BC is removing protections & attempting to treat #COVID19 as endemic, @Protect_BC is hosting *2 briefings* this week.
#11-Tues, Feb. 22: Data transparency issues in BC
#12-Thurs, Feb. 24: Experts explain how businesses can address #COVIDisAirborne to stay open
Details...
2/ First briefing this week:
Data drives policy decisions & the public's ability to "assess personal risk". However, even media have had trouble accessing data that is freely available in other provinces.
Tune into this thread🧵for our live Tweet coverage of this afternoon's #bcpoli#COVID briefing at 1:30 PM. The province is expected to disregard the ongoing danger to unvaccinated children, immunocompromised people & health workers, and announce reduced public health protections.
We open with John Horgan, sharing encouraging words that we've done a great job so far by working together despite the fact that at least 2,764 people in BC have died due to the province implementing insufficient measures to contain the community spread of COVID in BC.
The measures we've used have been "as passive as possible", John Horgan says with pride. He is commenting on his meetings with 200 business leaders, who he says are very supportive of the NDP's approach. He does not mention listening to any experts, except for Dr. Bonnie Henry.