NEW: Darin Hodge, the employee fired from Vancouver’s Teahouse Restaurant, has now made this statement in response to the MAGA hat controversy.
@CTVVancouver
BREAKING: All hospital workers in Vancouver have received memos from their health authorities telling them to hide inside and avoid showing any signs they’re healthcare staff during an anti-vaxx/restriction convoy tomorrow
@CTVVancouver
#vanpoli
#canpoli
So where are all the “freedom” warriors today? Or the anti-vaxxers who gleefully slapped “my body my choice” stickers on their vehicles?
Really looking forward to seeing how they stick to the principles they claim to champion
This may be the most important story I’ve done during the entire pandemic —
And it’s about a bunch of blacked-out or non-existent pages 😐
Metro Vancouver’s health authorities are fighting to keep details about hospital outbreaks quiet
Why?
@CTVVancouver
More than a week after I asked BC's ministry of health for the TRUE number of patients hospitalized due to COVID, they send a press release confirming my reporting and coming clean about under-representing cases to British Columbians
@CTVVancouver
This story has been quite some time in the making: I want to sincerely thank everyone who spoke with me on background and on the record for this very risky topic
Part 2 on the muzzling of BC healthcare workers is coming tomorrow
@CTVVancouver
#bcpoli
A special advisors on the SARS commission is calling for an inquiry into BC’s handling of Covid
Mario Possamai says
#bcpoli
HAD been a model in 2003 but has made a monumental mistake in ignoring scientific evidence that
#COVIDisAirborne
@CTVVancouver
Journalism takes a lot of hard work and I don't typically weigh in on others' stories but I have to make an exception because the headline is profoundly misleading and the story includes mischaracterizations
You nay have seen this piece in
@Telegraph
If I’ve looked particularly stressed and tired lately, now you know why
Dozens of BCers have died from Covid they caught in hospital
But why talk about that, right?
VCH often punts me to the min of health, but since Fri it’s been 🤐
@CTVVancouver
#bcpoli
Meanwhile, a >catastrophic< failure of communication and technology in what should’ve been the precise circumstance BC activates its emergency text alert system
This is a
#bcpoli
disgrace that could cost lives with zero explanation as to why the system hasn’t been used already
URGENT: If you know anyone still on Sumas Prairie tell them to get out NOW
A pump failure is imminent,
@City_Abbotsford
says catastrophic flooding w Fraser River water added to existing floodwater is expected which could “pose a significant risk to life”
My statement on tomorrow's planned convoy protest in
#Vancouver
.
TLDR:
"As the Mayor of a city with an over 95 per cent vaccination rate, my message to the convoy is this: Vancouver doesn’t want you here. Make your point and then go home."
#vanpoli
#covid19
NEW: BC officials finally confirm 6 children have died from flu in recent weeks
They did not explain why they've kept the public in the dark, even though the health minister said "it shows the risks of the flu."
@CTVVancouver
#bcpoli
He collapsed at work, was rushed to hospital where he learned he had cancer in his lungs & lymph nodes
Then he got a $3700 bill for his ER visit
This is not a story out of the US, this is a Canadian in Richmond, BC
My latest for
@CTVVancouver
👇
#bcpoli
This is a remarkable admission:
Dr. Henry now say "all along" they have known the true number of COVID cases to be as much as 4-5x higher than confirmed by testing
Will they add a * to stats? I expect
#bcpoli
will keep saying we did better than other provs
A remarkably strong reaction from the
#bcpoli
ministry of health today when I asked about rapid tests in this province and local health researchers getting access for a Christmas party 👀
TLDR: VERY curt email, no answers
My latest for
@CTVVancouver
👇
There's a famous Hemingway quote describing going bankrupt two ways: "Gradually, then suddenly."
I think that's what's been happening with trust and goodwill with BC public health officers and yesterday was the suddenly.
@CTVVancouver
#bcpoli
For a week, I’ve been chasing
@CDCofBC
to find out how many have died from respiratory viruses since Sept, broken down by virus type & age
They said they’d reply but are now ignoring me
Then yesterday, doctors were told 6 kids in BC have died from flu 1/
BC’s health min sent a written stmt & claimed Dix’s schedule was too busy to discuss muzzling allegations by healthcare workers drawing national attn
Oh yeah, a
#bcpoli
pandemic review also cited a shut-up-and-dont-question attitude
Pt 2 👇
@CTVVancouver
UPDATE: Less than 24 hours after I published this story, Vancouver Coastal Health has quietly updated their website.
