Good morning, All 👋 And happy Friday!
If you're pro-covid & hate community care, this probably isn't the group for you! We're anti-eugenics & believe all human life has worth!
Good morning to everyone who is still masking, testing, distancing, opening windows, holding events outside, and advocating for Covid protections.
We see and appreciate you. Stay strong, friends ❤️
For those paying attention, this isn't surprising, but it's disheartening. Despite what provinces say, please protect yourself & others by masking up with a well-fitted respirator (N95 or equivalent). Your health isn't worth their political cowardice.
“I would pull my little ones out of daycare for the next couple of weeks just to give those babies a break so they don’t pick up what’s going on right now...” Lynk says. He’d also like to see mandatory masking brought back to schools ahead of the holidays.
Didn't really want to engage with the NPR article, but for the love of all that's sensible (including not killing your spouse) do not do this.
Really, do not.
This is terrible advice. And, taking reasonable precautions isn't a mental or behavioral "problem." gah.
Come say "hi!" and pick up an N95 mask sampler right now! We'll be here until 3pm, near the Halifax Central Library, Spring Garden Rd (while supplies last)!
Here is a quick video of the installation, arranged as a timeline. White hearts for those who died before protections ended. Red hearts for those who died after. There are 232 white hearts and 260 red hearts.
#NovaScotiaHeartStrings
NS, if you don't start taking precautions, it's likely that you'll become sick with Covid. We're experiencing the highest rates of infection in the country: 1 of every 20 Nova Scotians is infected. Test, wear a well-fitted mask, stay home if you're sick, ventilate, add HEPA units
Huge shoutout to the Halifax Fringe Festival for prioritizing accessibility, inclusion, and community care by requiring masks at all of their performances this year! 👏
Nova Scotia has zero effective public health communication as the pandemic continues. Many Nova Scotians have no idea that the death rate is much higher than the beginning of the pandemic. This government is a complete failure.
I'm sorry, but at this point in the pandemic, you have to be either extremely uninformed or unbelievably naive if you're mystified by the drastic increase in illness. My sweet summer child, it's the legacy from Covid infections.
Nova Scotia, about 1 in 15 people are infected with Covid. The best (and currently only) way to prevent long Covid is to avoid infection. Wear an N95 (or equivalent) mask in public spaces. We have the highest rate of disability in the country & we should protect each other.
Yes! Please consider mask distribution in your communities. It's a great way to address the public health gaps left by governments & employers.
Over 600 masks were distributed on May 6 with the help of
@DonateMask
& an anonymous donor!
#BringBackMasks
#MaskWeekOfAction
Day 5 - May 19: PROVIDE FREE MASKS. Set up free mask distribution or donate masks in your community!
Help ensure that everyone has access to high-quality free N95, KN95, KF94 masks to wear to medical appointments & other public spaces.
#MaskWeekOfAction
#KeepMasksInHealthcare
Not one elected representative in NS has called for a return to masking, which would immediately reduce transmission of viruses. Perhaps it's because they fear a loud fascist minority. This doesn't bode well for the future of democracy.
It's 100% impossible to rely on "personal responsibility" to reduce COVID transmission. A society is comprised of complex relationships & systems that require us to exist in community.
Now let's listen to the 'infectious disease people' and create conditions that make it possible to follow their advice!
✅️Paid sick days!
✅️N95s distributed by the gov!
✅️Masking in essential services like schools!
✅️Multiple communication avenues & timely info!
People say….’you infectious disease people keep saying the same things. Mask. Wash your hands. Be aware. Stay home when you’re sick if you can. Ugh. Try something new’ me: ummmm, no. Not in respiratory season.
#community
#kindness
#sciencesays
you know what's truly fatiguing about the pandemic? fighting the government about precautions & clean air while trying to keep your family & friends safe. trying to measure risk without any information from public health. completely exhausting 😔
We are packing it in after almost 2.5 hours and over 600 N95s distributed!
Thanks again to
@DonateMask
and an anonymous benefactor who supplied our distribution today. And to all the friendly people we met today!
We hope to do this again soon!
From a NS teacher:
I tested positive for covid day 4 of school! There was a kid in the class who notified us on the 2nd day that they tested positive. When I returned to class, there are so many kids visibly sick but no masks.
This is my 3rd covid infection- 2nd from school.
We have a real problem as we enter the 4th year of the pandemic. In Nova Scotia, public health communication doesn't exist & prominent Drs. are providing advice that the majority of Nova Scotians can't use. 🧵
Canada's Chief Science Advisor warns that Long Covid could become a mass-disabling event. The federal gov. recognizes that Covid is spread through aerosols "that linger in the air."
The provinces have been negligent.
#MediaPleaseLook
#MediaPleaseHelp
#AidezNousLesMedias
PoP NB submitted a RTI request for records of discussions of Long Covid. The response brings to light a shocking level of deception perpetrated against the people of NB, under which true magnitude of risk was hidden and the fundamental precepts of public health were abandoned.
