Today marks 3 months since I have been meeting my kids outdoors for lunch every school day.
It takes 2 hours of my day, every time.
It has affected my work schedule and other aspects of my life.
I wouldn't have expected to have to do this for 3 months. I'm glad I do.
/1
Back when NB announced that school masks would be dropped, at first I waited for someone else to step in and say it was a bad idea. Surely, it wouldn't actually happened.
Days passed. We realized nobody else was going to speak up.
/2
Our group was the first organization of people in Atlantic Canada to speak up for the protection of universal masks in schools. We did it before the IWK pediatricians, before NB's pediatricians, before NBMS. We had great citations though.
/3
In the end, NB dropped the protection of universal masks in schools alone. Quebec still had them in common areas. PEI, NS, and NL all kept universal masks in schools for far longer than NB, while BA.2 swept through our region.
/4
When the excess mortality numbers come out for March, April, May 2022 - remember that it didn't have to be this way. School kids in other provinces weren't exposed to disease at the levels that NB students were. NB also dropped required isolation. Nobody else did that.
/5
The actions taken by those in power here exposed NBers - starting with families of school kids, but eventually reaching many more people - to an egregious level of infectious disease. It did not have to happen the way it did. It shouldn't have. It was objectively wrong.
/6
My decision to meet my kids for lunch was an emergency reaction on my part. I'm a rational person - I thought this would be a temporary situation. The errors would be corrected. Universal masks would return.
/7
The Child and Youth Advocate's report happened April 22. The report recommended the immediate return of universal masks while Public Health revisited their decision. The government ignored the findings of the report. Masks in school did not return.
/8
Here's the link to the English version of the report: static1.squarespace.com/static/60340d1…
/9
Today I had a lovely lunch with my kids. I made bagel pizzas at home and brought them to school. We enjoyed the sunshine. We laughed. We hugged. I helped keep them safe from an airborne virus the province refuses to effectively fight with clean air and good masks.
/10
My boss wants to give me more responsibility next year. My boss isn't going to want me to spend 2 hours a day meeting my kids outside for lunch. The lack of safety in NB schools is unsustainable. What's the plan for next year?
/11
In March 2022, I didn't expect to be meeting my kids for lunch for the rest of the school year. Removing universal masks in school was objectively the wrong decision. The evidence used to do so was extremely weak and incorrectly attributed in written submissions. /12
The strength of the evidence from PH was overstated. The conclusions written in the report by the CMOH were not borne out by the data available, on top of that. It was decision-based evidence-making.
/13
On top of all that they took away reporting of school cases. So it wasn't even possible to assess the risks anymore. Hence daily lunch outside continuing for the rest of the year. There was just no way to know.
/14
This isn't sustainable - not for my family, not for education staff, not for families of anyone who enters a school, not for students, not for our province.

What's the plan for next year?

#nbed
#nbpoli
15/15

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More from @nb_covid_info

Jun 14
There's risks associated with certain leisure pursuits, and then there's risks being borne by people with little to no agency.
We know that COVID spreads through the air.

Why are the people responsible for daycare, school, and LTC facilities in 🇨🇦 not being directly told this?
It's just unconscionable to me that not only is it proven that COVID spreads through the air, but we also have a number of things that can be done today to reduce transmissions!

Why aren't the people running these facilities being directly informed to filter the air?

/2
Why aren't the people running these facilities being directly informed of the efficacy of N95s? The efficacy of ventilation, and how to measure it?

Why does almost nobody running a facility full of innocent people with little agency seem interested in protecting these people?/3
Read 11 tweets
Jun 13
Absolutely fascinating and terrible exercise: try writing out NB’s pandemic journey and describing it to someone outside North America. Just try it! It’s bonkers. You get to do the “virus whisperer” to “HEPA militants!” journey with education. 6 week 1 household bubble … /1
… for zone 1 and snitch line during the fall ‘21 wave. To dropping all protections when NB’s case rate was 3x national average. The quarantine hotels. The anti-airborne ID doc. I didn’t even get into the CMOH stuff. I didn’t even mention the chicken dance.
/2
I hear @jwpnfld describes it as pandemic whiplash. I’d posit that no jurisdiction in the world whiplashed as hard as NB.

I can only hope they will give airborne transmission mitigation measures a try. It’s the only thing they haven’t done.
/3
Read 4 tweets
May 30
Short thread on turning research into practice and feelings of futility around research.

Over the weekend I had a series of chats about (longer term, not immediate) realistic and interesting clinical research opportunities in New Brunswick. But...

/1
While driving the kids around today, keeping them safe from COVID exposures here and there, something bubbled up from my past work. "TRIP" - turning research into practice. Knowledge translation. Stuff I was just starting to get into when I left the hospital/uni world. /2
My heart sank as I realized - 'what is the point?' Absolutely, part of me deeply wants to and still may re-engage with research.
But watching COVID play out - another part of me feels like what the hell is the point. We HAVE great research that says COVID is airborne. /3
Read 8 tweets
Apr 17
If your job was to protect people from a disease, and there was a huge public breakthrough from another nation clearly delineating how to stop transmission, wouldn’t you be singing from the rooftops about it?

/1
If your province was still stuck on #dropletdogma and was using outdated information to try to fight the pandemic, and information came out strongly from a trusted ally that differed significantly from your approach, wouldn’t it be a BIG DEAL for your CMOH and DoH?

/2
I feel the silence on this makes them
complicit. Why no public acknowledgment of the huge change from the US?

One month ago on March 17, the EPA came out with its clean air in buildings challenge.

/3

epa.gov/indoor-air-qua…
Read 16 tweets
Apr 17
Filter replacement day!
This is my oldest HEPA filter unit that I got at a pharmacy long before COVID. I also had another one pre-COVID but it stopped working (different brand). I wouldn’t buy this one again today but I happened to see the replacement filter at the pharmacy.
Right now at home we run this one (had been in my bedroom but just moved it to a kid bedroom), a Honeywell tower I got in Dec, a small Honeywell we got in Nov when kid was exposed/had covid, and a CR box. I plan to build another CR for kitchen/dining.
For this drugstore unit the filter was $20-30 (can’t remember exactly) and gets replaced once a year. The HEPA with 1 filter in it was $99 at the drugstore yesterday. I likely paid a similar price years ago.

If you bought a new HEPA - the filter is likely wrapped in plastic!
Read 5 tweets
Apr 16
I wish NB would even allow all with positive rapid to confirm on PCR. I’ve seen 3 accounts this week of NBers who had faint positives on rapid and then a negative PCR. False positives supposed to be very rare on rapids. Definitely continue to treat rapid positive as true +ve. /1
Likely huge use of rapid tests in NB at the moment and there will always be strange occurrences. The more we test the more rare situations will happen. Still it’s frustrating. Felt confident last summer since PCR was for all. This summer will we really have a sense of safety? /2
We’ve been so fortunate in the maritimes to have two fairly ‘normal’ summers. I am not counting this summer’s chickens yet.
NS makes PCR available for all after a positive rapid if you weren’t eligible before. Wish NB did that too :( wish NB had rapid tests broadly available./3
Read 4 tweets

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