Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH @FurnessColin Twitter profile

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

2 years

Public Health leadership has switched from protecting health to pacifying the public by minimizing knowledge. It's appalling, IMO. To a large degree, mainstream media has gone right along with it. Also appalling, IMO. 2/14

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

A word on the idiocy known as "immunity debt". How did such a nonsensical idea take hold? Simple. The obvious mental model for our immune system is a muscle: use it or lose it. Muscles atrophy when we don't use them. The same mental model works for our memories & skills. 1/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Parents, please hear me. Please. Pediatric hospitals are in an unprecedented capacity crisis. Possibly on the verge of avoidable child deaths. Please don't let your kids share indoor air w/ others tonight. Just don't. Extra candy, extra love. No parties. Why? 1/3

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

This Thanksgiving is different from the past two under COVID. 1. This year, the virus is way more prevalent, AND more way more immune escaping (from vax as well as past infection). 2. This year, our hospitals are overwhelmed for those unlucky enough to become very ill. 1/8

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

I've been asked a lot recently about fall school masking plans for my kids. (I should have posted sooner but I needed Twitter down time.) The short answer is that mask strategy hasn't changed, and that schools are unquestionably more dangerous than this time last year. 1/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

I've been brought to tears a few times in this pandemic. Happened again - but in a happy way today: nearly all the kids at school were wearing their masks. No trucks, horns, or flags. Just parents who care about community & child safety, and aren't fooled by #drfordmoore .

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

Why are cases rising in Ontario? Three simple answers: 1. We are using droplet precautions for an airborne pathogen. 2. Mask diligence is dropping sharply. 3. #2 is worsened by inappropriate political messaging that we're pretty much safe, including allowing full stadiums.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

Because of health risk factors (self or close others), very many people will to NEED to wear an N95 mask when Ontario decides that everybody else no longer does. That's why I'm going to keep wearing one while Omicron is prevalent: this minor nuisance keeps people safer. 4/4

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

I strongly object to @patrickbrownont campaign to unmask kids at school. We've had record hospitalization of <5 kids with Omicron, and it's still high. Very low vax rate among their older siblings. I dislike masks on kids, yes. But I really hate Long COVID in kids. Clear choice.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

1 year

I avoid indoor dining in restaurants that don't aggressively manage air quality. Which is nearly every restaurant. But not all! I finally managed to get to Mississauga to visit Franz's @ApricotTreeCaf1 . HEPA filters are foregrounded! But something else really surprised me...

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

People are literally training COVID if they share indoor air without a mask while ignoring child hospitalization, and using "immunity debt" as strong justification for both. COVID trainers are a majority of the people with whom I interact. I sure wish that would change. 19/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

I've been studying the BC COVID seroprevalence study, co-authored by Bonnie Henry, who until recently had insisted that schools were safe. And now we know that most children (more than adults) have been infected. It's presented as good news: robust "hybrid immunity!!" 1/17

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

As my colleagues and students already know, I contracted COVID-19 last week. It was from someone who visited my home for a few hours immediately before developing severe symptoms themselves. There was masking and HEPA filters, but clearly not enough of each. In fact ... 1/8

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

It's been obvious that CMOH Kieran Moore has very low regard for COVID safety measures. However, yesterday he violated the federal Quarantine Act by appearing unmasked within 14 days of returning from his Caribbean vacation. I demand he be charged; he's NOT above the law. 1/2

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

1 year

What is going to happen with COVID this fall? Well, here's a worried thread ... First, I do not believe we are seeing anything seasonal about COVID at all. Wastewater signals were elevated but not climbing all summer. Hot weather and being outdoors helped a bit, I'm sure. 1/15

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Either way, having contracted COVID-19 will NOT be license for me to go maskless or engage in risky behaviour. Quite the opposite, in fact. Now I need to double down to avoid reinfection, because of the clear risk of cumulative harm. I'll provide an update in a few days. 8/8