🧵
We are in a Covid wave. Case numbers are high.
If you're hosting in-person events right now, you need to provide alternative ways to attend and ensure that those meeting together are safe.
We have some tips for Covid-safe event hosting:
We’re counting down to 2023 by reviewing the highlights of
@nsgov
's 2022 failed pandemic response -by far the worst year for sickness, emergency care, and fatalities. This thread will start in Jan 2022 & provide a retrospective for the next 31 days, so buckle up!🧵
"These are real people," she said. "These are people who at one point in their lives, they built families, they built communities and they helped build the province. Why have they become a statistic and not a person?"
The question isn't "why are people still masking?" Both the province & federal guidance is to continue masking in indoor public spaces.
So, what do people who have stopped masking think they know about Covid?
So far, NS hasn't done anything to combat misinformation.
Nova Scotia high school students are expected to graduate with 6 math & science credits. That seems like a lot for a province that completely disregards scientific evidence when making decisions.🤷
We will never fully understand how government officials, including public health, can look at 3 years of COVID research, make zero changes, wash their hands of any responsibility & be totally chill about the devastating consequences.
Dr. Strang is set to have a press conference about respiratory illnesses & the vaccine rollout tomorrow (Tue). Remember, like Dr. Henry (BC), he minimizes Covid spread in schools & infection of children. Covid doesn't magically appear in the home, it comes from somewhere 🧵
This is one of many nonsensical aspects of the pandemic. There's a teacher shortage. There's a substitute shortage. Yet no push- not even for clean air- from the teacher's union. It's totally bizarre (and irresponsible).
It's strange that most unions don't consider the pandemic a labour issue. They've been ineffective advocating for their members' health & safety. In previous generations, unions were known for taking working conditions very seriously. Without your health, there's not much work.
COVID is airborne.
Repeat COVID infections increase potential for serious health problems & death.
These two things alone should be enough to motivate governments to act, esp. as our health care systems are destroyed. To do nothing is negligence.
We'd love to hear what the
@IWKHealth
thinks about the
@nsgov
's decision to abandon protections in schools, as well as withhold boosters from families.
Eventually, someone will look at Nova Scotia as a case study and come to the conclusion that a lack of political will is what caused unmitigated infection and mass disability.
The province experienced the best of containment and the worst of giving up.
It can be contained.
It was contained.
Repeatedly after incursions…
In some cases for years.
COVID containment is possible, and with international coordination it could even be very durable on a very large scale.
Occupations that employ women are hit harder by illness and the long-term effects of communicable disease.
Covid is a women's issue.
You can't be a feminist and ignore Covid. You can't care about workers' rights and ignore Covid.
#InternationalWomensDay
#CovidIsAWomensIssue
I'm sorry, but you have to be stupid or duplicitous if you're still blaming "isolation" for any potential cognitive impairments or behavioral changes. Esp. in the youngest ones who (in many countries) would've spent most of their first year at home even without a pandemic 🤦
Much of the pandemic narrative surrounding children is grounded in a pseudo-scientific understanding of how socio-emotional development works, rarely noting the obvious impacts of Covid reinfections on the developing brain.
For real, public health should be embarrassed about how much information that they should be providing needs to be crowd-sourced by random private citizens on the internet. A communication failure through the entire pandemic.
We've been begging everyone to do something about ventilation & filtrarion, especially in schools.
Want to reduce cases of strep, flu, RSV, Covid, measles, etc? All of these illnesses are airborne.
And we know children are vectors.
We need clean air in schools.
There have been 32 Nova Scotian deaths from Covid reported in a 2-week period (Nov 5-18)
The province has reported 233 deaths in 2023.
We've lost so many parents, grandparents, community volunteers, secondary caregivers.
The total Covid deaths reported by the province is 924
It's a bit much to advise NScotians to do the impossible:
🫡"Determine your own risk!" With what information?
🫡"Get early treatment!" From where & how? Paxlovid is only provided to a very select worthy few.
🫡"Stay home when you're sick!" There are so few jobs with pd sick days.
We're calling on NS elected officials to:
❗demand the NS CMOH acknowledges Covid is airborne;
❗take necessary actions to improve IAQ in public spaces; and
❗provide accurate education about airborne transmission.
Use this link to send a letter:
"...life has not returned to normal. That’s because COVID is not the monster under the bed — the danger that recedes the less attention you pay it. It is the forest on fire; ignoring it only makes it less manageable."
#CovidAwarenessWeek
#CovidIsNotOver
In NS we've been fortunate the province continues to protect patients using a layered approach including masks.
Let's encourage this smart decision by writing our MLAs & urging them to retain masks in healthcare!
