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POP BC Briefing: COVID-19 Testing: Strategies for Success

How can COVID-19 testing be used as a strategy to end the pandemic? What is the difference between rapid tests and PCR tests? How are rapid tests useful, and how are they used in other jurisdictions to allow people to congregate safely? And what is BC’s testing situation, and what can be done better to drive COVID-19 transmission down so we can participate in our daily lives safely, while also protecting the health care system?

Tune into Protect Our Province’s third briefing to find out!

Date: Wednesday, November 3

Time: 12 noon PDT

Where: ProtectBC.ca/Livestream 

Facilitator:

Melody Ma, Community Rapid Testing advocate, UBC Medical Laboratory Science alumna

Speakers:

Dr. Victor Leung, Infectious Disease physician and medical microbiologist specializing in infection prevention and control and Antimicrobial stewardship

Dr. Lisa Barrett, MD, PhD Clinician Investigator and Infectious Disease specialist, Dalhousie University, Department of Medicine. Pioneer of rapid testing programs in the community in Nova Scotia.

Paul Tupper, PhD, Professor, Canada Research Chair, Department of Mathematics at Simon Fraser University.

Archived Briefings from Protect Our Province BC

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“If we had an epidemic of people with broken limbs and we saw people in plasters and crutches, it would be more evident. But there is a lot of disability that is happening, which is a hidden disability often, which is why we need to talk about it more, for people to understand what the consequences are. And that will help to make better decisions.” – Lynette
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Date: Wednesday, March 1 2023 at 2:00 PM PST A conversation with Protect Our Province BC doctors about Paxlovid and access to this useful Covid medication in BC Join Dr. Susan Kuo and Dr. Lyne Filiatrault of Protect Our Province BC on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, 2 pm, for a conversation about Paxlovid.  BC is… Continue reading Mar 1, 2023: Paxlovid: Why Should You Care?
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Date: Friday, Feb 3, 2023 at 1:30 PM PST Ever get the feeling we’re not getting the real story about COVID?Apparently “the pandemic is over!” yet it seems like everyone you know is ill or has a family member who is, while schools have multiple classes merged together because of so many teachers are out… Continue reading Feb 3, 2023: COVID Reality Check with Dr. Sanjiv Gandhi

More News from Protect Our Province BC

Four healthcare workers dressed in white lab coats. All four are wearing white earloop respirators and have stethoscopes draped over their shoulders. Standing in a row from left to right: a Black man with short black hair and glasses, a taller white man with dark brown hair in behind the other three, a white woman in the front of the group with dark brown hair and gold hoop earrings, and a white woman with long black hair behind the woman in front.
This is the first time I have ever written a letter to my MLA. As a constituent who is a healthcare professional, a parent, and a recent cancer survivor, I feel compelled to reach out after the removal of mask mandates in BC hospitals, and I ask you, as my elected representative, to hear and, I hope, understand how serious this issue is, and how urgently change is needed in our provincial government’s pandemic management strategy.
Our health officer has previously advocated for kindness. But as someone with a disability (long Covid), I need you to know that resting under this rubric of “personal choice”, many of us who are disabled actually experience this framing of the matter as a personal choice, rather, as your government’s complete and abject disregard of the disabled and elderly, for how else are we to understand why our lives and health don’t matter?
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Now is not the time to remove indoor masks protections in spaces where vulnerable British Columbians seek medical care. No one should come to the hospital for one condition and leave with a COVID-19 infection. Or, not leave the hospital, and die from Covid? A recent leak from the Victorian Health Department, Australia suggested a 10% or more mortality for patients who acquired COVID-19 in hospital between January and October 2022.