I'm very curious about the behind-the-scenes conversations that led to this. 👀
The scientific consensus: COVID is airborne 🌬
Will you see that on the BCCDC website? 🚫
Worse, VCH still says “no evidence” 🤨
@DFisman
& UBC’s Michael Brauer weigh in: “Messaging has to have changed because the situation has changed.”
@CTVVancouver
💉1: AstraZeneca
💉2: Moderna
So far side effects include great relief and gratitude to the thousands of people who’ve made BC’s vaccination rollout possible 🙌
Another
@CTVVancouver
story from “the most transparent jurisdiction in North America”!
423 blank pages when I asked to see
#bcpoli
opinion polling on Covid 🫠
Why?
NEW: The official announcement is tomorrow, but I've learned masking will be reinstated in BC hospitals & clinics
The word "mandate" is not in the advance notice being sent to some healthcare workers
@CTVVancouver
#bcpoli
There’s been a huge outcry to my story on BC’s secret hospitalization numbers
MoH is still ghosting me BUT but I can now tell you more about how it works and why
@Faussenurse
and
@SoniaFurstenau
warn the
#bcpoli
obfuscation is dangerous 👇
@CTVVancouver
BC’s latest wait-and-see has resulted in the same outcome as every other time: a delayed adoption of the same/similar moves other provs did more proactively
Our
#bcpoli
decision-makers get defensive about it, but we’re seeing this movie over and over 1/
BC is sitting on more than 130,000 treatment rounds of Paxlovid — quadruple the stockpile in the spring
Plenty of people have had Covid, so why’s it gathering dust?
Throttled access remains unchanged from the days of scant supply 1/
@CTVVancouver
#bcpoli
BC’s healthcare crisis is escalating:
Without an ER doctor, nurses were instructed to keep the hospital doors open and call 911 in an emergency
To call 911 — from an ER
That was
@Northern_Health
’s plan
My latest
#bcpoli
scoop for
@CTVVancouver
👇
NEW: Late today, the ministry of of health confirmed PHAC stats and there ARE in fact 1.3m RATs in a warehouse in BC 🧐
So yes, technically there aren't millionS, but hardly an urban myth
Perfectly normal
#bcpoli
stuff, nothing bizarre about this at all 🥲
Wonder if
#bcpoli
health officials will crack down on “urban myths” about RATs from…
*checks notes*
@GovCanHealth
, which notes in its publicly available tally “numbers listed are updated regularly”
🤦♀️
Expect talking points about BC “data issues” soon!
If are siding with a movement that is threatening health care workers who have sacrificed much and will continue to sacrifice in order to care for you, you are on the wrong side.
To my fellow HCWs, please stay safe.
#bcpoli
BREAKING:
@BCChildrensHosp
emergency department is seeing a “surge storm” of sick kids and has opened an overflow ED as they triage young patients
@CTVVancouver
#bcpoli
@KristajSharpe
This is harassment at the workplace and should be handled the same way as a postal worker or teacher or healthcare worker faced with such comments. Journalists do our work in public but that doesn’t mean abuse of any kind should be tolerated.
I’m sorry you had to deal with this.
They've been dropping hints and nudging for weeks, but today
#bcpoli
gave British Columbians a big push towards viewing COVID as endemic
This was going to happen eventually, but when our hospitals are packed and the system is hanging by a thread, the timing is what's surprising
British Columbia is beginning to manage COVID-19 more like the common cold, the province's top doctor said Friday while explaining major shifts in the government's approach to the pandemic.
Since the end of June, BC has seen record heat, a town destroyed by fire, 600 people dead from the heat dome, a tornado at UBC and now widespread flooding as some people are trapped:
Climate change preparations HAVE to be at the top of the
#bcpoli
agenda
The cherry blossoms are at their peak and it’s the most gorgeous time to live in Vancouver but it’s been a blustery day so the petals are drifting and gathering like snowflakes and it looks they’ll all be gone in the next few days of stormy weather.
Enjoy them while you can!
Privatization has been creeping into the public healthcare system for yrs
For the 1st time we know the kind of markup staffing agencies are enjoying as they leverage the crisis in healthcare
The result of my 7-mo FOI battle w PHSA👇
@CTVVancouver
#bcpoli
Hard to believe it was 15 years ago today I started working at
@CTVVancouver
!
I swear I was a teenager at the time 😬
Thanks to everyone who’s given me info and interviews and help over the years
👏Local👏news👏matters👏 and I appreciate the support
This is a surprise to precisely NO ONE considering how many times an array of people raised this exact issue
Side note: This is what we call “taking out the trash” in journalism, dumping bad news on a Friday afternoon and hoping the smell is gone by Monday
#bcpoli
The independent review of B.C.'s COVID response that was commissioned by the government has just been released:
It finds the most transparent jurisdiction in North America was, in fact, not transparent and eroded people's trust.
