This woman’s only known diagnoses are autism and ADHD. She was assessed for MAiD 4 times by 5 doctors and now has been given approval.

https://twitter.com/trudolemmens/status/1772347090586206406

This is a really concerning situation. She stated her death was “reasonably foreseeable” but was approved for Track 2. From a previous story: cbc.ca/news/canada/ca…

“Now that we’re post-pandemic…” ❌


1/ salon.com/2024/01/04/lea…
“Now that Covid is over…” ❌


2/ today.com/health/news/co…

I’ve had a lot followers over the past few months make some variation of the comment, “I appreciate your work on Covid but you are wrong about supporting Palestine.” Let me be clear again: I support Palestine for the same reasons I fight for Covid protections. 1/ Captialist/colonialist forces (which are inherently interlinked) push us to view the elimination of certain people as necessary to our collective survival, when it is really that it is necessary for capitalism and the hegemonic colonial powers’ survival 2/

This needs to be emphasized that 1/3 of the experts didn’t see *Fake Study, Hanlen et al 2022* as a 🚩LOL. Many folks, in medicine especially, base their understanding of emerging issues on rapid/syst reviews and the interpretations of the literature by rapid review authors. 1/

https://twitter.com/danwalker9999/status/1753806262045704489

Another good example of the concern with systematic reviews is the infamous Cochrane Review on N95s where several researchers have noted that the conclusions did not reflect the available evidence 2/scientificamerican.com/article/masks-…

I'm on a break from my Twitter break as I was informed of statements made on behalf of the Corsi Rosenthal Foundation that need to be addressed. I have sent a direct email outlining my concerns but will make some general statements here: 1/ Throughout the pandemic, institutional power structures have stymied efforts to protect the most vulnerable and to address the key issues that continue to worsen and prolong C*vid worldwide. People trying to maintain power and cover their negligence have doomed us all 2/

So @NukitToBeSure sent me the new TEMPEST next-gen CR box to try out and I'm pretty excited about it. It's a fully metal(!) frame for use with ArcticP14 PC fans and 2" thick 20x20" MERV13 filters and my husband described it as "the most beautiful air purifier I've ever seen." 1/ It's very straight forward to assemble and I was able to do so having forgotten I was sent the instructions 😂. It's got a lot of details that help like the "UP" cutouts! One of my favourite parts are the carrying handles and hand screws for easy filter replacement 2/

So today I realized that a lot of people think avoiding COVID is a “quirky difference” and that’s why they are so insufferably patronizing about it. Like that when the whole, “you do you” thing happened, we chose, “Be weirdly hung up on a thing that isn’t a big deal for fun” “Oh wow you’re still doing that? We see that different, unique lifestyle that you’re doing. You go, girl!” They don’t see that it’s about adaptation, survival and solidarity.

It’s such a cool and fun yearly winter tradition we now have to blame all the serious infections on the prior year’s lack of infections after we blamed that year’s serious infections on the pr Every year now:
Sept: “We’re going to have a NORMAL year this year despite doing nothing!”
October: “Ok, ‘beginning of the year sickness’ is done. Now we’ll be normal!”
November: “Still sick but paying off that immunity debt!”
December: “Damn still sick but masks don’t work!”

I've talked a lot about my role as a patient advocate recently and what I learned about the ways in which doctors and patients interact. I've had the privilege to work in situations where I was able to facilitate the building and rebuilding of good patient-doctor partnerships 1/ I became involved in some situations where I would say there was a breakdown in patient-doctor relationship; doctor viewed patient as "non-compliant" while patient+family viewed doctor as harmful and unwilling to address their needs. Everyone would gather with shields up 2/

Places that are doing IPAC better than hospitals:
- my tattoo artist’s studio
- my massage therapist’s clinic
- my dentist’s office
- my house

https://twitter.com/babiejenks/status/1703596159195832807

- my mom when she gets together with her friends
- the pharmacy near us
- the hairdresser my friend goes to
- several kids I know when they’re at school

You order a coffee and they hand it to you in this.
You: Uhhh do you not have coffee cups?
Them: This is just as good.
You: It’s burning my hand though and it’s spilling.
Them: It holds coffee, doesn’t it?
You: But there’s a cup designed for this that is insulated and has a lid!

