Ms. Opossum graphs COVID data (health break).

🧵One thing I’ll always remember from when mask mandates were dropped is how gleefully my colleagues at the time rushed back to normal.

I begged them to consider what it meant for high risk folks like me.

“Everyone has to take personal responsibility,” said my boss. (1/3)

"Stratus" sub-lineage XFG.1.1 was characterised by a reversion to Spike W452R, which captured the attention of the Variant Hunters.

The growth of XFG.1.1 accelerated recently in New York, reaching 44%.
🧵

Graphic showing sentences being served by 45 democracy campaigners in Hong Kong in November 2024, including some of the city's best known activists. A three-judge panel on February 23 dismissed appeals from 12 of the group on February 23. Chart: AFP

Full coverage: buff.ly/ZxjbeQD

TB is airborne. Respirator masks are a great way to help you prevent contracting and/or spreading airborne diseases.

The survey is still active. Please share this post and most importantly, fill it out.

Be aware that "strongly disagree" is the left-most choice in the multiple choice questions. Thanks BCCDC. Real cool.

The survey is still active. Please share this post and most importantly, fill it out.

Be aware that "strongly disagree" is the left-most choice in the multiple choice questions. Thanks BCCDC. Real cool.

That sounds more like a taunt than reminiscing. If anyone did that with me, I'd strongly reconsider keeping that friendship.

Long COVID may be triggering Alzheimer’s-like changes in the brain: new study Over 20 million Americans are believed to have long COVID, suffering symptoms such as severe fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain, palpitations, dizziness and muscle pain.

It's upsetting when New York Post is a more accurate source of health news than many public health orgs

nypost.com/2026/02/10/h...

AND MAHA was enabled by official public health, id docs, pediatricians. 🇨🇦 ians will identify with:

1. People Die With COVID, Not of COVID
2. Only Sick Kids Die [underlying conditions]
3. It’s All Going Away [Bonnie's Hug Day]
6. Infections Are Beneficial [Hybrid immunity™️, immunity 'debt']

The BCNDP doesn't care about casualties. Source: the past 7 years.

No problem. Sorry for having neglected social media for the past few months. Health issues + burnout.

@emilylowan.bsky.social @beansproutsmom.bsky.social

Screenshot from BCCDC.ca: "In general, washing your hands well and not sharing food, drinks, utensils, etc. can help prevent the spread of measles and other infectious diseases."

Alberta Health Services measles Q&A. Highlighted portion: "As an airborne virus, mealses is spread from person to person through the air. Measles virus can survive up to 2 hours in the air even after the contagious person has left the space. Measles virus can also be spread through breathing, singing, yelling, coughing, and sneezing."

"Health Minister" Josie Osborne urges parents to get vaccinated but will not require proof of vaccination for school attendance.

BCCDC is now recommending hand-washing for the prevention of measles, a notoriously airborne virus. Screenshots from @dragginfly.bsky.social on Twitter.

@RazvenHK on Twitter: "@inmediahk reports that at approx 4:40am, a court watcher in line for the Jimmy Lai trial sentencing proceedings was detained and taken away by the police after she was found with an Apple Daily keychain, Apple Daily being the newspaper founded by Jimmy Lai." Still from a video of a Hong Konger woman with long black hair being taken away by police.

Do you have a keychain with the logo of a banned newspaper on it? Arrested!

Normal and cool!

Jimmy Lai jailed for 20 years in Hong Kong after nat. security conviction Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been jailed for 20 years following his foreign collusion and sedition conviction.

editor-in-chief Lai Wai Kwong, executive editor-in-chief Lam Man-chung and editorial writer Fung Wai-kong all received 10 year jail terms.

Two former activists linked to international lobby group Stand with Hong Kong, who testified against Lai for a lighter sentence were also jailed.

Jimmy Lai jailed for 20 years in Hong Kong after nat. security conviction Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been jailed for 20 years following his foreign collusion and sedition conviction.

Six former Apple Daily executives were also sentenced. Publisher Cheung Kim hung received six years and nine months behind bars, associated publisher Chan Pui-man got seven years, and editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee was sentenced to seven years and three months.

