Please @MerrimanPaul, fund this gene therapy. A million dollars for a lifetime of sight is the compassionate community support that Sask people are known for.

Why do *I* care? let me tell you...
saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/sask-mom-says-… I've been teaching about this particular gene therapy since 2011 when it was in clinical trials. Showing my class how a dog with this mutation had sight restored as it navigates a maze.

Canada provincial covid deaths per 100k. Saskatchewan is without comparators in how high the death rate has been. Also, in being the only province that doesn't report stats to Health Canada anymore. Fake news? Go grab the data yourself. First, take the weekly deaths from here: saskatchewan.ca/government/new…

What do antivaxxers and dog shit have in common? Let's go down the rabbithole...

It all started with this comic. It made me laugh & made me think: "Dogs must be confused why we do that. Wait... why do we do that?"

When I was a kid, there was dog shit everywhere. Walking to school? Playing in a park? Walking downtown to go for a nice dinner? Step. In. Fucking. Dog. Shit.

Who benefits from this anti-science propaganda?
Who funds it?

FYI: It's reliably documented by intelligence agencies that foreign countries (including Russia & China) have been actively working to destabilize western democracies with propaganda & disinformation about vaccines. theguardian.com/us-news/live/2…

What's your hypothesis? If Saskatchewan's cases have really dropped 45%, do you think vaccinated & unvaccinated cases... If you chose "go down similarly" you are probably assuming that Vax & Unvax proportionally see changes in exposure, infection & testing at similar rates. This is smart, as this exact trend was seen on the upswing. More cases = more exposures for everyone & even more cases.

Look at all those unmasked faces at Moe's "State of the Province" address. Moe calls the fourth wave "very tough". I think the family members of the couple hundred deceased victims and several hundred hospitalized family members, including a few dozen children, would agree. It's been tough. Very tough.

Want your Saskatchewan covid update? Everything is terrible and getting worse by the hour. That's your update. People are dying of covid in this province at a rate not seen since the height of the third wave and it's going to get significantly worse before it gets better.

Finally getting to today's conference. I'm only 30 minutes in, but so far I've heard Moe & Shahab blame everyone but themselves. They blame the young, the north, rural towns, & the information they had... they paint themselves as victims, just trying to appease everyone. Now they're blaming *our* complacency. WTF? It was Shahab & Moe who cancelled the public health order. They could have relaxed everything, but kept it in place. Then isolation would still be required & enforceable. It would have prevented workforce & resource loss in test & trace

We did it, everyone! 506 cases!

https://twitter.com/DrKyle/status/1429670112362180609

Something new, we're reporting under-12 cases FINALLY!

And Moe's live! fb.watch/7Xipu390VG/ Moe tells people to get vaccinated and that the data shows vaccines work. Now's he's going to tell people about the risks to them and that now they are risking everyone else's health (children, healthcare system)

So much incompetence from Saskatchewan's Health Minister to unpack here, where should I begin? (1/8) cjme.com/2021/08/10/hea… Rising numbers actually tell us that the current vaccination level + behaviours of people to reduce transmissions are not sufficient to prevent Delta from spreading. Rt>1

(1/12) The purpose of vaccine passports is primarily to protect the unvaccinated from getting sick and dying. It's saying, "We aren't at herd immunity yet. If you can't or won't be vaccinated, this place is too risky for you." The purpose of vaccine passports is to allow

https://twitter.com/MMandryk/status/1424132469347917824

fully vaccinated people to return to more normal lives. Is everyone in the picture fully vaccinated? I'm quite certain they are.

If everyone got vaccinated, except for people who medically can't, covid would be unable to spread effectively. Then we wouldn't need passports for

I'm starting to think about herd immunity more and more & if Sask can get there with our level of vaccine hesitancy. There is a definite plateau in the 80+ and 70-79 age groups around 87% uptake. As we get to younger ages, this will get even lower. Another way to see the vaccine denial in action is when the # of vaccines administered per day begins to drop. Because of daily fluctuations there are a 7-day average. You can see that even though only 67% of 60-69's are vaccinated now, their uptake started to dwindle 4 days ago.

Total identified Variants of Concern in Saskatchewan. Feb 2nd to March 18th.

(those who fail to learn the lessons of exponential growth are doomed to repeat them) What's the difference between presumptive and confirmed? Here's an analogy to understand:
You work at the phonebook factory. It's your job to check that they were printed correctly. Some may have errors, some not, some might be duplicates w/ the same error, some w/ new errors.

If a Variant of Concern (VoC) is going to be really sneaking up on us, here's a prime situation:
- delayed testing so our information is weeks old
- low numbers of variant testing
- an overall Rt close to 1
- a population with covid fatigue
- loosening restrictions
Here's why 🧵 Delayed testing: We can have secondary infections 5 days from a first infection. A three week delay? That's 4 generations of spread. If our results are that old, we could be really underestimating the number of variants. Knowing the lag is important for gauging the risks.

An expert panel had released a set of guidelines for enhancing COVID testing. This thread is my "Hey Sask, we should do this" set of screenshots with context.

https://twitter.com/DennisKendel/status/1350213253255688193

We need better testing communication. Both wait times to get tested and how long it takes for results. In SK we are undertesting and reducing testing barriers by informing the public could improve test rates.

Only in Saskatchewan will they show us a flawed model where people following guidelines (blue) have higher initial case rates than people ignoring them (red). I expect it's because the initial value for case prevalence put into the 2 models was different & higher in the blue. This model is still informative as it uses the current measures and is looking at compliance. With high compliance our daily numbers go up by 20% over 30 days. With low compliance they go up 400%. From Christmas to today they've increased about 200% so our compliance must be low.

Saskatchewan’s COVID burden is improving, but provincial numbers don’t tell the whole story. For instance - sizeable drops in urban areas hide increasing case rates in small towns. This thread is a deeper dive into all 32 regions and five age groups to inform your holiday plans. Not everyone will make the safest choice, but the better informed you are, the SAFER your choices will be. Before I get to the numbers I’ll remind you of this: Most spread across Canada right now is in private home gatherings.

The New COVID-19 Variant, explained for curious kids and twitterers.

Imagine the virus in the book "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". Think of the book cover (pictures and words) as the "spike" on the outside of the virus. It's what grabs hold of you so you'll read it. When you have covid, your body learns to recognize the virus the same way you could remember the book. The cover could remind you of the story, or the phrase "papa bear, mama bear and baby bear" or even "this porridge is too hot" would also remind you of the entire story.

I let my 2nd year biomedical undergrads ask me questions about covid-19. I figured other people might want to see some longer-format answers. It's 75 minutes, but I made up an index if you're curious.
Start: risk of consequences of a rushed vaccine
6:20: What is incidence of infection
10:00: What are the different types of covid tests and how do they work
22:10: Origins of the virus, new strains and transmission to mink
32:40: Where do I get my reputable information - how science works

Saskatchewan's missing recoveries? - A COVID Conspiracy debunked before the crazies get to it.

Arm yourself with information, friends. SK’s active cases are higher than what’s being reported & I’ll tell you why it’s a sign of health system overload, not a nefarious plot. How do recoveries get counted? Public health does a follow-up call and determines by interviews if you’re recovered. Seems simple, right? Except it takes human resources & those are limited as the pandemic gets out of control.