Why do you feel like now is the appropriate time to drop masking in healthcare settings and LTC, Assisted Living homes?
Cc: "In some parts of the country masking in healthcare settings is still mandatory, but in most provinces it's not or won't be for long. While many welcome the shift, human rights groups are concerned & some are asking this question, why do you feel now is the appropriate time?"
BC's PHO says "mandatory masking in hospitals is being dropped based on #Covid levels in the community as we've come through the respiratory season. We're seeing much less spread of virus, there's much less community illness."
“A relatively high level of COVID-19 in the population matters because it impacts rates of hospitalizations, long COVID development, & absenteeism in workplaces – collectively impacting both healthcare & the economy,” @fionabrinkman, Deputy, CoVaRR-Net’s CAMEO Pillar, SFU Prof
It's not just infections from #Covid.
Did you know that #Covid causes immune dysfunction? Meaning after a #Covid infection, every infection will become so much harder to clear and possibly more severe than usual. Think back to BC's fall tripledemic. infectioncontroltoday.com/view/covid-19-…
Did you know that #CovidisAirborne? If you change the air frequently & clean the air, things would be a lot better for everyone from students, EA, educators, families and their community. More days in school learning.
"In BC, updated calculations based on wastewater tests and other surveillance methods suggest one-in-250 people are getting a new infection daily."
"With a 10-day illness period, & five out of those 10 days being infectious, that means about 1-in-25 people are infected right now" Flawed basic assumption: infectiousness lasts > 5 days. @fionabrinkman
Regardless, aligns wt @MoriartyLab last week's 1/24 infected in BC. Now 1/12
The World Health Organization defines Long COVID as: “The continuation or development of new symptoms 3 months after the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection, with these symptoms lasting for at least 2 months with no other explanation”.
2/17
It is estimated that over 65 million people world wide have Long COVID.
Stats Canada estimates 14.8% of Canadians who have been infected with COVID have developed Long COVID.
NACI and BC Provincial Health are not offering COVID vaccine boosters for the general public.
Only people who are in the "higher risk categories" will be offered boosters.
But when it comes to COVID, all people are at risk and anyone can get Long COVID.
1/6
Vaccine efficacy requiring hospitalization for COVID decreased after 4-5 months from 89% to 66% and from 83% to 43% for COVID patients requiring emergency or urgent care, in all groups even young non immuncompromised adults.
Hybrid immunity offers limited protection.
Studies show repeated infections increase death, hospitalization, and Long COVID.
Long term immunity is also unlikely with the ongoing mutations of the COVID virus and the emergence of new variants.
Will media also ask re "hybrid immunity": Is it now the official recommendation that anyone who hasn't yet had Covid get infected in order to protect themselves from… infection? Vaccination doesn't lead to #LongCovid and other outcomes like heart attacks; infection does. #bcpoli
Today's BC presser with Dr. Henry concerns spring boosters. Since it's a Friday afternoon, which tends to signal a bad news announcement, we fear it means a reduction in access to boosters. We must reiterate: reinfection & "hybrid immunity" are unsafe!
For the last 3 yrs we've been trying to keep people from becoming infected with COVID.
Now VIHA is telling health care workers they don't need to test and can go to work even when still infected, potentially spreading COVID to vulnerable sick patients in hospitals and LTC.
1/7
COVID is not a cold and it is not the flu.
In BC, more people died of COVID in 2022 then in each of the two previous years of the pandemic.
2/7
COVID is not just a virus that attacks the lungs.
It affects blood clotting and blood vessels.
This is why even mild COVID infections can lead to suddent cardiac death, heart attacks, strokes, Alzheimher's, Parkinson's disease and heart valve damage.