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

So it shouldn't be surprising that a satisfying narrative emerges, using this same mental model, while simultaneously vilifying lock-downs and masks, which nobody liked anyway. But here's the thing. The immune system isn't anything like a muscle. It's a photo collection. 2/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

So let's circle back to the sudden rise in child hospitalizations for non-COVID illness. This can't be explained by "immunity debt" nor the tooth fairy, because neither exist. But it **CAN** be explained by immunity robbery, which we know DOES exist. 13/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

10 months

An expansive musing thread on mask non-use, which I am now calling "mask akinesia". Every class I teach, I walk in with my mask and my Aranet4 CO2 detector, to measure air quality. I'm lucky: the rooms I teach in are always below 800ppm and often below 700ppm. 1/20

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

I am making public the letter I sent to @TOPublicHealth today, asking for school intervention. It's a targeted ask to recognize the risk to 1.1 million wholly unvaccinated children in Ontario next week. It's not the only need, but it's the scariest.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Today in ON, ~20,000 kids needlessly contracted a vascular and neurotropic virus. Life altering for some. If your MPP is Conservative, they helped cause this. On June 2, please ask yourself what's more important: your kids or your truck? That's what this election is about.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

What do we have today? A ton of unexplained child illness in the first cold/flu season since we let COVID rip. Hmm. We have known since 2020 that COVID harms interferon production, a protein that your cells release to call the immune system for help when they are attacked. 8/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

It was discovered through epidemiological data: people who recovered from Measles tended to THEN get all kinds of diseases they shouldn't get. Nobody suspected Measles was erasing immunity, until we had these data that couldn't be explained away. 7/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Making sense of Ontario CMOH Moore's complacency about rapid spread of COVID in schools and elsewhere. A thread. There are two ways to understand COVID: 1. "It's only a respiratory virus, and if we can keep people out of the ICU, it's a win. Wear a mask if you want." 1/7

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

In 2008, I watched my infant son in the Sick Kids ER struggling to breathe. It was terrifying. Recalling it now is still upsetting. There was a bed for him, and his immune system wasn't damaged. Don't count on either of these today. Please keep Halloween outside this year. 3/3

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Photo collections don't fade just because we don't look at them. They sit until they're needed. Our immune system uses its "photo collection" to recognize pathogens we have encountered before. And new mugshots get made whenever a new intruder is identified. 3/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

Here's something positive. Yesterday's walk yielded a first for me: a rare red trillium. It can take a 10+ years for this plant to produce its first flower. I know what you're thinking: surely this sign portends the end of @fordnation . I agree! Better days ahead.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Now comes the unpleasant part of the thread. COVID is evolving to be more successful in evading our immune responses because we aren't masking or improving indoor air quality. 17/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

But that's not the only possible strategy: you can also trash the photo collection itself, so your intended victims won't recognize you. In 2015, it was discovered that Measles does this. It literally erases immune memory. It fades those photos. How was that discovered? 6/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

The data make it really plain what is happening. COVID infection is impairing immune system function in some kids for ~8 months. MANY kids have had COVID in the last 8 months. Then they get RSV or Influenza by sharing air, and their tiny bodies are simply overwhelmed. 2/3

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

But it's better understood as a horror show, IMO. First, parents didn't consent to this, they were actively misled. Second, immunity to COVID is temporary, but some Long COVID symptoms, like diabetes and death, aren't. Hybrid immunity is a lousy deal. 2/17

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

We have also known for quite some time that when COVID explodes one of your cells, it can trick your immune system into attacking debris that belongs to you, rather than it. That's autoimmune disease. 9/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Been asked if I'm leaving Twitter. True that I'm disgusted with Musk. But if vital COVID scientific discourse/public communication here stops, then we're much worse off. If there develops a different place for it, then we'd be better off. So, status quo for the foreseeable.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

True story about lifting mask mandates, although it sounds like one of my demented COVID nightmares. A colleague is at a conference in California last week, everybody masked, feels safe. Then, mid-conference, California lifts its mask mandate. The next day ... 1/4

