Read on Twitter
More detailed thread on AB’s variant wave press conference. I can’t believe Quebec, which is starting in the worst position (highest daily cases, deaths, hospitalisations, full ICUs) is the last province to address this when it’s so time sensitive. These are 6 week projections. https://twitter.com/cspotweet/status/1353835051604041728
The emphasis is on how well it’s going when really, even though numbers are better, we’re in the worst position for this threat, with the most community transmission of any province and full hospitals/ICUs. We haven’t even seen the data on VOCs found here. https://twitter.com/patrickdery/status/1353094764590198787?s=21
It’s not even as simple as testing swabs and keeping the variants out. Convergent evolution means that we’re seeing the virus evolve and adapt in a similar way all around the world. LA experienced a variant wave caused by their own homegrown covid variant.
https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1353517194789888000?s=21 https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1353517194789888000
https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1353517194789888000?s=21 https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1353517194789888000
A sobering thread on what the variant wave looked like in LA.
https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1346182163369177090?s=21 https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1346182163369177090
https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1346182163369177090?s=21 https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1346182163369177090
So many bodies... they had to lift air quality limits on cremations
https://twitter.com/buzzfeed/status/1351250072365920258?s=21 https://twitter.com/buzzfeed/status/1351250072365920258
https://twitter.com/buzzfeed/status/1351250072365920258?s=21 https://twitter.com/buzzfeed/status/1351250072365920258
The UK is now trying to cope with the fallout of a preventable new wave of hospitalisations. What’s scary is that their situation sounds not that far off from our current situation in QC. Our *starting point* would be full ICUs and canceled surgeries. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/world/europe/uk-hospitals-covid-variant.html
After the UK and Ireland, Portugal missed their window to act. Spain is also currently surging well past their peak numbers from the first 2 waves (though it isn’t confirmed whether a variant is dominating.)
https://twitter.com/erictopol/status/1353396721452150784?s=21 https://twitter.com/erictopol/status/1353396721452150784
https://twitter.com/erictopol/status/1353396721452150784?s=21 https://twitter.com/erictopol/status/1353396721452150784
Ontario: B117 got into an LTC and 41 residents have died so far. Covid coupled with the catastrophic staffing situation and PPE shortages at Herron led to 46 deaths in the spring. B117 is rivaling that tragedy all on its own. https://twitter.com/cbclorenda/status/1353433369082798080
Is B117 deadlier? It might be. Is 502.v2? P1? Bottom line is that in Quebec, any covid surge absolutely would be deadlier since having no capacity makes any version of covid deadlier. https://twitter.com/itosettimd_mba/status/1342535031743508483
These variants are appearing because of uncontrolled transmission. We didn’t see this coming when we celebrated the approval of vaccines. If we continue to let covid spread and mutate, we’re making ourselves vulnerable to more variants, possibly vaccine resistant ones this time.
The only way to prevent a variant wave is to SUPPRESS community transmission until everyone’s vaccinated. Anything less would only delay the inevitable while also imposing endless restrictions in an attempt to hold it back a while longer. We need to come to terms with this.
We have the advantage of being in a position to do this *before* a variant dominates. #COVIDzero isn’t radical. It’s the only strategy that’s resisted a second wave and so far the variant waves. It’s the only strategy that works. https://twitter.com/devisridhar/status/1352195587978964996