The science is increasingly clear and a BC study is adding to the knowledge that Covid infections can lead to long-term health issues and increase the chance of diagnoses like diabetes
My thx to
@EricTopol
for his insight & analysis of
@CDCofBC
research
“Trying to hide behind redacted docs and all these other elements and not getting the info out there as quickly as possible can erode trust in public institutions,”
@bcfipa
said
FH heavily redacted outbreak reports while VCH claims they have none
More:
Today I asked BC’s PHO how many patients are ACTUALLY in hospital right now after being admitted for COVID
I still don’t know the answer
Ministry of health has been “working on a response” since Thurs
They give a # publicly, but keep a different # internally for public health👇
The number of British Columbians in hospital due to COVID-19 is a tightly-held secret, as the province removes those who are no longer infectious from the tally – even though those individuals may spend months in treatment.
NEW: BCers who haven't been tested for COVID but have symptoms can now go back to work/life whenever they feel better
The health minister is defending new instructions quietly posted on the
@CDCofBC
& health authority websites
@CTVVancouver
#bcpoli
The muzzling of BC healthcare workers extends to emergency medicine
Doctors at Surrey Memorial Hospital have been warned to shut up about the critical situation: hallway medicine, days in ER without seeing a doctor, preventable deaths
More👇
#bcpoli
NEW: Surrey Memorial Hosp was built to see 72 kids in the pediatric ER / day
It's seeing 250+
That's +100 per day than last yr
One of their doctors is speaking up about treating sick youngsters wherever they can & expanding to the adult ER 1/
@CTVVancouver
Imagine being so seriously ill an ER doctor admits you to hospital
But once you get in, you’re told there’s no doctor to care for you even though you’re in a bed
Is this a new milestone in BC’s healthcare crisis?
@CTVVancouver
#bcpoli
BC's premier has kept a low profile during Covid to "focus on experts"
HOWEVER he's had enough gaffes that keeping him out of the spotlight may serve a dual purpose👀
BUT no public appearances for 4 wks as fires grow & the 4th wave surges?
Major backlash
How bonkers is Vancouver rent?
It’s cheaper for this UBC student to commute to class from Calgary ✈️
Not even a little cheaper: it costs half as much to fly 2x/week
The 😳 story from my friend
@turnerrAbigail
👇
#bcpoli
#canpoli
Why keep the public in the dark when the families of two of those children have already let it be known how they died?
For all the obfuscation and deflection we’ve seen during the pandemic, this may be the most shocking and inexcusable
#bcpoli
omission 6/6
Whether it's Covid or influenza or other respiratory illnesses, I'm still baffled
#bcpoli
would rather kick patients out of hospitals than, say, require masks on transit during fall/winter
Does that harm or impact anyone, really? 6/
SCOOP: The P.1 Brazilian variant is surging in BC 📈
Two weeks ago: 14 cases
Reported by province on Weds: 176
At a single lab at St. Paul's as of now: 215
More ⬇️
@CTVVancouver
#bcpoli
#COVID19BC
What happened to that COVID anti-viral, Paxlovid?
➡️It turns out few in BC have had it prescribed and there are 30,000 rounds of treatment just sitting there
🛑I've tried all week but
#bcpoli
won't let me talk to anyone at MoH about it
More👇
@CTVVancouver
The euphemism is "decanting" but the reality is, BC is about to expel nearly 1 in 3 patients in hospital to make room for COVID&flu patients
Who's going to care for them?
No one talked to care home ops or nurses, who say there isn't staff 1/
@CTVVancouver
When
@CamMitchell4
asked me to summarize my biggest stories of 2021, I narrowed it down to 23
He only gave me 3 mins for TV 😶
After much 😣🤬😩😰😵💫 I came up with this
@CTVVancouver
piece laying out
#bcpoli
’s secrecy, control, and reactionary approach
This is a day to say thank you to all the folks braving crummy roads and bundling up for dangerous conditions to maintain essential services
From bus drivers to nurses to grocery story workers to this guy 👇 and many more, hats off
#bcstorm
Another shot of our Rope Access Technicians (also known as RATs in the industry) at the
#AlexFraser
on
#BCHwy91
.
Crews are monitoring cables and releasing collars periodically to remove accumulations on cables. Rolling right lane closures all day.
Traffic is slow moving NB.
