Aaron Derfel Nov 13, 2022
1) BREAKING: Facing inaction by public health officials, Quebec's College of Physicians urged Quebecers Sunday to wear face masks in public places to help overflowing pediatric emergency rooms struggling with an influx of kids with respiratory infections.
https://twitter.com/CMQ_org/status/1591884389566533633
Collège des médecins du Québec on Twitter

“Avec la montée inquiétante des cas de virus respiratoires chez les enfants et le débordement des urgences pédiatriques, le Collège des médecins recommande à nouveau le port du masque dans les lieux publics afin de se protéger et de protéger les autres.”

Twitter
Show threadAaron Derfel Nov 13, 2022
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
Show threadAaron Derfel Nov 13, 2022
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.
Show threadAaron Derfel Nov 13, 2022
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.
Show threadAaron Derfel Nov 13, 2022
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.
Show threadAaron Derfel Nov 13, 2022
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..."
Show threadAaron Derfel Nov 13, 2022
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?"
Show threadAaron Derfel 
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.
Nov 13, 2022 at 11:09pmWeb
Show threadAaron Derfel Nov 13, 2022
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.
Show threadMatthew MacLeodNov 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.

Show threadBugs ♾️ 🪶 🐦⚾ 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