https://twitter.com/ann_mcnitt/status/1703101943206252668

You: Ok can I use my own travel mug?
Them: No we don’t allow the use of outside cups at our coffee shop because we don’t know if they’re designed for coffee
You: But the cup you gave me isn’t designed for coffee
Them: We’ve determined it’s good enough and cost-effective

So one of the things I’ve learned is to identify which people are experts at what stuff because a lot of experts who comment on stuff are not qualified to do so!
Virologists =/= experts on the immune system
OHS managers =/= experts on Covid transmission
Doctors =/= experts on PPE So when someone in the news is quoted as “an expert” or someone is listed as a “subject matter expert,” it’s important to be critical of their expertise, as it may not be in the topic they are speaking to with the title of “expert”

Public health experts and doctors don’t use ghoulish eugenicist rhetoric challenge If you talk about vulnerable people being left by the wayside, decanted, culled, removed, etc in any context that isn’t being completely clear about that being bad, and especially if you state it as an outcome of policy for which you are responsible, you get a eugenicist warning

I don't know how we can convince people to care about covid and climate change if they're stepping over dead, burnt bodies to swim in the ocean where other people died in Maui. I know this is less positive than I usually am but I have concerns! The gravity of suffering everywhere seems like it is impossible to ignore, but people are doing it. There is a vast chasm and widening chasm between those who acknowledge and see the pain and those who decide not to.

So I got around to doing qualitative fit tests on some new respirators and have some results. 🧵

(Attn! If you wear one of these respirators on the regular, do not freak out if they didn't pass on me. Everyone's face is different and bifold respirators don't work well for me) Reminder: this is my qualitative fit test kit set up. For this test, I used the 3M FT-12 Sweet Testing Solution rather than the Bitter.

https://twitter.com/amandalhu/status/1523404696400003072?s=20

Y’know, I have to say, when I tell regular people that a superintendent at a major school board in Alberta, who is also a licensed engineer said, “It would be better to burn the money than buy air purifiers for our schools” it really makes it clear that I am not the weird one Or when I tell people that a superintendent at different major school board in Alberta complained that ASHRAE is a shill for “big filter” and that air purifiers are a conspiracy and therefore would not allow them

So a dear anti-infection friend and her family made the trek out to see their beloved gran last week after missing “the big family reunion” due to lack of safety measures. They were super apprehensive bc another family member told them gran was angry at them for missing it 1/ Their gran had been the one to introduce N95s to *them* but they’d heard she’d relaxed and were really worried they were going to get the pressure due to missing the reunion. They were also told the cousins are all living “normal” life and judging them. 2/

My spouse helped me realize something about "risk assessment" and my confusion about why we all approach it differently. I said, "When I think risk assessment I think about climbing: redundancies, multiple tools, if risk increases due to environmental factors, change the plan" 1/ "If you're feeling tired or lower capacity but still want to do it, you go to the gym instead of crag or choose an easier route. You don't go on the hard route and just not bring/use any gear bc it's a hassle and you're tired. It doesn't take the actual risks into account" 2/

I exist in the liminal space between:
“Don’t post pics of maskless stuff on Twitter”
and
“Let’s foster a movement to address one of the biggest challenges of our time and not waste our energy getting angry at each person individually every time they don’t wear a mask” But I’m not going to tell anyone how to feel. Our feelings are a culmination of the constant betrayal and systemic abandonment happening around us, and how that disproportionately affects some people more than others. These are valid.

Lol my husband quit his job after being forced back into office in 2021. He got a new job that was full remote, became the lead of their new product within 3 months, is the most liked person at the company, and built our bike shed and two new decks during his lunch hours.

https://twitter.com/flow_witme/status/1669886868278616086

He meets his coworker who lives in our neighborhood for lunch. We go for bike rides and he runs several times a week midday. I also do remote contract work so we can easily switch back and forth with our kid’s care tasks based on who has a meeting or time-sensitive work thing

One of the weirdest phenomenons of the pandemic has definitely been infectious disease doctors proclaiming “this infectious disease is here forever” as if that’s a good thing and not a huge fail on their parts.

https://twitter.com/bogochisaac/status/1670049643651031041

Also infectious disease doctors that treat COVID unlike every other infectious disease: as a reality we can do little about so we have to ride the waves, as opposed to a thing we should be working diligently to reduce