Want to convince your local Public Health unit of the need for SARS2 protections?

I've saved you time with some language -- and sources -- you can crib.

Let's raise our voices for change and a healthy future for all.

🧵/1 **Protecting the population from communicable disease; specifically, SARS-CoV-2 is key.**

Areas where protection is urgently needed are in hospitals and medical facilities (including para-medical clinics), where masking should be a permanent requirement, ideally with N95s.

/2

Novavax XBB 1.5 Covid vaccine availability updates

(Check thread, ongoing updates)

🧵/1 Alberta opening XBB1.5 appointments Jan 3



/2

https://twitter.com/Albertadoctors/status/1742600633654575217

Dear Canadians,

Health Canada approved Novavax' XBB 1.5 vaccine on Dec 5 for 12+.

Most of Canada still can't access it.

Please contact your local pharmacy and request they stock it.

The information you'll need to share is in the next post(s).

🧵/1 Brand name: Nuvaxovid XBB 1.5

DIN: 02543656

Product monograph


Regulatory decision by Health Canada (Dec 5, 2023)


/2covid-vaccine.canada.ca/info/pdf/nuvax…
dhpp.hpfb-dgpsa.ca/review-documen…

What if people who aren’t cautious about Covid are just…wrong?

DSM 6, here comes a new diagnosis: Oppositional reality disorder.

You might be affected if four or more of the following apply and cause impairments in multiple settings.

🧵/1 Oppositional reality disorder

(1) A pervasive pattern of ignoring objective reality

(2) Engaging in behaviours known to harm self and others

(3) Lashing out at shared evidence

(4) Cognitive distortions, including extreme compartmentalization, to avoid reality

/2

I had a disturbing conversation this evening with a friend of 20 years.

This is someone hyper rational who has a terminal degree in a quant field.

Someone whose progressive credentials would usually put me to shame any day of the week.

🧵/1 @awsparling And there is some lingering resentment about being given less commingled with a subtle shame about that avoidance.

There is a lot of misinformation circulating about the role of “shame” in public health messaging.

What works in eliciting behaviour change?

Educating others about downstream impacts to others and introducing moral dimension to compliance.

Some literature follows. 🧵

/1 Bonding with others and taking their perspective (inter subjective empathy) during stressful events leads to increased behavioural compliance.

The healthy (and effective) cousin of shame is prosocial cuing before a target behaviour.

/2

Governments respond to new challenges reactively.

Expect this pattern. 🧵

/1 1. Resource depletion (labour)

2. Mobilize excluded resources (child labour)

3. Structural productivity depletion

4. Critical mass of disabled *workers* (~20%)

5. Heroic investments in therapeutics

6. Rallying communication about risk

7. Prevention finally adopted

/2

I thought I’d share a little personal year-end practice from our family. Hopefully it can bring you happiness and deep connections, too!

🧵

/1 Therapy related to attachment often includes an activity that involves imagining an ideal parent.

I believe this tool isn’t just reparative for past attachment injury, but can also be a powerful avenue to become the best parents we can be for our own children, now.

/2

Happy story: we can change minds on masking. 🧵

Scenario: Getting a flu shot at the local pharmacy. Pharmacist and our group are masked.

/1 Young dad walks in, unmasked. I overhear that he has a sick toddler at home and is trying to select an analgesic with the pharmacist.

I tell him I hope his little one feels better soon.

Dad tells me he has 3 kids - all sick continuously for over a month. He was just sick.

/2

Dear friends and followers: an update.

I'm going to be broadening the focus of my commentary beyond primarily Covid to include societal issues related to democracy.

Here's why and how it can benefit you.

/1 The strategy around Covid isn't gaining traction without the support of a broad swath of the population.

We know what works:

1. Masks (#N95-type+ best)
2. Staying up to date on vaccination
3. Isolating when sick
4. Testing to exit isolation
5. Reducing indoor contacts

/2

A reminder: Covid protections have featured nowhere in the bargaining positions of either CUPE or the Government of Ontario.

You should be wondering why.

#BringBackMasks
#Ventilate2Educate Anyone who claims to care about students - and doesn’t protect them from potentially disabling illness - is full of it.

Gentlemen, if you don't wear masks in public, I assume you're flaccid.

#BigMaskEnergy uu4ve.org

Vinay Prasad North.

Is Zainay a doctor or political aspirant? Look who supported Zain Chagla’s zany comment: the president of Canada’s Airport Council.

“I’m super cautious but…”

A 🧵of cognitive dissonance on unmasking.

All anecdotes are sanitized composites to protect identities.

#MasksSaveBrains
#N95sForAll

/1 “My family is super cautious. We wear N95s everywhere. But on weekends, my kid plays travel hockey and is unmasked while playing.”

/2

Faith is no substitute for reason or evidence.

#CovidIsNotOver /2

Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health calculates Covid transmission risk based on the parameters of the setting:

covid-19.forhealth.org/covid-19-trans…

I have just filed a request for the Ontario Human Rights Commission to initiate a public interest inquiry into the dangers presented by a removal of Covid-19 protections.

A copy of my letter is below. 🧵

To file a similar request, contact legal@ohrc.on.ca

1/19 Dear OHRC team,

As you are no doubt aware, Ontario has recently revised its public health guidance regarding protections for the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

/2

CMOH Kieran Moore wants you dead.

#Necrosecurity
#DrDeath H/t @DFisman for putting me onto the term “necrosecurity”.