Here in Manitoba they are looking at folks getting a 4th shot.
I’ve had 3 already and I am starting to get the feeling this is going to be a once a year like a flu shot maybe?
The scariest thing I find in the town I am in is the amount of people who haven’t even had one dose and yell to whoever will listen this is all one giant conspiracy
More insight into how omicron could be a “positive” for the overall pandemic, and where things are moving.
I know both Zain and Sumon personally. We have trained together and me and Sumon are good friends and have been on the news together.
Both of them from the beginning have undersold COVID. Sumon and me have many talks about this. He has never thought it was a big deal. Ever.
He’s a smart guy (and he would say the same about me) but most people aren’t in that camp. He’s also an ID doc but doesn’t directly admit COVID or see them as much (that’s more medicine, ER and ICU)
When you read medical Twitter you have to understand that there are two big camps in Ontario. There is one side which has Fisman, Brooks, KASHIF, and others who believe that we need Covid zero. The other side has Zain, Suman, and Martha and Kwado who think it’s no big deal and never has been. Kwado has even apologized on Twitter to me for being wrong.
I am in the middle along with some others (ie Shankar, Warner, Isaac etc) that you will see. It’s a bit of an echo chamber and I fully admit nobody knows the answer. Including these guys. Sumon even said people don’t need a booster. He’s an outlier.
However I will say interpret all of these things with a grain of salt.
The facts that we do know are this is surging like no tomorrow. I admitted 11 people to the hospital yesterday. Neither of these guys directly admit patients to the hospital with Covid so keep that in your mind when you read what they are saying.
That being said I’ve only admitted 2 to the ICU so I fully believe this is not as bad as other variants. Absolutely no one in the ICU has had a booster. The only double vaccinated in the ICU are those with 2 x Astro Zeneca.
Everyone else who’s coming into Hospital has mild symptoms or is unvaccinated.
So if you have had a booster or have had 2 mRNA shots in an otherwise healthy person this will almost certainly not get sick from this. I don’t think the ICU caseload is going to surge because so much of the population is protected.
However be careful of reading editorials like this where the authors have a known history of bias.
Personally if you want more balanced news stick to those in the middle. Isaac provides a really good balance – we went to medical school together and are on the same page with almost all of this. Others as well. But the outliers on both sides you have to interpret everything they say with a grain of salt.
Thanks for this.
I mean, all my posts in this thread have been grasping at hopeful positive news. But I know that it’s likely somewhere in between.
Yeah, the dream of Covid-Zero is nearly impossible to achieve at this point. But I understand the hope behind it.
I really just stumble across a lot of these people on twitter, so I think it’s a balance of different opinions. But I get what you’re saying about the echo chamberness of it all.
I know in Ottawa numbers are huge - but still as of last report, 8 in hospital / 1 in ICU. Basically the same for the last two weeks.
Anyways, I’m glad it seems overall things are looking more positive. I think.
Question - my in-laws are double AZ, but got an MRNA booster. They should be safe, yes?
Yes. Everyone with two Astra Zeneca should run right now to get an mRNA booster.
I understand the hopelessness of this. Believe me, I just spent a week dealing with it and I’m going back for two more weeks on Sunday.
However I think underestimating this is a mistake, as is overestimate. We know will infect people. They won’t get that sick by and large.
That doesn’t mean we should stand with our hands up and just wait for it to come. It’s always going to be better if you can avoid getting infected so do your best to avoid it. However, if you do happen to get it if you’ve done the right things like getting vaccines in boosters you should be just fine. Train avoid contact with those and risk right now and the one thing we do know is this wave will pass faster than the other ones based on how quickly it hits and dissipates in other countries.
Make no mistake about it – in the other wave if you got sick you had a decent chance of ending in-hospital or ICU. Right now if you’ve done things to protect yourself, that risk is minimal. That’s the biggest win of all.
I thought I would provide some perspective on some of the changes, more so in the Ontario area, that have been revealed recently.
I just came off a week and had a few days off and I’m scheduled to go back tomorrow for two more weeks.
To give you an idea of what it looks like, the hospitals are starting to fill up. I admitted 11 Covid patients the other day to the hospital. The ICUs are still not full. That’s a good sign.
The different this time seems to be that people who are coming into hospital are mildly ill. Before they would come in on high levels of oxygen and I knew that within 24 to 48 hours I would be seeing them in the ICU. Now they are coming in on very low levels of oxygen and in a lot of cases they swab positive for Covid even though they’re coming in with something else. For example, they may fracture a hip from a fall but still have Covid as well.
Overall that is a good sign. It points to a milder disease course probably the result of many things including vaccinations and evolution of the virus.
In Ontario we have moved to cut back on testing. This is largely because the percent positivity is so high that we assume almost everyone who has symptoms now has the disease. You’re encouraged to rapid test and if that is positive treat it as a positive test and isolate.
I’m sure this will cause a lot of anxiety and so if anyone has questions around this and how to handle their situation feel free to reach out. I’ll try and provide a deeper update sometime this week if I have some time.
Its impossible to get any free rapid tests, unless you’re willing to line up. No thanks. I have no desire to be around anyone right nown, let alone be in a lineup with them.