Shocking stats fr
@SpecialistsBc
:
Theyve crunched the numbers and found 1 million patients are waiting to see a specialist doctor
That's nearly 1 in 5 British Columbians waiting for a diagnosis or procedure that cd improve their life
@CTVVancouver
#bcpoli
Premier Horgan said BC has “unacceptably high case counts & disconcerting numbers of hospitalizations,” insisting the 4th wave was unavoidable
BUT Ontario barely has a Delta wave🤔
#onpoli
learned some hard lessons, so why isn’t
#bcpoli
learning from them?
If you've been to a BC hospital ER lately, you know they're struggling to keep up with patients🏥
In Langley, they're so short on doctors, one is urging colleagues to warn patients to go elsewhere as the LMH ER is "near collapse" ⚠️
@CTVVancouver
#bcpoli
The scientific consensus: COVID is airborne 🌬
Will you see that on the BCCDC website? 🚫
Worse, VCH still says “no evidence” 🤨
@DFisman
& UBC’s Michael Brauer weigh in: “Messaging has to have changed because the situation has changed.”
@CTVVancouver
“Covid is airborne, this has been proven, and so the focus of our paper is ‘why is it that public health authorities refuse to acknowledge this?’”
@Faussenurse
Pub health leaders in BC came under scrutiny,too, and the findings aren’t pretty.
@CTVVancouver
UPDATE: Dr. Bonnie Henry now says non-contagious COVID patients in hospital will be reported on a weekly basis going forward
The
#bcpoli
government has faced tremendous criticism on this issue and they're providing some transparency in response to the public pressure
More than a week after I asked BC's ministry of health for the TRUE number of patients hospitalized due to COVID, they send a press release confirming my reporting and coming clean about under-representing cases to British Columbians
@CTVVancouver
After a week of significant Covid policy changes, BCers are grappling with the contradictions: some biz still closed, but isolation & testing are slashed
Meanwhile vulnerable families feel abandoned
My thx to
@FightinginDelta
&
@laesafaith
for speaking out
45 cases of Covid in a single care home, but
@VCHhealthcare
doesn’t call it an outbreak 🦠
That means no public disclosure 🚫
So how widespread is the virus in LTC in BC?
Neither VCH nor
@Fraserhealth
will tell me
My latest for
@CTVVancouver
👇
BC isn’t just sending some cancer patients to the US for treatment
The govt is also outsourcing some cancer screening to an American company by quietly sending pap samples across the border — for the past year
My latest
#bcpoli
scoop for
@CTVVancouver
⬇️
It's extremely rare for
#bcpoli
to send a press release late in the day
To get one at 5:57 is exceptional
But that happened a short time ago with the PHO announcing child flu deaths will now be posted weekly
@CTVVancouver
BC has a major problem: it’s not just a lack of transparency, but actual secrecy around Covid and its handling by public health
Why?
By turtling,
#bcpoli
is letting the public come to their own conclusions and it’s not pretty
Kudos to
@amandajfollett
trying to get answers
Reporter
@amandajfollett
files a
#cdnfoi
request for Covid data. Instead of responding, multiple departments and communications staff run interference.
The level of frustration I'm hearing from frontline healthcare workers & experts during BC's 4th wave can't be overstated
So it's no surprise a coalition has formed &
@Protect_BC
will be speaking directly to BCers 🗣️
This
#bcpoli
update from
@BhinderSajan
:
The province is standing firm on refusing access to rapid antigen tests for the general public
16 million tests are coming from the feds, but they're being tightly restricted by
#bcpoli
, who are sticking with their priority areas
NEW: Dr Henry has announced an about-face when it comes to school notifications. She's heard from upset parents and WILL now notify school communities of COVID exposures in a "more sustainable way".
This is what's been going on so far this school year:
The
#bcpoli
govt tried to explain why BC is the only province that DOES NOT issue emergency text alerts 📵
I say "tried" because at best it was nonsensical, at worst it was political spin & misinformation ⚠️
Our Public Safety Min raised concerns --
about OVERcommunicating 🧐1/
From the posts I’m seeing (and sent to me), an alarming portion of people in BC are essentially living their lives as normal: slumber parties, family dinners.
It’s more than just driving infections, it’s fostering resentment & contempt from people in their lives who won’t forget.
Some people say this city is boring but spotting a giant monstrous eyeball in someone’s back yard while walking to grab coffee in east Van would suggest otherwise
Just saw
@JamesGunn
’s
@Brightburn
on Shaw On Demand without knowing anything about it in advance. I recommend.
Also, genuine footage of me watching it:
Are the emergency depts in BC’s small hospitals on the verge of collapse?
