[Insert winning post title here]
March 3, 2021 7:27 AM Subscribe
they're good posts Bruce: Ottawa Public Health's twitter and facebook feeds have been a guiding light of thoughtfulness, good humour and grace under pressure during the pandemic. Meet Kevin -- not Bruce -- the man behind North America's most popular public health social media accounts.
They're my local public health unit, at least when I'm at home in Ottawa, but even now that I've been in Vancouver for a few months, I keep following them, because it's always a bright spot in my day to read what they have to say, even if what they have to say isn't good news.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:41 AM on March 3, 2021
posted by jacquilynne at 7:41 AM on March 3, 2021
As someone who has tried and mostly failed at running a public institution Twitter feed, bravo, Ottawa Public Health. The story at the first link is terrific and gives us south-of-the-border types plenty of Twitter links to get the feel of the OPH communication. And a little master class in how to Twitter.
I'm starting to think the world would be better off if we just handed all the reins to Canada.
posted by martin q blank at 8:06 AM on March 3, 2021 [2 favorites]
I'm starting to think the world would be better off if we just handed all the reins to Canada.
posted by martin q blank at 8:06 AM on March 3, 2021 [2 favorites]
Canadian public health is wild to American eyes. Behold: The Sex You Want, which I stumbled across from the Ottawa public health site that linked it. Most wholesome animated blowjob ever!
posted by praemunire at 9:56 AM on March 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by praemunire at 9:56 AM on March 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
Ehh, I wouldn't be too proud of Canada. Toronto's looking at August-December for general public COVID-19 vaccination.
posted by scruss at 10:21 AM on March 3, 2021
posted by scruss at 10:21 AM on March 3, 2021
Ehh, I wouldn't be too proud of Canada. Toronto's looking at August-December for general public COVID-19 vaccination.
That is less a reflection on Canada than it is on decades of free trade internationalism running headlong into a pandemic resulting in extremely aggressive vaccine nationalism.
I am still damn impressed by Canada's covid-19 performance particularly since Canada's major cities are all pretty major international hubs and were all hit early in the pandemic with very little warning. Plus they achieved this despite massive media spillover from one of the dumbest countries in the pandemic world.
If you think Canada in any way resembles the American shitshow you haven't been paying attention. Even in the Democratic Party stronghold of Chicago I only feel safe going out for a run at 5:30am (and not so much even then but I gotta do something physical) and I go for groceries first thing in the morning every 10th day at the most. I've largely given up on evening walks. America has become one big giant unsafe neighborhood ruled by the obnoxious DGAF covid-19 bullies. My own alderman violated the city's covid-19 mandates and ran a covert sugar speakeasy selling Cinnabons to in person diners. And he still has his job and his restaurant license and as far I can tell has received no punishment at all.
Illinois alone currently has about the same number of covid deaths as Canada.
I'm looking forward to this all being over but frankly I will never again trust America at all or Americans in aggregate (Some Americas are good but there are simply not enough). I am going to work very hard to get back home because right now Canada, with its tiny warts and all, seems like a goddam paradise.
posted by srboisvert at 11:34 AM on March 3, 2021 [8 favorites]
That is less a reflection on Canada than it is on decades of free trade internationalism running headlong into a pandemic resulting in extremely aggressive vaccine nationalism.
I am still damn impressed by Canada's covid-19 performance particularly since Canada's major cities are all pretty major international hubs and were all hit early in the pandemic with very little warning. Plus they achieved this despite massive media spillover from one of the dumbest countries in the pandemic world.
If you think Canada in any way resembles the American shitshow you haven't been paying attention. Even in the Democratic Party stronghold of Chicago I only feel safe going out for a run at 5:30am (and not so much even then but I gotta do something physical) and I go for groceries first thing in the morning every 10th day at the most. I've largely given up on evening walks. America has become one big giant unsafe neighborhood ruled by the obnoxious DGAF covid-19 bullies. My own alderman violated the city's covid-19 mandates and ran a covert sugar speakeasy selling Cinnabons to in person diners. And he still has his job and his restaurant license and as far I can tell has received no punishment at all.
Illinois alone currently has about the same number of covid deaths as Canada.
I'm looking forward to this all being over but frankly I will never again trust America at all or Americans in aggregate (Some Americas are good but there are simply not enough). I am going to work very hard to get back home because right now Canada, with its tiny warts and all, seems like a goddam paradise.
posted by srboisvert at 11:34 AM on March 3, 2021 [8 favorites]
The OPH social media team is great and has been a real bright spot over the past year! Nice to see them getting some broader recognition. They don't have any control over vaccine access or anything else related to overall public health in Canada, so we can probably avoid that tangent. They're doing really well at the communication side of things, though.
posted by randomnity at 11:37 AM on March 3, 2021
posted by randomnity at 11:37 AM on March 3, 2021
Proudfoot, the author, is also great. Here is her personal narrative on being a first generation college student.
posted by zenon at 11:47 AM on March 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by zenon at 11:47 AM on March 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
Illinois alone currently has about the same number of covid deaths as Canada.
This sounds slightly less impressive when you realize that the population of Canada is only about three times the population of Illinois.
There's not a lot we can do about Canada's vaccination timeline short of going back in time and stopping Brian Mulroney from closing Canada's only domestic vaccine production facility (which I may have the details wrong about, being a New Canadian post-Mulroney).
The thing to really be un-proud about is the death toll in Canada's long-term care homes (about half of all of Ontario's COVID deaths have been LTC residents), the fact that the second wave [after August 2020] has seen more LTC deaths than the first wave, and the fact that LTC homes are still racking up infection control protocol violations even during and after outbreaks within those homes:
This sounds slightly less impressive when you realize that the population of Canada is only about three times the population of Illinois.