So I guess this goes to a bigger question. Should those numbers still be recorded? Obviously for statistics on bigger picture it is needed. But should people who just happen to test positive - who are not in hospital DUE to the illness, be counted towards hospitalizations due to Covid?
I think the idea to ignore school cases is a little silly, as knowing community spread is important. However if people aren’t in hospital because of the virus, then does it need to be counted?
Again, I’m just still trying to navigate my thoughts towards an endemic scenario, where we live and manage things accordingly.
For myself, I live in Gatineau, QC - which is next to Ottawa, Ontario. To give a better idea to somebody who isn’t familiar geographically - it’s like living in NJ to the boarder of NYC. So I’m watching closely as two very different provinces handle things. In QC, a curfew has come into affect (10pm… We were under an 8pm.one last year from late December until early May). All theatres, venues, restaurants for dining are closed. Schools are moving virtually until at least January 17 (so I need to navigate my daughter doing kindergarten on a computer). All non essential stores are now closing on Sundays.
A lot of these measures seem silly. But I understand the fear of the government having the health system become overwhelmed.
I see Ontario moving in a very different direction… And some I agree with. Some is a little early to be quite so liberal, while other restrictions I feel are a little silly still.
Anyway… Just where I am standing right now.
Yep it completely is. If you need rapid test in a small quantity and can reach out to me. I have a few I can ship it and I sent a member on here a couple. I know it’s virtually impossible to find these now
It’s very difficult for anyone to explain the logic behind all of these decisions. you raise some very good points in terms of contact tracing and how we’re going to handle schools and cases. Again I don’t think it was all very well thought out, but I do know in working in the hospital we were seeing many patients come in just to get testing done which is clogging up the ER so they had to do something
Thought I would give a bit of an update as I’m in the ICU this week.
I was on metro morning in Toronto area this morning on CDC radio if you happen to catch it.
The hospital is filling with Covid patients. Most of them that are being hospitalized are not sick enough to end in the ICU but we have had a slow trickle of patients in. No one who is boosted but unfortunately some double vaccinated with health issues are ventilated now.
There are some Therapies you can take even in Canada if you get Covid. Even if you were hospitalized, medication such as budesonide are available. If you get Covid and have any issues just contact me and I’ll tell you what to take.
A lot of healthcare workers are getting sick. We probably have three of our ICU group who are positive and since I was hanging around with them I’m not sure what the next few days will hold for me. It’s a tough time sadly for everyone.
On top of that most of us are trying to navigate online learning which is board done torture.
If you have to come to the hospital I would come but please be warned that there’s a lot of Covid in the ER so I would wear an N 95 if you came to the hospital. They don’t always give you one at the door so make sure you have one and if you do they will give you an N 95 replacement if they want you to change it.
Stay safe everyone !
My grandmother was in the hospital in December. We went to see her and I was wearing an N95 mask and they made me take it off and put on one of those shit cloth masks.
Shared some of my thoughts today at the end of my week. One day off and back for another week due to sick calls
I hope everyone is staying safe.
I did a piece for global news and CBC National today in Ontario if you catch it. Things in the hospitals are chaotic. Ambulances stopped running last night in some areas.
There are also some medications we are now prescribing for Covid. If anyone on here or your loved one contract Covid contact me and I can maybe prescribe it over the phone for you or your family as opposed to having to go into Hospital.
Dude, that’s incredible.
This could be a life saver, I’m sure, to some people.
This has to be seen as s a huge step to changing the course of this pandemic. If the drug becomes available in the next week or two, I imagine it having an immediate affect on the hospitalization numbers.
Fingers crossed for the best.
Yup. I was involved in these meetings - great news
Excellent to hear.
Basically anybody who is 18+ who would go to the hospital, I’m assuming could be given this, and then basically sent home after an initial observation? Or most people?
I know they’re saying they can’t give it to people who are already hospitalized with a severe case… So I assume that means if somebody who is on a ventilator and in the ICU, the drug won’t do much to reverse the virus?
Correct. The drug isn’t going to help those in the ICU on a ventilator. Or at least it isn’t studied in that capacity.
This is a drug more designed to give people who get sick with Covid but are not hospitalized a way to prevent hospitalization. So you give it to outpatient and they don’t get worse basically. But you have to understand this is about 95 to 99% of all Covid cases. So the bang for the buck is huge here.
In terms of the few percent that get really sick and end up in hospital we have other therapies for them.
You have to remember people don’t end up in hospital from Covid until a few days into the illness. If they start this medication early we may prevent any of those people from actually getting sick enough to end up in Hospital to start with
I’m very happy to hear this news. Again, I feel like a lot is about to change due to it, once it becomes available.
I guess the next step and hope would be a pediatric / child-safe dosage (along with a vaccination for kids under 5), to truly change the reality of the current pandemic.
This drug would really probably make a huge difference for those in long term care especially, where outbreaks are frequent. I assume it would save a lot of vulnerable people.
Also, hospital staff (and emergency staff of all levels) who have been dealing with outbreaks among themselves, this would allow them to keep working and not risk their health further too.