#MaskWeekOfAction
#KeepMasksInHealthcare
Of course, we condemn the removal of masks by
@nshealth
&
@IWKHealth
. Like many decisions made to remove protections, it's rooted in eugenics, it's anti-science, and it will prolong the effects of the pandemic. Covid & other illnesses are airborne.
#KeepMasksInHealthcare
This is a terrible decision.
@HealthNS
has decided to activiely create barriers to care. They seriously need to consider who they serve, as well as how this will affect more vulnerable staff.
"So, test & test often... The number of new positive COVID-19 cases- both self-reported and discovered through lab tests - in the province now tops 1,000 weekly by [Dr Barrett's] calculation. 'There is a lot of COVID around at the moment'"
Discussions about Covid are left out of almost every conversation about accessibility. I've yet to see any accessibility plans in Nova Scotia that address air quality as a barrier that should be tackled to meet the Accessibility Act.
It’s unethical that COVID is frequently left out of conversations about public transport accessibility. Many disabled and higher risk people haven’t been able to access public transport for years due to the lack of masks and clean air. This is a huge equity issue.
It’s not COVID protections that cause economic disruptions. It’s COVID... The pandemic should have taught our leaders what workers have known all along — that people are the centre of a flourishing economy."
#CovidAwarenessWeek
#CovidIsNotOver
#NotMild
We've reached the point in the pandemic that requires an entire cultural shift. There's ample evidence that COVID is airborne, now the culture needs to catch up & we need loud champions to keep this virus front of mind & advocate for change.
Guess what people can't do when they're sick? Learn.
There's no educational benefit to sending a child to school when they're sick. None.
Education systems need to get real about learning, and seriously consider what constant illness means for curriculum delivery.
We’re advocating for:
• Masking in essential services
• Improving indoor air quality & instituting CO2
monitoring
• Isolation requirements
• Paid sick days
• Plans for booster & vaccine rollouts
• Public health communication, case tracking & timely
release of data
This is repulsive and unethical. How depraved do you have to be to cause mass spread & then celebrate the findings of a study which demonstrates you intentionally infected the majority of children in your province???
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.
So, Bayer's Rd is now the only blood collection service for peninsular Halifax and that area has limited bus service. This feels like another push towards private clinics.
Hants Community Hospital's emergency department in Windsor will be open Sunday, Jan. 1. It was previously scheduled to be closed at 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. For a full list of temporary closures visit:
Just an FYI for Nova Scotians looking for the updated vaccine- appointments haven't been added to the system. The website allows you to filter by vaccine, and the XBB.1.5 isn't an option yet. If you make an appointment now, it's for the bivalent.
One of our volunteers has dropped off our remaining supply of N95 masks at the Canada Games Centre to help evacuees, volunteers, and workers protect themselves from smoke inhalation and airborne viruses.
"Physicians in Nova Scotia follow a national code of ethics, pledging to 'always act to benefit the patient & promote the good of the patient.' Lax mask use in healthcare settings raises serious questions about how well this ethical standard is being met."
"While this is a historical moment, it doesn’t mean COVID-19 is gone,” Strang said.
“We need to continue to take the necessary measures to protect one another.”
Unsurprisingly, the Covid forecast for Nov. 4-17 is still severe. Please protect yourself and others by wearing an N95 (or equivalent) mask indoors, meeting outdoors when possible, ventilating indoor spaces & running air purifiers, and updating your vaccination status.
Members of PoPNS will install a COVID-19 memorial for those lost to COVID at the Nova Scotia Legislature (Province House) on Tuesday, August 30 at 12pm, in advance of the Standing Committee on Health’s meeting. 1/3
Now, if you're looking for an accurate example of gaslighting, this is it.
Also gotta love
@TimHoustonNS
blaming new Nova Scotians for moving to the province without bringing Drs with them.
Last week, CTV reported on several Maritime hospitals experiencing COVID outbreaks.
Meanwhile, internationally, medical providers are reinstating masking.
None of the recent NSHA decisions make sense.
Is your kid likely to be the lone masker in their class? Do you want to meet other Covid-aware families? Are you interested in a Covid-safe, kid-friendly event?
Please join us this Saturday!
(masks and rapid tests will be available for anyone who needs!)
To help keep our
#SMUCommunity
safe this fall, students, faculty and staff will be required to wear masks in all indoor common areas on campus starting September 1. Learn more:
#smuFYI
It's wild that
@HealthNS
has decided that infection control isn't part of healthcare.
We know that Covid isn't seasonal, hospital-acquired infections are pretty common, every infection brings the risk of Long Covid, and NS healthcare is chronically short-staffed. But 🤷, I guess
The
@nsgov
strategy seems to be mass Covid infection, so what's the plan when between 10-20% of the population is suffering from long Covid
@TimHoustonNS
?
