Tl;DR Very important thread by @HallwayOrchard with big shout out to @PoPNB_kindness for uncovering through RTI/FOI, this damning evidence
against possibly all provincial CMOH/PHO. Complete failure to follow Precautionary Principle in the face of mounting #LongCovid evidence
Meet 🇨🇦 Chief Science Advisor (CSA), Dr. Mona Nemer @ChiefSciCan Do read below what her role is.
@ChiefSciCan has been paying close attention to the evolving #Covid science
First with this:
The letter made very valid requests for research into #LongCovid along with the provision of medical support and care for affected individuals. There was also a call for greater public awareness of the potential for prolonged symptoms after #COVID19.
Starting in July 2020, many reports were sent by the Office of @ChiefSciCan to provincial CMOH/PHO keeping them appraised of #LongCovid evolving science. Make no mistake, the Science Advisory Committee email list include Dr. Bonnie Henry and BC Deputy Provincial Health Officer
The Science Advisory Committee email list also includes Dr. Reka Gustafson and @CDCofBC Scientific Director of Environmental Health Services.
Here are the list of reports that Drs. Henry and Gustafson and others on the Science Advisory Committee would have received about #LongCovid and the emerging scientific evidence
More Scans of Evidence sent by the Office of the Chief Science Officer (OCSO) relating to #LongCovid to Drs.Henry, Gustafson and @CDCofBC
More information received on #LongCovid by BC PHO and Deputy PHO along with @CDCofBC. Abbreviations: PCPHN= Pan-Canadian Public Health Network SAC=Science Advisory Committee CADTH= Canadian Agency for Drugs & Technologies in Health
Having attended almost all BC government #COVID19 Update, this amount of information on #LongCovid provides a stark contrast with the number of times, BC PHO has uttered the word #LongCovid.
Looking at Public Health Agency of Canada, public health ethics framework, this stood out. canada.ca/en/public-heal…
All & all, damning evidence that BC PH was well aware of #LongCovid, its harm & evolving scientific evidence. #bcpoli & @CDCofBC chose not to warn & protect BCians of longterm risk of #COVID19 infection & re-infections. #Vaccine diminish risk, don't eliminate #LongCovid risk
“The numbers are abysmal for pediatric vaccination,” Filiatrault lays blame for the low vaccination rates on the messaging from provincial health officials throughout the pandemic. “They so much minimized COVID in children that parents have not vaccinated their kids”
“What it looks like we’ve been dealing with in children up till now was enterovirus and rhinovirus. What it’s showing in B.C. is that the curves are just trending up right now for RSV and influenza,” she said.
Earlier this week, BC's Provincial Health Officer said “the heavy hand of a mask mandate is not needed in BC” and has refused to reinstate a mask mandate.
Parents of sick children with high fevers and cough taken to BC Children's hospital are being told no PCR tests will be done until the child is sick for 8-10 days.
This despite the unseasonably high cases of RSV and Influenza now in Canada and the US.
PCR swabs are the most accurate way to diagnose COVID, Influenza and RSV.
Testing 10 days after symptom onset has low rates of detection.
Could this delay in PCR testing be motivated by a desire to find less cases?
2/9
This is occurring after reports emerged this week that Dr. Bonnie Henry asked staff for data to specifically prove that school transmission was low in BC while knowing this was not the case.
In Jan 2021, millions of rapid tests from Ottawa languished in warehouses because BC PH said they were too complicated to use.
The tests' purpose was to decrease transmission in vulnerable populations such as seniors in long term care who had some of the highest mortalities.
2/8
BC restricts N95 mask use in healthcare to aerosol generating medical procedures, even if caring for COVID patients.
Many studies show N95 masks significantly reduce COVID transmission.
In this Cambridge study, N95s reduced transmission to zero.
Dr. @sarperotto confirmed Saturday that in B.C. people with a previous COVID 19 infection are not counted under COVID deaths and hospitalizations if they become re-infected.
The 17,310 people who have made WorkSafe B.C. Covid Claims during the pandemic, including 8846 health care workers, 2406 educators, and people working in other high risk jobs, will no longer be counted in the hospitalization and death counts.