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

In some people, that triggers a LOT of inflammation, which then causes immune system exhaustion. What happens when your immune system gets exhausted from attacking your own body? You stop producing enough T-cells and antibodies to deal with COVID. 10/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

The ON announcement that Shoppers Drug Mart will welcome symptomatic people for COVID testing is uncommonly stupid, even for @fordnation . But it does have a clear upside: You and I can easily avoid this Cluster-F by not going anywhere near it.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

I'd be thrilled to have this all wrong, tbh. Because if I'm right, we may soon start to see child deaths that would be preventable if we had the healthcare capacity to treat them. That's horrible beyond words. 16/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

One more time for the benefit of Mr. Ford: the current B117 wave was spawned by travel from the UK in Nov/Dec. That's exactly the time period when you were demanding that the federal government *loosen* quarantine/travel restrictions. Grow up. Take responsibility. Resign.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

For all the parents asking if kids should bother wearing masks, I hope this thread is informative. The answer is ... yes. Respirator (eg N95 masks) inside, & lunch outside. HEPA filters. Isolating for 10 days after symptom onset. All the things we're being told NOT to do. 16/17

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Eventually as we age, those photos do get wrinkly, like the rest of our bodies, and don't work as well. But they don't fade in kids. So what's happening with child hospitalizations for non-COVID illness? Well, pretend you're a virus, and let's call you ... COVID ... 4/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

That evolution has caused weakening vaccine effectiveness, weakening drug treatment effectiveness, and it may well also include an improvement in COVID's immune suppression capacity. Darwin would say that's almost certainly what is happening, and I'm betting on Darwin. 18/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

It will settle down because those infections are happening right now en masse. However, if COVID is causing immunity harm, and COVID continues to reinfect, then we will see a steady state, or an increase in severely ill children. 15/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

Why yes, my kids ARE going to continue to wear N95 masks to school, and for a very good reason, too. COVID isn't a respiratory disease. It's a vascular and neurotropic disease. Cognitive impairment can't even be properly assessed in young kids, btw.

1 in 4 symptomatic children hit by long COVID, says new study

Data from more than 80,000 children with COVID suggests a quarter of them had symptoms that lingered for at least 4-12 weeks.

www.euronews.com

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Your job is to invade, infect, and transmit. Vaccination has made your job harder because your intended victims already have your photo and their immune response is ready. So you mutate to change your appearance. The more you mutate, the less you look like your mugshot. 5/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

But I feel certain we will continue to learn the mechanisms by which COVID hobbles the immune system. It will take some time, this is incredibly complicated science. Maybe a few years. I just don't think we should continue to deny this until then. 12/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Because the new drum beat is "getting COVID is good for you", but the science doesn't back that up. At all. Just like it didn't back up the dangerous fiction that COVID magically doesn't circulate at school. 6/17

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Brain infection, microclotting, lung scarring, infertility, diabetes - none of these are good for our kids, and these may get more prevalent with reinfection. On the other hand, masking may cause acne. 14/17

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

I’m an infection control epidemiologist and professor of information & knowledge management. My kids will get vaccinated the first chance possible. I thank every colleague who has posted this same sentiment, and whose example I am privileged to follow.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

It would be one thing if we prevented mask mandates in schools because we didn't know what the virus does to our bodies. But we DO know. Preventing mask mandates in schools is purely a political/ideological move. I refuse to accept this. 7/7

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

So what happens next? The whole room turns and stares at him. He doesn't budge, but the social and professional pressure must have been unspeakable. If this were a sitcom, it would be funny. But this is real. And troubling. Really troubling. 3/4

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

The new horror in this pandemic is letting people think that reinfection is no big deal. I believe the opposite is actually most likely, that cumulative harm (e.g, lung scars, brain tissue loss) will increase, not decrease, with each successive reinfection. 15/17

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

When I advocated for safety for essential retail & service & transit workers, I was mostly ignored. But when I advocate for teachers, I get a slew of hate. (By those for whom education clearly didn't go well.) People who care about kids, also care about teachers & safety.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

Livid. Livid today. Watching our CMOH wearing a blue rectangle for the press conference and telling us about large droplets and that we still need more science on aerosol spread. This models shocking incompetence. Nothing more. We must resist incompetent leadership.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

I know some journalists follow me. Please consider: 1. ~1 million/wk N95 masks to protect teachers apparently don't exist. 2. ~3 million/wk RATs for test-to-stay at school, apparently don't exist. 3. ~20% of claimed ICU capacity apparently doesn't exist. This is Moore's plan?

