Mastodawn

2) The Collège des médecins du Québec effectively called for a return of the mask mandate less than 24 hours after responding to a plea tweeted by pediatric ER physician Guylaine Larose lamenting the inertia by public health authorities.
https://twitter.com/CMQ_org/status/1591621866623741953

3) Meanwhile late Sunday afternoon, Montreal's two pediatric hospital emergency rooms — Sainte-Justine and the Children's — were filled to 169% and 142% capacity, respectively. Physicians are treating pediatric patients suffering from RSV and other respiratory infections.

4) Dr. Robert Barnes, of the Montreal Children's Hospital, sent an internal email to staff noting that "all four pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) in Quebec are currently overwhelmed with severe respiratory illness in very young children." Please read Barnes' message below.

5) Adult ERs are also overcrowded, with the Jewish General Hospital reporting an occupancy rate Sunday of 174% at 4:30 p.m. At the Lakeshore General Hospital, a source described the disturbing influenza case of a woman in her 20s who was admitted to the ER gasping for breath.

6) The woman had been vaccinated three times against COVID but not against the flu. She had come in "short of breath needing more and more oxygen," the source recalled. "X-ray shows multi-focal pneumonia. Flu swab comes back positive for influenza A but negative for COVID..."

7) "She gets worse and needs (high-pressure) opti-flow (oxygen) and ICU consult in the code room," the source added of the young female patient. "Is this what is coming over in the next few months?"

8) The so-called perfect storm that infectious-diseases experts had feared two years ago is now coming to pass: a high number of #COVID hospitalizations coinciding with an earlier and harsher flu season. What some didn't expect is the respiratory syncytial virus epidemic in kids.

9) In retrospect, it has become clear that the premature lifting of public health protections in the #COVID #pandemic — even while hospitals were still overwhelmed — allowed all these respiratory viruses to circulate freely as never before.

Matthew MacLeod Nov 13, 2022

@aderfel thing is RSV was above average trend at the end of last season, and well before the start of this flu season as well. See e.g. week ending Oct 1 in the PHAC weekly tracker: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/surveillance/respiratory-virus-detections-canada/2022-2023/week-39-ending-october-1-2022.html

Respiratory Virus Report, Week 39 - ending October 1, 2022 - Canada.ca

Respiratory Virus Detection Surveillance System data from Canadian laboratories on the number of tests, and positive tests, for influenza and other respiratory viruses.

Bugs ♾️ 🪶 🐦⚾

Nov 14, 2022

@Macleod199 @aderfel yes, and this further puts the lie to "immunity debt" and hints strongly at Covid damages to the immune system, as we had higher cases of RSV, but lower cases of severe RSV before omicron and "let it rip" had run amok. It is well known covid damages the immune system, and RSV attacks more seriously after measles infection hinders immune responses too

Leifur Halldor Asgeirsson Nov 14, 2022

@aderfel I don't see any recommendation for mask mandates or for any specific public policy here, is this the correct tweet?

Nov 14, 2022

@leifurhauks The recommendation by the Quebec College of Physicians is effectively a call for a return to the mask mandate in the province.
But it would be up to the government to announce and enforce one.

Leifur Halldor Asgeirsson Nov 14, 2022

@aderfel I see the recommendation to wear masks in the tweet linked in 1), but that's different from calling for a mask mandate. There seems to be implicit pressure here on the santé public to act, but the statement stops short of prescribing a specific public policy.

I'm all for masks, I still mask in the grocery store. I'm just concerned, given how contentious mask mandates are, that you might be inadvertently reporting a stronger statement than what was communicated.