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Tyler Black, MD

@tylerblack32

May 18

This feels like it should be bigger news. More There have only been 4 periods in the history of the pandemic where more in #BritishColumbia have (officially) died WITH (yay, thanks BC for obscuring data) COVID than occurred in the first week of May (May 1-7).
#bcpoli #BCStorm
/1

This is all because BC has intentionally distorted the data. As of April 2, all deaths where a positive test occurred within 30 days are being counted. Die of a car crash + covid test positive? Covid death!

/2

Of course, CDCBC *COULD* easily go back &retroactively apply this definition to the start of the pandemic (this would help us understand what the increasing #'s mean in context), but of course that would severely increase the official count of COVID-19 deaths. Bad politics?
/3

Read 4 tweets

Tyler Black, MD

@tylerblack32

May 18

@StatCan_eng

Excess mortality in BC since the start of COVID-19 is suggestive of an severe undercount of pandemic deaths (as has been seen in many other countries). The excess mortality caused by the heat wave or toxic drug supply is not sufficient to explain the gap.

Sorce: @StatCan_eng
/1

I don't know if there is some other official explanation, but in other nations this gap has been used to infer a number of deaths that are due to covid-19 that have not been coded as such.

/2

2020 saw fewer suicides and i'm not aware of significant suicide changes in 2021 either, so suicide is not a factor, I don't believe (and in fact, may have improved cumulatively)

Read 5 tweets

Tyler Black, MD

@tylerblack32

May 18

Here is a direct comparison of the deaths (undercount) caused by COVID-19 from the US and any nation that engaged in significant #covidzero policies past the first phase of the pandemic (Canada only there on the back of 4 atlantic provinces that held until end of 2021)

/1

Using cumulative excess mortality, we can see that zero covid strategies were associated with less excess death overall. Any discussions of "but they killed more due to X" are accounted for in this analysis. Approximations of recent for some added by me and rough calculations.
/2

Policy matters and American politicians and leaders failed the people they were sworn to protect.

Read 4 tweets

Tyler Black, MD

@tylerblack32

May 18

@CDCofBC

Very frustrating to see the choice in presentation by the @CDCofBC for covid vaccination hosp/icu rates.

First, here is the reality: whenever we can directly compare all three groups (ages 30 to 69), vaccination prevents hospitalization and ICU admission.

#VaccinesWork

/1

@CDCofBC

However, when we lose resolution on the absence of vaccines (eg 70+y, where only <5% are unvaccinated), @CDCofBC makes the decision to completely squelch the unvaccinated rate and count.

Of course, NOT POSSIBLE. I've calculated: the past month, 87/1M/day, off the chart!

/2

We see this as well for the 18-29 group. Again, the graph here is impossible, and a specific and odd presentation choice by the BC CDC.

on this graph, the rate in the past month 20.9 per 1M per day, so far off the chart I had to cheat to add the space to draw it.

/3

Read 13 tweets

Tyler Black, MD

@tylerblack32

May 17

All of the nations that I'm aware of that pursued a zero-covid-like strategy did far better over time than BC did, even though many of them abandoned that strategy (many at around aug-dec 2021).

/1

This is most shown within Canada. There was a well-held "Atlantic bubble" of zero-covid strategy. New Brunswick broke its policy first, near July 2021, when NB Premiere Blaine Higgs ended all health-protection orders, including mask-mandates, in July.

(all better than BC)

/2

This decision was poor. It's also very likely that the NB dam breaking was also largely responsible for the delta and omicron effects on the rest of atlantic canada, which had all ditched their policies by end of 2021.

aaaaand boom.

/3

Read 6 tweets

Tyler Black, MD

@tylerblack32

May 15

https://twitter.com/gregggonsalves/status/1525641642123960320

Lucy McBride's article that Gregg links to here is from March 2021. Pause for a moment and think about how awful Lucy's patients felt, judged for being "coronaphobic", when 500,000 more American deaths were on the way.

/1

https://twitter.com/gregggonsalves/status/1525641642123960320

Instead of praising their caution for protecting themselves while vaccines we're launching (at the time, <50% of Americans were fully vaccinated), she amateurly creates a diagnosis around their non-pathological fear.

/2

In her childishly silly example, she cures her patients high blood pressure while reassuring her she can see her parents. (What a hero!)

Of course, even an amateur knows that pathological anxiety is not cured by reassurance, ironically debunking her own fake diagnosis.

/3

Read 6 tweets

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