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

Do any school trustees follow my tweets? Not sure. Schools aren't safe, with ~20,000 new cases/day in ON. Our kids need PPE to keep schools open. Safety unravels fast - peer pressure and all - if masks become optional. The science IS clear. It's the politics that are f'd up.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

I fully endorse Niagara MOH @mustafahirji 's safety measures for kids & schools. In my opinion, Dr. Moore lost all moral authority to comment on risk of harm to children, with the Dec 30 plan to open schools w/o N95s + zero protection for daycares.

Admonished by Kieran Moore, Niagara medical officer stands by his increased safety measures in...

Dr. Mustafa Hirji acknowledged a request from the chief medical officer to drop expanded masking, case management and air quality monitoring measures, but said his orders stand.

www.thestar.com

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

I'm sorry to say it. But. Every dine-in visit to a restaurant/bar in December is a vote to close schools in January. A lot of people are voting to close schools right now. It's looking like they'll win. Please don't vote for this. COVID *is* airborne. Schools matter.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

I urge you: don't give in. Don't consent to this harm for yourself or your kids. Keeping them out of the ICU isn't the victory that Moore says it is. Victory is avoiding permanent brain tissue loss and serious vascular damage. That means avoiding infection & reinfection. 6/7

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

It's true that a couple of years of masking and social distancing means that there is a larger number of infants and toddlers getting RSV and flu for the first time, and it can hit them hard. If that's all this is, it will soon settle down and the crisis will disappear. 14/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

The most common question I now get from parents is asking if they're crazy to still be trying to avoid COVID (re)infection for their kids. Well, I think the incipient mass idiocy of embracing reinfection may eventually make the last 2.5 years look like the good 'ole days. 17/17

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

10 months

I have been super quiet here for about 8 months. Some of that is simply self-care. But the bigger story is that I am waiting for some significant impending news to ungag me. Soon. That said, I'm now ready to put some energy back into building COVID awareness. 1/2

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

3. This year, no gov't or public health leadership safety advice. (Many WILL act IF they hear it.) 4. The media have also been deadly quiet about how to stay safe. Unhelpful. Despite all these differences, staying safe simply requires the SAME vigilance as last year. 2/8

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

"Sherpabody" is my new favorite word, thanks to a research team at the University of Helsinki. They have designed a very handy anti-viral molecule that could become a highly potent, variant-proof, COVID-cancelling nasal spray, And it could be taken before OR after exposure. 1/5

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Emerging immunological research is beyond my pay grade, frankly. I struggle to parse these studies for meaning, and immunologists are very conservative about drawing clinical conclusions from their work. 11/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Without masks & HEPA, I might have had a really massive viral dose + worse severity. Also, I was (and am still) using ENOVID antiviral nasal spray, and frequent CPC mouthwash + before eating. Why? Well, these measures are proven to diminish viral load and speed recovery. 3/8

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Third, reinforcing the belief that COVID isn't a big deal for kids resulted in lower vaccination rates, and risks for those kids is so much higher. So many kids were hospitalized in BC (and elsewhere) while nothing was done to make schools safer. 3/17

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

I just received my AZ shot this morning. So well organized, thank you Women's College Hospital! (But when I asked for my lollipop, I was shown an empty box with a note pinned to it from Doug Ford, written in crayon, blaming Justin Trudeau for a candy shortage. Dang.)

