Imma gonna do an Alberta Covid update anyway. But a long one, because of the new B117 variant in London, implications on schools. First a personal story.

My teenaged daughter is a covid long hauler. We think. She's had chronic fatigue for 10 months now. /1

She caught a bug in March, same time as my wife and me. Covid testing was unavailable at the time for our specific case. All three of us felt better after a week and then were shattered for three months after. Fatigue. Sleeplessness. Aches. /2

Constant back-and-forth, sometimes better, sometimes worse. Moving in the right direction, though.

Not so Teenager. In October, the fatigue got worse. And worse. She now wakes to eat, then back to sleep. School is impossible. Every small improvement turns back upon itself. /3

She remains incredibly motivated, but has zero capacity.

This is my fault.

My job is keeping my children safe. I have no other. The week before the March shutdown, partied at the huge company ski trip. Buffet meal. Americans present. Barhopping after. /4

I knew there was a pandemic on. I didn't pay attention because my local health officials didn't say there was a problem. Right? So dumb.

Or maybe it was something else. Who knows? /5

Bottom line: Treating the pandemic seriously would have been weird. I would have missed the ski trip.

And maybe in doing that I wouldn't have a kid with chronic fatigue, a kid who's not getting better. /6

Chronic fatigue is not a disease. It's a syndrome. Collection of symptoms. No one treatment. Sometimes it never gets better. I believe with all my heart and soul that my kid will be fine. But minimum, so far, she's lost a year of her young life. /7

We are at a similar crossroads now. The new B117 variant from the UK. "It's not really here yet." "One case." Etc etc. But we know how these things spread. UK variant discovered in Sept. Now the common version in London. /8 https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1341446474471669766

And maybe it impacts children differentially. Doesn't appear to impact mortality, but there is evidence that kids are more susceptible to the new variant than the old. /9 https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1345408146853031936

And it's coming. We know the rules of pandemics now. We cannot stop it from establishing a beachhead. But we can stop the seeds from sprouting. We can fight. /10 https://twitter.com/Wikisteff/status/1346489001704906752

How can I send my youngest to school, with this out there? With a government that doesn't take it seriously, that takes weekends off from vaccination, that jets off to Hawaii? One might say I don't trust these motherfuckers. /11
https://art-bd.shinyapps.io/covid19canada/ 

@CMOH_Alberta already failed in March, acting too late. Then, again, in October, by failing to reduce the spread. Today, re-opening schools next week. Always behind the curve. Always putting my family in danger. /12

The curve is not dropping fast enough. The new variant will be established, because we are selecting for it with an R ~ 0.9 (at best), which spreads the B117 but suppresses the regular one. Maybe my youngest is next. Or your children. /13 https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1345382707996614657

I will keep my youngest child safe. Won't repeat my mistake. Which brings us to school. I'm lucky. Not working much. Flexible. We simply can't trust government. Considering strongly keeping him home. Kid is devastated. But we are choiceless. /14

Tagging @joececiyyc @RachelNotley @jkenney @imgrund @JeremyPNixon @MattWolfAB @shandro for what it's worth. Keeping kids home, if you can, means less risk for kids who can't. The people in charge care less about your family than you do. Keep your kids safe. /end

To be clear @imgrund should not have been on this list of politicians. He's been invaluable at publicizing the risks we are under.

And I mean no disrespect, "for what it's worth" refers to my 200 followers. I know you care. Please, show it.