Without making changes to schools to reduce transmission of infectious diseases like COVID,
@nsgov
@nseducation
can't claim to meet the requirements of the Accessibility Act because education won't be inclusive & barrier-free🤷
@LiberalPartyNS
@NSNDP
@nspc
We're officially out of masks! Thanks to everyone who stopped by. We gave put over 200 masks!
There will be more, and we'll announce another distribution event soon!
Schools in Nova Scotia have been actively denying students access to education because *wait for it* they refuse to create a safe learning & teaching environment.
This is in violation of both the Education Act and the Occupational Health & Safety Act.
So the families who are entitled to disability accommodations are being told to homeschool. And the families with medically fragile kids are being told to homeschool. And the families who cannot afford to get Covid are being told to homeschool.
Moving into year five of the pandemic, and all of our provincial political parties have failed.
They’ve all missed incredible opportunities to improve labour conditions, learning experiences, and accessibility in Nova Scotia. 🧵
Yesterday, on CBC Mainstreet, Dr. Strang told listeners "We still have a fair amount of circulating Covid virus" & Jeff Douglas accurately observed, "because there's been so much Covid around, and it hasn't turned into a seasonal illness yet, …you can always get Covid!"
Did you know that at least 772 Nova Scotian Covid deaths (88.6% of total reported on Health Infobase) occurred since
@TimHoustonNS
became premier (August 31, 2021)?
And 630 deaths (72.3% of the total number of those reported) happened after removing protections March 21, 2022?
"Emsley said while they’re currently experiencing a 'tripledemic' of COVID-19, RSV, and influenza, RSV is 'the real enemy at the moment for children.'"
Guess what else is airborne that could be decreased with improved ventilation and air filtration?
RSV and flu!
Some of the people in NS who suppressed info about Long Covid are Robert Strang, CMOH; Kelly Dean, former Deputy Minister; Bev Billard, Sr Epidemiologist, Dept of Health; Carolyn Dohoo, Sr Epidemiologist, Dept of Health & Wellness; Linda Passerini, Enviro Health Consultant.
Ireland Live: 'Information about long Covid was deliberately suppressed, probe hears'
The mother of a schoolgirl who is too ill to leave the house after developing long Covid has accused officials of deliberately withholding information about the illness
NS' the Covid capital of Canada with an index of very high, so here's
Masking 101:
•It goes over your nose
•N95 or better
•It's always on inside- places don't have air quality to mitigate inside spread
•It's on outside in crowds
Keep track of your close contacts!
The academic year is about to begin & post-secondary institutions have adopted a range of strategies to reduce COVID transmission. We've graded each institution based on information provided on their websites.
Mask up, Nova Scotia.
It's not a good sign when a news program has to cancel due to widespread illness. We're glad they're not pushing through illness, though, which is what many workers are required to do.
#PaidSickDays
#CovidIsNotOver
#COVIDisAirborne
Happy Thursday, all! Unfortunately, thanks to Covid and colds hitting our team hard this week,
#GlobalNewsMorning
is off the air today! But we’re hoping to be right back at it, starting your day the right way on Friday! See you all then!
☺️☀️📺
@globalhalifax
Don't bring Covid home for the holidays!
We will be handing out FREE N95s (adult and kid sizes) and FREE rapid tests this Saturday, December 16 at the Halifax waterfront by the wave starting at 3pm.
Come by and stock up!
Thank you
@DonateMask
for the supplies ♥️
Make sure your back to school supplies include quality masks!
We will be giving away FREE masks - including a bunch of sizes and styles for kids - outside the public gardens tomorrow (Labour Day) at 2pm!
Please help us spread the word!!
We help community groups, schools, businesses, clubs, and whoever wants to decrease illness in Nova Scotia!
Let us know if you want support identifying potential risks, obtaining resources, and implementing proven methods to create healthier spaces!
"The party leaders have taken our votes, tax dollars and trust and offered us perpetual illness in return."
@ShiraLurie
We're looking at you
@TimHoustonNS
@zachchurchill
@ChenderClaudia
When will you protect Nova Scotians from this mass-disabling event?
The
@nsgov
@nshealth
must communicate the detrimental effects of Covid infections & reinfections. The majority of Nova Scotians are taking massive health risks because they genuinely don't know that this is a debilitating virus.
@zachchurchill
@ChenderClaudia
@TimHoustonNS
"Neptune Theatre's production of Cinderella in Halifax was cancelled on Thursday for the second straight day because of illness among the cast."
Folks, we're in a Covid wave. Please protect yourself & others by wearing a well-fitted N95 (or equivalent).
The EDs of NS regional centres of education have a legal responsibility to provide safe schools.
Sign on to this open letter demanding they take their responsibility seriously!
Did someone say FREE MASKS???
That's right! We're handing out free N95s outside the Public Gardens tomorrow (Saturday) at 2pm for anyone who wants to upgrade their protection.