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

But it's much worse than that. This is conduct: (a) unbecoming of a physician; (b) unbecoming of a leader; (c) unbecoming of anyone who works in public health in any capacity. He's all three of these. Kieran: Plead guilty. Pay your fine. Apologize. Resign your office. 2/2

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

I will be on CBC Metro Morning sometime after 8am tomorrow ... which is about a half hour after Kieran Moore is on. Just sayin'.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

On Dec31 I wrote a public plea to @TOPublichealth asking for elementary schools to delay opening to Jan24. (Not the only need, but the scariest.) I haven't had a response. My plea is still on the table, it's urgent, and there's still time to step in & diffuse this madness.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

In Ontario, only ~33% of 18-29 males and ~42% of 18-29 females have been double-vaxxed. It will nudge up by fall. A bit. We MUST require double-vaxx to attend university/college classes, OR it's another crappy virtual year to accommodate the non-vaxxed. Clear choice, IMHO.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

In other words, the virus is accessible and vulnerable during its respiratory phase. I can't stop the virus climbing cranial nerves toward the brain, or sliding down my digestive tract. But the more of it I kill, the better. (I still wish ID docs would advise about this.) 4/8

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

Grocery shopping today made me MAD. Many able-bodied couples doing it together. SHOPPING IN COUPLES PUTS STORE CLERKS AT GREATER RISK: more people = more exposure. I might start wearing this as a sign around my neck when I shop. (Some exceptions, sure. But I know what I saw.)

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

3. Everyone going to a gathering monitors for sore throat & cough. Not necessarily COVID, but likely. Rapid tests will only turn positive on the ~5th day of symptoms. Don't rush to test on the first day of symptoms, and draw the wrong conclusion from a negative result. 5/8

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

I want schools open, badly. Very badly. Just not badly enough to be willing to pretend they are safe when they clearly are not. I reject those who insist schools must open without also advocating for simple safety measures. Sick Kids could lead this advocacy. They're not. 3/3

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

Four kids in my son's Grade 8 class down with COVID in just over a week. But it's not an outbreak, nor is he even a "close contact" by new rules. (WTF?) No HEPA in their class. Am I worried? No, because he's wearing an N95 + no lunch at school. But I feel bad for those kids.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Review: COVID immunity from infection is temporary, and reinfection can compound cardio, neuro, and organ damage in kids. Especially via blood microclotting. Cognitive loss in kids can't even be measured reliably, but COVID attacks their brains just like adults. 2/19

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

4. Count days if you are recovering from COVID. Most people are contagious to ~10 days from symptom onset, despite feeling much better on day ~5. A rapid test will tell you if you are still contagious. BUT YOU NEED TO SWAB THE *THROAT*. (Nose swabbing was before Omicron.) 6/8

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

I'm appalled by this CTV coverage of a physician who thinks COVID is a respiratory virus, and that you should just catch it and not worry. WTF? Brain tissue loss. Diabetes. Vascular destruction driving excess mortality. Please mask: avoid reinfection.

With COVID-19 cases expected to rise, should you be wearing a mask again? Here's what experts say

Cases of COVID-19 are increasing across the country again as fall progresses and winter approaches. But this respiratory pathogen season is different than last year's, experts say, so the public's...

www.ctvnews.ca

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

10 months

This brief thread is very specifically for journalists: some follow me & maybe still drop in? We need to talk about how COVID burden/outcome measures are reported. Counting hospital admissions & deaths WAS appropriate in 2020-21. Now those stats badly misinform. Why? 1/6

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Here are 5 pieces of safety advice, none of it new: 1. Buy portable HEPA filters and situate them where people are. Cleaner indoor air is helpful for lung health and allergies over and above being effective at preventing transmission. 3/8

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

It's especially important to do these things this year - because of all the people who won't. Please gather safely, and have an enjoyable long weekend. 8/8

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

Serious questions for @SickKidsNews : All I can see is your institution baldly insisting that schools must be opened. Where is your advocacy for HEPA, N95, vax, rapid tests? Where is your analysis of Long COVID impact on kids? Surely you don't say that kids aren't susceptible?