3 Vancouver-area hospitals have now faced doctor shortages so serious they’ve turned away ER patients at times
Including tonight in White Rock
My latest scoop for
@CTVVancouver
BC Children’s hospital to continues to struggle with the sheer volume of sick kids in our province
They’re now starting to double-bunk young patients admitted overnight 1/
@CTVVancouver
#bcpoli
It sure looks like BC Covid testing is collapsing
@CDCofBC
oversees it but not a peep about 3-5hr waits only to be handed a rapid test and sent away
#bcpoli
never expanded capacity beyond 20k PCR tests/day since Sep’20
Also no pub disclosure of RAT results
I don’t usually ask that you watch the video version of my
@CTVVancouver
stories, but this time I am because it’s important to hear directly from
@BCNursesUnion
members who warn BC’s healthcare system could collapse
The work conditions are simply untenable
“Now is not the time to bend the rules - it's time for us to work together again to bend the curve.”
This is from today’s press release. Not 6 months ago, not a year ago. TODAY, with 1000 cases/day.
It wasn’t cute then.
It didn’t work then.
Who’s in charge of this messaging??
Through the past year, I've been struck by how many doctors have linked poverty and treatment of workers with vulnerability to COVID -- and overall health.
So when
@richardzussman
asked Dr. Henry whether she wants
#bcpoli
to resource paid sick leave, the response was jarring. 1/
SCOOP: The ousted CEO of
@PHSAofBC
submitted more than $100,000 in personal expenses for rent, utilities & furniture rental, even though they wasn't part of his employmt agreemt.
But they were approved, on top of his $352,000 salary.
@CTVVancouver
#bcpoli
NEW:
@VancouverPD
are struggling to explain the numbers and data in a very muddled report on the “social safety net” that conflates pensions, the firefighting budget, and addiction services
More to come in this thread
The chief just arrived
#vanpoli
#bcpoli
@CTVVancouver
Wonder if
#bcpoli
health officials will crack down on “urban myths” about RATs from…
*checks notes*
@GovCanHealth
, which notes in its publicly available tally “numbers listed are updated regularly”
🤦♀️
Expect talking points about BC “data issues” soon!
NEW: The Ministry of Health has given me a grand total so I can now tell you
🦠1,619 people likely got COVID in BC hospitals
🏥274 of them died, all patients
Details of each outbreak are often vague because of
#bcpoli
privacy concerns
@CTVVancouver
1/
It’s not hard to see what’s happened with policymakers counting on vaccines alone to get BC out of the Delta wave
ON kept masks and other low-impact measures in place through the summer and has air purifiers in many classrooms + started w K-12 masks
A little caution = big benefit
But the fact we're 17 days since the peak of transmission means we're now seeing a high mark in deaths.
13 today, the most in one day since February 3, with the rolling average the highest since February 6.
Per capita, we're around 7 times worse than Ontario right now.
Does *anyone* think our healthcare system is ready??
How much of BC’s teetering, in the words of the premier, is already due to the addition of long Covid on our already-struggling system?
Sneering at “people who can’t party” is missing the prob w 11th-hr booze changes for NYE.
It’s a kick in the teeth to an industry bending over backwards to follow rules & keep people employed while staving off bankruptcy.
Easy to miss that when you’re being paid to wk from home.
I also keep coming back to this govt wanting to “avoid panic” w Covid, AlertReady,etc
Honestly, I’ve seen few panic but many frustrated & feeling left to fend for themselves on issues that require community or big-picture response
Why not calmly talk to the public like adults? 3/
Time to reiterate my most controversial take: summer is the WORST season of all and you can take your sunburn-loving, sweaty, poor sleep, sluggish, chafing, dehydrated, miserable, makeup-melting, sticky opinions somewhere else.
Despite promising to do so, BC health officials are still NOT reporting how many patients are in hospital due to COVID but no longer infectious
Neither the Data Summary nor Situation Report from this week include that info, which Dr. Henry had committed to
Other provs do so DAILY
In the past 20 months I’ve spoken to dozens and dozens of healthcare workers sharing their experiences and emotions handling this pandemic.
I’ve never seen the level of rage, frustration and despair expressed in the past day. Please have a look/read at what they’re saying:
With COVID-19 patients once again filling up B.C.'s intensive care units, the workers trying to keep them alive are enraged that protesters crowded outside hospitals this week in opposition to an incoming vaccine passport system.
SCOOP: A metro Vancouver hospital turned away patients from the emergency dept
BUT the health authority refuses to call it diversion
This is the 1st time an urban ER has had a serious service disruption, which are usually only in rural areas
@CTVVancouver