Whoa now.

Alberta COVID vaccine planning news release (shorturl.at/U15nE) has some major shockers.

First- it IS $$$ and it IS newly provincial dollars (like all other vaccines). NACI provided guidance (shorturl.at/r0fWf) in Jan as provinces bought supply ~March. One note re :"wastage": AB had 10% lower vaccine uptake than BC but I'm not sure how many people were aware it was recommended. The campaign didn't use the word "COVID".

This gov't vaccine campaigns have been found lacking: shorturl.at/H0Dwa, shorturl.at/BrULe

Look, I just wanted to share that this article has been shared among physicians across the whole country and no one seemed surprised that rural docs- who are HEROIC- are overworked and overstretched.
What jumped out to people was this quote:
1/ search.app/bCGbkHsRTnQVpf… Bolded below, the quote from Premier Smith implies docs aren’t working enough. Umm, what? None of us know any family (especially rural) docs doing one day a week. 5 days a week plus evening and weekend call. Charting til midnight. 40+ h a week for 500-1000 complex patients
2/

Just my infrequent but sincere reminder:

you don’t have to agree and value every thing a person has done or said to potentially still consider them a worthwhile human (that you don’t agree 100% with.)
(Yes, there are egregious,extreme, untrustworthy people this doesn’t fit)
1/ In science? Maybe you really value someone’s ideas or work in one area but think they are out to lunch or treading out of their expertise in another.
In families, you may value your relatives terrific, helpful family-community mindedness, but hate their takes on politics.
2/

❄️Pre winter holiday break
Straight talk:
Did you get an influenza vaccination this fall?
A COVID XBB vaccination?
Surprisingly high # of patients lately haven’t- not because they are opposed necessarily: many just don’t know it was useful
1/ But this is a HIGH RISK influenza year, it’s high intensity H1N1 (last year was H3N2) and we haven’t seen that for a while, lots of 18-65Y hitting hospital, pregnant, critically ill, the classic H1N1 thing -but also recent peak in >65.
A sadly classic Christmas in ICU
2/

Alberta Government survey questions below seem perhaps suboptimal and could bias results.
(They have a website devoted to the rather controversial Alberta pension plan proposal with this survey).
Having done some survey instrument and exam question design, I have thoughts.
1/ I think this states there will be savings (100% probability) and offers no space to comment…
2/

I’ll never forget when a public health doc told me, a naive Infectious Diseases resident that vaccines don’t use the same cut off assessment as medicines or other interventions like procedures. They have to SAVE money for the system to be publicly funded.
Decisions to fund
1/

https://twitter.com/gyamey/status/1662803770298834946

Treatments like medicine or procedures usually use a cut off based how much they cost to save a good quality of life for a year. shorturl.at/CGMX8
Depending on a countries wealth maybe $ 50,000 and lower is more justifiable. Vaccines? are expected to save money.
2/

#AbElection note, personal.

Every doc I personally know (lots but not all obviously) think the Smith UCP will destroy Albertan healthcare.

The most “corporate” docs I know tend to be cardiologists and CV surgeons

…they organized an NDP fundraiser.
1/ I’m in a social media group with 1000s of AB doctors discussing exit plans if there’s a Smith UCP win.

It’s terrible to hold the bag for a failing system you can’t fix.
Being undermined, disrespected and maligned is stressful.

Salary isn’t the main topic:
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Buckle up
#abpolitics
Personal but evidence based opinion incoming.

I’ve worked hard to untangle messy information in the pandemic and offer the clearest and current best interpretation of the facts that I can.

So let’s dissect some political messaging.
1/ From a message from the NDP:

“This election, we can go down one of two paths.
Danielle Smith and her gang of extremist supporters are pouring millions into a campaign to sway Alberta towards a future that stands in stark contrast to the principles we hold dear..."
2/

Yikes.
Fungal meningitis outbreak- epidural anaesthesia - very dangerous. Going to other countries for “cheaper” healthcare including esthetic procedures can be risky: in for profit systems quality control, infection monitoring might not be a priority.
1/ emergency.cdc.gov/han/2023/han00… This outbreak is an unknown fungus but I’ve seen people come back from the US and Mexico and South America with mycobacterial infections that require 4 drugs, some special access (not really available) , for a year to treat successfully.
I contacted the surgeon
2/