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Flipping the narrative from kids being safe from COVID to kids being better off with with COVID is a real piece of reality manipulation. On one hand, Bonnie gets credit for actually letting these data get published. BC (and other places) have been obfuscating this reality. 4/17

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

I had previously tweeted that there was no prospect of closing schools for the worst of this wave, because nobody knows what safety yardstick to use. Being structurally unable to close schools for a wave peak does not mean schools are safe. It simply means we're on our own. 1/4

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

Thanks to @gilldeacon for an intense & productive COVID session on CBC Radio's Here and Now. One point to amplify: COVID is a vascular disease, NOT comparable to the flu: it attacks organs and destroys brain tissue. This happens in mild cases too. Take steps. Avoid it. Please.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

The "Urgency of Normal" people were the worst. And some of them are physicians. Not a single one has made any effort to retract what they've said to me. But I actually don't mind, tbh: for every abuser there's a parent who put a mask on their kid because of the discourse. 11/17

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

1 year

Yes, that's right. Everybody flying everywhere with masking rates around 2% will ensure that any new variant that emerges anywhere will almost immediately be everywhere. (Yup: given what we know, nearly everybody traveling is choosing to act dangerously.) 7/15

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

2. Open a window slightly, it makes a world of difference. If you don't believe me, borrow a CO2 detector & watch what happens in a populated room when a little fresh air comes in. ~420ppm of CO2 is outdoor air, >800ppm and you're starting to inhale each other's aerosols. 4/8

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Well said, this billboard in favour of humanities and social science education.

Jeffrey Levin 🇺🇦

@jilevin

2 years

The ability to employ critical thinking matters

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

I used to admire @GoodLifeFitness : the founder has funded a lot of important autism research. But they have lost their way by choosing to welcome unvaccinated & unmasked staff and clients. Today is the 1st day of the fourth wave because of business decisions like this.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

What haunts me now is the specter of continually reinfecting kids while repeating the ghoulish mantra that hybrid immunity is good for them. I'm frankly very worried that reinfection raises risks considerably. 13/17

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

We can't even do proper cognitive assessment in very young kids. We have no idea what the harm is. We **HAVE** known since late 2020 that 100% of child COVID cases have biomarkers for microclotting. It's miles beyond negligent to frame COVID as only a respiratory virus. 5/7

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

4 years

I need to say this as loudly as possible: this 3rd wave was anticipated/known/understood WELL in advance. Scientists knew why, how & when. (eg I said it publicly on Feb 11, but I waited to be really sure.) Any politician who says this was unexpected is a liar or innumerate.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

4 years

For months I have argued that getting on a plane during COVID is reckless. I get abused a lot for that. Our third wave is 100% attributable to travel (B.1.1.7). Clear conscience & thanks to everyone who *didn't* travel, who didn't contribute $ to putting planes in the air.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

1 year

I have been playing with the concept of trust to examine why so few people mask to avoid COVID. It seems to me that if your trust in government is low, you NEVER bought into masking; but if your trust in gov is high, you believe them that masks aren't important anymore. 1/4

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

2 years

Were I in charge, we'd screen every kid for diabetes right now b/c COVID does that to kids. We'd also note how many infections each child believes they've had. Undiagnosed diabetes will lead to horrible harm. Diagnosed diabetes means living with a life-altering disability. 9/17

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

10 months

Who is going bother with indoor air quality when the media focuses on what COVID isn't doing, instead of talking about what it IS doing? There is a lot of Long COVID research coming out. Don't let it gather dust on the shelf. This is too important to be incurious. Please. 6/6

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

This is why schools need to be safe, not just open.

Forbes

@Forbes

3 years

Damage to brain cells and cognitive dysfunction can occur even with “mild” cases of Covid-19, according to a new study.

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Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH

@FurnessColin

3 years

I salute my colleague, Dr. Lawrence Loh, MOH of Peel. He led with the new rule that workplace outbreaks result in workplace closures. Toronto wisely followed. When COVID-19 is over, let's remember who the smartest public health leader in Canada is. Thank you, Dr Loh.

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