Chan Tsz-wah got six years and three months behind bars, whilst Andy Li received seven years and three months. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Full coverage: hongkongfp.com/2026/02/09/b... Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Oh OK so they're going to let the poor guy die in jail for having had press freedom.

Advocacy opportunity 📣 BCCDC is assessing BC’s wastewater surveillance program. Survey here: ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Wastewater testing is an “early warning system” to monitor community illness levels, including surges & new variants. It’s a crucial tool for pandemic preparedness.

Severe, primary, and incidental COVID-19 in hospitalised children, South Africa: 2020–2023 Knowledge gaps persist regarding paediatric COVID-19 clinical presentation, treatment and outcomes in high HIV prevalence settings, with low COVID-19 vaccine coverage. An ambi-directional cohort study was conducted in 13 South African public sector ...

"In a high HIV prevalence country, approximately 70% of children with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test were hospitalised for COVID-19 treatment; almost 70% of these children were severely ill."

😭

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Please support this petition calling for a parliamentary investigation into foreign (American) interference in our country. It is sponsored by my former colleague Don Davies

www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en...

DHS Hunts Down 67-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Who Criticized Them in Email The Department of Homeland Security is using a little-known tool to go after its critics.

Floored by this story. A man wrote a pollite email to a federal prosecutor objecting to the deportation of an Afghan seeking asylum. DHS responded with an administrative warrant to get the man's info from Google, then visited his home to intimidate him.

Screencap from the BCCDC wastewater dashboard with a notice stating, report updated on September 18, 2025. Data is presented up to the reporting period of epi week 37 (September 7 - 13, 2025). The wastewater surveillance program has implemented some new changes starting September 11, 2025: 1) the number of wastewater treatment plants tested has been changed to eight provincewide, as opposed to previously 12 wastewater treatment plants. 2) they will now be one sample collected per wastewater treatment plant per week, as opposed to previously three samples per treatment plant per week. 3) sequencing of wastewater samples will be changed from weekly to every two weeks.

Clinical data (like no. of hospitalizations & deaths) are lagging indicators, making wastewater essential. Unfortunately, BC drastically cut their testing program in Sept 2025 - they stopped testing 4 treatment plants, and reduced sampling to once a week & sequencing to once every 2 weeks.

Accountability? Never heard of it!

@beansproutsmom.bsky.social @frozen.bsky.social @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social @gosiagasperophd.bsky.social @chantzy.bsky.social @crof.bsky.social @dfisman.bsky.social @canadahealthwatch.ca @jvipondmd.bsky.social @protectbc.bsky.social

Feel free to copy and paste:

Restore thrice-a-week wastewater sampling. Expand the number of WWTPs under surveillance beyond the original 12. Represent every week of wastewater data in the lineage abundance graph and graph influenza as well as SARS-CoV-2 lineages.

I've already outlined the significance of wastewater surveillance for monitoring the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and future threats in this thread: bsky.app/profile/ratn...

Question from the last page of the BCCDC's wastewater dashboard survey: "Do you have any suggestion(s) for improving the BCCDC wastewater surveillance dashboard? Please share here." What I'd written in the text box: "Restore thrice-a-week wastewater sampling. Expand the number of WWTPs under surveillance beyond the original 12. Represent every week of wastewater data in the lineage abundance graph and graph influenza as well as SARS-CoV-2 lineages."

The BCCDC is surveying the public on our experience of the wastewater dashboard. Even though they've left hardly any room for suggestions, it is still an opportunity to voice our discontent w/ the state of wastewater surveillance in "BC", so please use it. ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

BC CDC survey re: its wastewater dashboard

ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

@chantzy.bsky.social @ratnegative.bsky.social @mikehoney.bsky.social @jeffgilchrist.bsky.social @young.me

Now more than ever we need people to mask up to help resist fascism.

It’s much easier to resist when you have your health.

Masking protects your health & the health of others.

It shows those in power that you refuse to leave vulnerable people behind.

It keeps the resistance inclusive!