There's not a lot we can do about Canada's vaccination timeline short of going back in time and stopping Brian Mulroney from closing Canada's only domestic vaccine production facility (which I may have the details wrong about, being a New Canadian post-Mulroney).
The thing to really be un-proud about is the death toll in Canada's long-term care homes (about half of all of Ontario's COVID deaths have been LTC residents), the fact that the second wave [after August 2020] has seen more LTC deaths than the first wave, and the fact that LTC homes are still racking up infection control protocol violations even during and after outbreaks within those homes:
The violations included staff not being aware of the correct personal protective equipment to wear and not cleaning their hands after taking care of residents; staff working with both COVID-19 positive and negative residents; and hand sanitizer not being available in all areas of the home.posted by heatherlogan at 12:39 PM on March 3, 2021 [5 favorites]
I am still damn impressed by Canada's covid-19 performance particularly since Canada's major cities are all pretty major international hubs and were all hit early in the pandemic with very little warning. Plus they achieved this despite massive media spillover from one of the dumbest countries in the pandemic world.
I get the impulse to look at that as a net plus, but the problem we'll always have -- and the reason the Doug Fords and Jason Kenneys of the country will keep getting elected -- is that people will look at this low, low bar and say "Well, at least we didn't sink that low." It's just not a useful basis for comparison.
But the extent that the perception that we could have done worse makes sense, it's largely been a case of local public health units and municipal medical officers of health (see here for but a few reasons why the province's MOH has been a model of disastrous incompetence) doing what they do -- not without some mistakes, but no response was going to be perfect.
Local health units in Ontario in many cases (but not always and not everywhere) have been able to act quickly and intelligently, and revise approaches based on new and emerging data, and communicate it well. Getting back to the Maclean's piece, this really stood out in that regard:
In a public health emergency, when you need each person to make the right choices or everyone ends up in serious trouble, good communication is arguably as important to slowing a galloping virus as masks and hand sanitizer. Citizens need information they can understand, trust and act on, and they need a reason to upend their lives and pull together even when they are tired and scared and stressed. Instead, too many Canadians have been subjected to public health officials who speak like ATMs come to life, politicians who preach sacrifice while throwing themselves at the nearest jet bound for a beach and to muddled, condescending or emotionally constipated messaging about what they need to do and why.
But in the midst of that morass, there is Ottawa Public Health stalwartly putting out long, nuanced threads that explain the reasoning for public health measures people are finding it tough to live with; empathetic acknowledgements that this is all really hard, but we will get through it; earnest reminders about what we need to do and how it will help; and smartass riffs that grab attention before imparting some solid bit of public health information.
And then the problem is that the province is still working on dismantling, defunding, and centralizing these health units and/or their key functions. And the province has basically told health units that they're on their own when it comes to vaccine distribution, which is a bold admission that at the provincial level, in the months and months where province-wide rollout planning could have taken place, none did.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:51 PM on March 3, 2021 [8 favorites]
I get the impulse to look at that as a net plus, but the problem we'll always have -- and the reason the Doug Fords and Jason Kenneys of the country will keep getting elected -- is that people will look at this low, low bar and say "Well, at least we didn't sink that low." It's just not a useful basis for comparison.
But the extent that the perception that we could have done worse makes sense, it's largely been a case of local public health units and municipal medical officers of health (see here for but a few reasons why the province's MOH has been a model of disastrous incompetence) doing what they do -- not without some mistakes, but no response was going to be perfect.
Local health units in Ontario in many cases (but not always and not everywhere) have been able to act quickly and intelligently, and revise approaches based on new and emerging data, and communicate it well. Getting back to the Maclean's piece, this really stood out in that regard:
In a public health emergency, when you need each person to make the right choices or everyone ends up in serious trouble, good communication is arguably as important to slowing a galloping virus as masks and hand sanitizer. Citizens need information they can understand, trust and act on, and they need a reason to upend their lives and pull together even when they are tired and scared and stressed. Instead, too many Canadians have been subjected to public health officials who speak like ATMs come to life, politicians who preach sacrifice while throwing themselves at the nearest jet bound for a beach and to muddled, condescending or emotionally constipated messaging about what they need to do and why.
But in the midst of that morass, there is Ottawa Public Health stalwartly putting out long, nuanced threads that explain the reasoning for public health measures people are finding it tough to live with; empathetic acknowledgements that this is all really hard, but we will get through it; earnest reminders about what we need to do and how it will help; and smartass riffs that grab attention before imparting some solid bit of public health information.
And then the problem is that the province is still working on dismantling, defunding, and centralizing these health units and/or their key functions. And the province has basically told health units that they're on their own when it comes to vaccine distribution, which is a bold admission that at the provincial level, in the months and months where province-wide rollout planning could have taken place, none did.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:51 PM on March 3, 2021 [8 favorites]
And a little master class in how to Twitter.
The takeaway I'm getting is that his boss/manager just lets him do his job. That's something.
I wouldn't be too proud of Canada.
"How to continue feeling superior to Americans while watching them get the vaccine months before you" - The Beaverton.
posted by ovvl at 2:35 PM on March 3, 2021 [5 favorites]
The takeaway I'm getting is that his boss/manager just lets him do his job. That's something.
I wouldn't be too proud of Canada.
"How to continue feeling superior to Americans while watching them get the vaccine months before you" - The Beaverton.
posted by ovvl at 2:35 PM on March 3, 2021 [5 favorites]
Bruce has finally revealed his true identity
posted by randomnity at 6:13 AM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by randomnity at 6:13 AM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
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posted by warriorqueen at 7:31 AM on March 3, 2021