This is Ottawa, Canada's capital.

The crowd chants 'long live the Intifada', and then 'resistance is justified'.

Let's explore what Intifada means for Jews in the context of the conflict in the Middle East.

/1 The First Intifada began in 1987 and ended in 1993. Palestinian militants killed 100 Israeli civilians, 60 soldiers, and executed 800 Palestinians accused of collaboration.

3,100 Israelis were injured.

/2

This has been making the rounds. It's a guide on how to disrupt the healthcare system.

Disrupting patient care isn't protest, it's illegal, and it's immoral.

/1
#HamasTerrorists It features charming suggestions such as 'bird-dogging', which is essentially harassment.

/2
#HamasTerrorists

These are among the most tragic images the public has been shown of the Hamas atrocities of October 7th.

The images are difficult to understand. Let me respectfully walk you through them.

#HamasTerrorists This is a 3D rendering of a CT scan of two people in an embrace.

Highlighted on the left is a cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine.

/2

I'm just waking up from call. I'm exhausted and a little crusty.

Here is my rant...

For the last 2 years I have witnessed some of the most abhorrent behavior from both doctors and the public.

Medicine is not a competitive sport with teams. There are no points to be scored.
/1 On one side we have anti vaccine and anti public health hooliganism who outright reject science.

They are under the misconception that their beliefs hold the same weight as facts.

Their refusal to get vaccinated during the Delta wave cost lives.

/2

These outdated guidelines cost the lives of almost 300 young women a year in Canada.

Instead of inviting experts to ask question of @ChooseWiselyCA, the organization needs to do a proper review of current studies and listen to what the experts are telling them.

/1
#MedTwitter

https://twitter.com/ChooseWiselyCA/status/1572676551556337664

The Pan-Canadian study demonstrated a 40% reduction in mortality with screening mammography for women in their 40s.

/2
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25274578/

I'm wrapping up my afternoon/evening/overnight shift.

I know I promised that I wouldn't be giving anymore updates, but the hysteria on social media over dropping the mask mandate warrants a reality check.

/1
#COVID19 @HRHospital Over an 8 hour sample period 28 chest X-rays were taken in ER.

26 had no signs of COVID pneumonia.

1 had mild COVID pneumonia (although I did get some pushback on the diagnosis from the ER doc).

1 had a mild pneumonia that could be COVID.

Hardly a cresting wave of COVID.

/2

I'm happy to say that this will be my last #Omicron update.

/1
#COVID19 I read the ER and inpatient films from 11pm last night until 3:30pm today.

Of the 29 ER chest X-rays, only 1 had findings consistent with a COVID-19 pneumonia.

Amazing.

/2
#Omicron #COVID19

It's been 2 weeks since my last evening and overnight call and WOW, what a difference that short time makes in this fast moving Omicron wave.

Here are my observations.

/1
@HRHospital #Omicron #COVID19 First, let's talk numbers.

Far fewer patients were coming in with COVID related complaints and only 23 patients in my 8hrs sample got chest X-rays.

That's down from 40 patients/8hrs 2 weeks ago, and 50 patients/8hrs the week prior.

The crowd is thinning out.

/2

Just finished my call. Here are my handover notes.

#Omicron #COVID19 @HRHospital
/1 First, an observation. If you want to see what's actually going on in front of you, it's probably best to look through your eyes and not through your smart phone.

Social media tends to sensationalize the mundane and amplify voices with a particular point of view or agenda.

/2

These would be terrifying numbers if this was the Delta wave, but this is Omicron and that does make a difference.

So what's changed?

/1
#Omicron #COVID19
nationalpost.com/news/canada/on… Omicron is less severe. It tends to present as an upper respiratory tract infection as opposed to a pneumonia. The reason is related to the change in the spike protein and its ability to enter lung cells.

/2
upi.com/Top_News/US/20…

It's 5:45 in the morning and I'm coming up to the final few hours of my afternoon/evening/overnight shift. Things have changed since last week, and here's where we're at.

/1
#Omicron #COVID19 @HRHospital The first observation is that the ER team at my hospital are absolute heroes, and I don't say that lightly. They are taking the brunt of the Omicron wave both in terms of patient volume and exposure to the virus. They do all of this with calm professionalism.

/2

Thanks for looping me into the conversation @DFisman.

Trepidation by those who lobbied for school closures and further lockdowns, that their interpretation of the data may not be a true reflection of the clinical burden of the #Omicron variant, is understandable.

#Cdnpoli
/1

https://twitter.com/DFisman/status/1478370475038412805

So, let's review the situation locally, and see what the experts in the US and the UK are saying and doing.

/2

I've just finished up my afternoon, evening, and overnight call. Here are my observations.

My apologies, but this is going to be a long thread.

/1
#Omicron #OmicronVariant #COVID19 My heart dropped when I opened my 1st case yesterday. It was a covid pneumonia and I thought to myself, here we go again. The next case that I opened was completely normal, and the next one, and the next one, and so on. Occasionally another COVID pneumonia would pop up.

/2