Thread by @a_derfelGazette

1) This season's more virulent influenza epidemic has so far claimed the lives of 5 Canadian children as of Dec. 3 — with flu activity yet to peak, the Public Health Agency of Canada reported in its latest FluWatch report on Friday afternoon.

2) Pediatric influenza hospitalizations now are much higher than years past, as you can glimpse from the more detailed chart below. In the week ending Dec. 3, the Public Health Agency of Canada reported 247 such hospitalizations, up from 223 the week before.

3) Sadly, children under age 4 have accounted for the lion's share of Canada's flu hospitalizations, followed by those at least 65. "The highest cumulative hospitalization rates are among children under 5 years of age (56/100,000 population)", up from 41 per 100,000 a week ago.

4) Of course, the flu epidemic cannot be viewed in isolation. Canada is now in the grip of a #COVID19 and flu #Syndemic. The chart below reveals a slight uptick in COVID hospitalizations. Notice in this chart how the valleys in the last two peaks are higher one after the other.👇

5) This #COVID-Influenza #Syndemic is also occurring in the U.S., as you can discern from the comparative charts below. So far this flu season (likely the worst in more than a decade), the CDC estimates there have been at least 120,000 U.S. hospitalizations and 7,300 deaths.

6) And this #Syndemic is resulting in more co-infections. In California, for example, hospitals in Bakersfield observed that co-infections of #COVID, the flu and other respiratory viruses have surged by 30% from a month ago, "after a similar jump in cases affecting children."

7) In Quebec, my home province has recorded both a nearly 59% rise in flu infections in a week as well as a resurgence in #COVID hospitalizations now totaling 1,981, the highest in nearly two months. On Friday, the number of active COVID outbreaks jumped by a dozen to 415.

8) At 11:43 p.m. Friday, both of Montreal's pediatric emergency rooms were filled to over-capacity, likely reflecting the severity of this #COVID-Influenza #Syndemic. What's more, 2 adult ERs were filled to at least 200 per cent over-capacity, as you can see from the chart below.

9) At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it's more imperative than ever that Canadians and Americans get their #COVID boosters, flu shots and mask up in public. It's up to each one of us, given public health authorities are wary to reinstate the mask mandate. The End.

ADDENDUM: As you obviously know if you're reading this thread, my original Twitter account, @Aaron_Derfel, has been hacked. Perhaps my tweets about @elonmusk put me in the cross-hairs of a hacker who is not associated with Twitter.

ADDENDUM 2: I alerted @TwitterSupport immediately yesterday to the fact that my original account, @Aaron_Derfel, has been hacked. Unfortunately, Twitter has done nothing since then. I hope Twitter has enough support staff following @elonmusk's mass layoffs at the company.

ADDENDUM 3: The fact that a hacker was easily able to start falsely tweeting from my hacked account of @Aaron_Derfel a day after I alerted Twitter raises troubling questions about cyber-security problems at this social medial platform amid mass layoffs.

ADDENDUM 4: Twitter is not nearly as safe as it used to be, never mind concerns about the rise in hate speech under @elonmusk's brief tenure. I hope my example is not a sentinel event, but an isolated one, and does not signal the future of what Musk hoped to avoid: a hellscape.

ADDENDUM 5: And here's the final irony: My new (and hopefully temporary) account WITHOUT the vaunted blue check-mark, is the real me now. But my original account WITH the blue check-mark denoting authentication, is hacked. What a mess.