One of the most disheartening 80 secs I have ever seen on Twitter (which says a lot) from our unelected #Alberta premier @ABDanielleSmith. Let's set the record straight about #COVID therapeutics in #AB. 1/
Alberta institutions and researchers played a large role in developing and testing COVID-19 therapeutics, as well as rapidly reviewing emerging evidence from around the world which continues to come out at incredible pace. @AHS_Innovates@UAlberta_DoM@UCalgaryMed
2/
Within weeks of the pandemic hitting #AB, we were enrolling patient volunteers into an international clinical trial (Solidarity) as part of the Canadian @CATCO consortium. In fact Alberta was the leading contributor to CATCO nationally. 3/
Some initial drugs unfortunately were not found to help hospitalized patients (such as hydroxychloroquine) as published in the @NEJMnejm.org/doi/pdf/10.105…. Other AB investigators also investigated HCQ in outpatients without success (nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NE…). 4/
We did succeed in demonstrating the effectiveness of the antiviral drug Remdesivir in reducing the need for invasive mechanical ventilation for hospitalized COVID patients (cmaj.ca/content/194/7/…) and also established it's cost-effectiveness (cmajopen.ca/content/10/3/E…). 5/
As a result of this work #Remdesivir has been the standard of care in AB hospitals for some time now. AB researchers have also contributed to other key therapeutic interventions now in common use on our hospitals. These include: 6/
Tocilizumab - a potent anti-inflammatory drug which can reduce mortality in critically ill COVID-19 patients (see @wsliglnejm.org/doi/full/10.10…) 7.
Albertans (investigators and patients!) also contributed evidence that blood thinners could improve outcomes in some COVID patients (bmj.com/content/375/bm…). 8/
Patients admitted with COVID in 2022 are often treated with these treatments as part of the standard of care in great part due to the efforts of AB investigations in collaborations with other partners and the altruism of our patients who volunteered for these clinical trials. 9/
This is only scratching the surface of the research work done in AB even if not all of it resulted in clinically successful treatments. It is as important to prove if a treatment is ineffective in order to avoid futile treatments which still will have side effects and costs. 10/
When AB investigators and clinicians were not generating evidence or in the hospitals on the front lines, they were reviewing rapidly emerging evidence from around the world. 12/
Many spent countless hours reviewing and summarizing evidence and evolving guidelines and then disseminating this information to our clinical teams on the front lines. An example being the @UCCMedEdecme.ucalgary.ca/covid-19-cme-r… series - a fantastic venue to share information. 14/
Alberta has the experts who have contributed immensely to the generation of knowledge on COVID and COVID treatment, and to the direct benefit of patients in AB and beyond. Unfortunately @ABDanielleSmith is "not interested in taking any advice from them." /16
So one must ask, where will she seek advice on this or any other matter important to our Province? #NotMyPremier
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1. It seems we have forgotten about the Lily Pad problem in #Alberta.
The lily pad grows in a pond and doubles in size every day. On day 30 it is full. The math quiz question is: on what day was the pond half full?
2. The answer is on day 29. But even more scary is what happens on day 31…
3. We can try to make the pond bigger (by stopping normal hospital activities to accommodate more lilies) and if we can do enough perhaps make it through day 31. But then comes day 32 (4x full capacity).
The good:
Alberta numbers are way down from the peak of wave 3 a few weeks ago. The drop has been sharp in response to public health measures as well as increase 1st dose vaccination rates, now almost 60% for age 12+.
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We are seeing a resulting drop in new hospitalizations, although we are just off peak numbers of people still in hospital and in ICUs. Unfortunately many of these patients will take time to recover, some will have chronic sequelae and others will not survive to discharge.
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We are ready for some loosening of restrictions. Schools re-opened in person yesterday, and stage I restrictions will lift on June 1. Many of these are low risk outdoor activities. All good here, but things get more difficult at next steps.
3/
1. Wondering why it is so important to act now to limit the spread of #COVID19 in North America? Most countries are on the same trajectory. What you see in the most affected countries in Europe we will see here unless we do something different.
2. We are simply at an earlier time point in the outbreak. We are dulled by the daily new case numbers, but a very consistent finding emerges. A doubling of cases about every 3-5 days. This is remarkably consistent in western countries. Including Canada. ourworldindata.org/coronavirus
3. So if the numbers seem low to you (e.g. in my Province of Alberta "only" 29 cases in 4.4 million pop), realize that we will be above 1,000 cases in 3 weeks and 30,000 in 6 weeks if we don't "flatten" the curve. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavir…