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Tom Jackman Profile picture
Tom Jackman
@frozen
Dad, ally, and keeper of receipts. Former archivist. #pwME since 2004. #LongCovid since 2020. ❤️≠endorsement. 🇨🇦
Jan 23, 2024 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Today, Dr. Jennifer Grant of the @CDCofBC was unambiguous about her desire to have kids in classrooms no matter the health risks to them or their families:

"And we should commit that our children will go to school come hell or high water."

She said the quiet part loud. Everyone wants kids to be in school and be safe. But what Dr. Grant seemed to be saying is that society should commit to keeping schools open no matter the objective risks to kids.

She's saying the cost of disabling some kids is worth the price of always having schools open.
May 6, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Dr. Patricia Daly, a Canadian public health official, said yesterday that "COVID-19 is a coronavirus that causes cold-like symptoms in people," and that the risk "of experiencing severe illness or death is probably about the same" as it is for a cold.

This is strikingly wrong. Either Dr. Daly was lying, or she is horribly misinformed on current matters of public health.

Vastly greater numbers of people (including vaccinated people) are still dying from COVID every week than die from common cold viruses. This fact isn't debatable.
May 1, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
BC Health Minister Adrian Dix and Dr. Henry abandoned the frail—intentionally.

When asked why his government refuses to protect the vulnerable by requiring simply tools like masks in healthcare settings, @adriandix could only deny reality.

But the record speaks for itself. @adriandix And what's more, Dix and Henry abandoned the frail while knowing that it's the vulnerable who die from this; there is no confusion on this point.

Hospitals outbreaks and LTC home outbreaks are a policy choice. Not inevitable. A policy choice.
Mar 9, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Almost 2 years ago, a notorious Canadian public health official was asked about the threat of #LongCovid. Dr. Henry admitted she didn't have a good understanding of the condition, and that her teams weren't even trying to track it by following patient trajectories. The reporter then explained to Dr. Henry how this virus, in addition to being a killer, was turning into a mass disabling event. She asked if there was a plan to inform the public on this critical public health issue.
Jan 12, 2023 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
I want to talk about memory and mythmaking. In early March 2020, Canada's covid response was lagging. Borders weren't closed, events weren't cancelled, and the public was mostly trying to ignore the virus. Then one day, a health official named Dr. Bonnie Henry cried on live TV. It's not an overstatement to say that this tearful moment made Henry a national and international celebrity. Designer shoes were made, songs written, and catchphrases created. A couple of months later, the NYT would label her "The Top Doctor Who Aced the Coronavirus Test."
Jan 4, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
"Yes, we're seeing lots of people needing hospital care, but that's because lots of people are being infected."
- Dr. Bonnie Henry, Jan. 3, 2023

She genuinely considers this a reason NOT to worry about XBB 1.5. Speechless. I'm trying to wrap my head around why a public health official would think it better for a virus to be more transmissible and less deadly, than for it to be less transmissible and more deadly. In the former case, more people could die and be sick and stress the hospital system.
Sep 14, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Dr. Henry and colleagues just released a study showing that by August 2022, about 80% of BC's kids had had covid.

These officials told us schools were safe and masks unneeded...then proceeded to make schools unsafe and masks even more needed.

Kids, as usual, suffered. If you're trying to get caught up, here's a short timeline of what Dr. Henry and other public health officials in BC claimed re: covid transmission among kids in schools.

Jan. 2022: Schools are the best and safest place!
Sep 12, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
So the BC Centre for Disease Control is telling people to protect their lungs from smoke by wearing N95s, but the BC Centre for Disease Control is also telling people not to protect their lungs from SARS2/covid by wearing N95s? Do I have that correct? This isn't hard. Nothing but an anti-mask leadership bias is preventing the @CDCofBC from telling people they should wear quality masks (N95 or equivalent) wherever they gather indoors with people outside of their household. They don't have to lead with the "personal choice" bs.
Apr 30, 2022 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
A story about ME.

In the late winter of 2004, I caught a nasty virus—perhaps SARS-CoV, perhaps not—and since then my life has been a series of shrinking options and forced limits. Take too many steps? Bed. Cook a meal? Bed. Mental stress? Bed. Hangout? Bed. Enjoy the beach? Bed. In 2011, I was diagnosed with Myalgic Encencephalomyelitis—ME—but not before the push-crash cycle left me unable to work, unable to lead a normal life. PEM, a racing pulse, breathlessness, sleep disorders, OI, heat/cold/sound/light sensitivities—sounds fun, right?!
#pwME
Apr 29, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
As more people die daily from covid, hospitals become overwhelmed, and many—including young kids who have barely known life—are left disabled by chronic illness, it's worth reflecting that last month a seasoned public health official told us to "sing together without masks on." Future historians will have a difficult time explaining such displays of insouciance by health officials and politicians tasked with protecting us from a world-wrecking airborne pathogen. I certainly have trouble explaining this moment to myself.
Apr 26, 2022 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
A day in Canadian healthcare.

Last November, I experienced a sudden onset of unexplained tremors (internal and external). I'm 42. I contacted my GP, who told me to wait and see. 6 weeks later, the tremors continued to worsen, and my GP made a referral to a neurologist. 3mo. later, no neuro appointment received, I followed up. My GP said she would expedite the appointment, and order an MRI. She also said she would see me in her office to take a look. After much back-and-forth with the scheduler, I was finally able to book an in-person appt.
Apr 24, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
In April 2022, the only person in the photo smart enough to wear a respirator, @adriandix, is also a key member of a BC government that tells people not to bother wearing a mask in most settings, let alone an N95.

I don't even know what to say. Hypocrisy thy name is Dix. I suppose we should be happy he wears any sort of mask at all, when his pandemic partner—Dr. Bonnie Henry—is content to go maskless as she traipses around the awards circuit (while crudely preventing actual frontline healthcare workers from wearing N95s).
Mar 1, 2022 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
There are rumours that BC may be about to drop some pandemic safety measures, so here's a short thread, using Dr. Bonnie Henry's words, about why that would be a bad idea at this time.
#bcpoli #cdnpoli First and most importantly, we don't actually know what comes next. As Dr. Henry says, we're in a bit of a tricky place, because immunity from vaccination is waning, and there is strong evolutionary pressure on the virus to become more transmissible and cause more severe illness.
Feb 5, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
From a non-Twitter friend:

"Please understand that 'living with the virus' in Canada means a permanent and significant drop in life expectancy—we are effectively no longer able to either diagnose or treat cancer, heart disease, or any of the other ailments which bedevil mankind. My partner has been waiting for an MRI for months; it just keeps getting pushed back and back and back and there's no end and no hope in sight.
Nov 30, 2021 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
They spent a week getting the cameras ready for our PHO. We now know the reason for the delayed pediatric vaccine rollout.

Disgusting.

This is how things are done in BC.
#bcpoli #bced I'm honestly speechless that these resources were wasted on enhancing Dr. Henry's image.

A few months ago she was arguing that it was ok to allow kids to be infected, and now wants to be seen as the benevolent bringer of child vaccines? I don't think so, doctor!
Nov 5, 2021 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
The thing is, it's not as though BC's "gold standard" PCR testing program is any more well run or accessible. I needed to book a test in @VanIslandHealth today, and was greeted with this message.
#bcpoli #bced If you are smart enough to know that you don't need to speak to a doctor before booking a test, you are asked some questions by a Service BC rep. You are then placed in a voicemail box where you can ask for a callback from an Island Health nurse.
Oct 12, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Nearly two years into this pandemic, BC's Deputy PHO, Dr. Gustafson, refuses to admit that airborne transmission is the PRIMARY mode of transmission for COVID-19, and that ventilation plays a key role in reducing transmission.

This is unacceptable.

Cc.
@caruzycki @DavidElfstrom