Canadian Covid Society

It's officially a thing!

Dr. Kashif Pirzada explains how it started:

Wanted to share with you something near and dear to my heart. Today my colleagues and I are proud to launch the Canadian Covid Society. Covid-19 is thankfully not the threat it once was, but there are still significant issues with having a new disease roughly four times as bad as Flu (and much more contagious) floating around, which also disables a lot of people as well. In Canada it was the 3rd leading cause of death 2020, 2021 and 2022. We have the Canadian Cancer Society, and Heart and Stroke foundation for the 1st and 2nd causes; it's time we have one for the 3rd leading cause of death. 

It is perfectly natural to not want to deal with this issue anymore. But that's part of the problem isn't it? Many of us have a visceral aversion to discussing it, perhaps a natural reaction to memories of the most traumatizing days of the pandemic. But the fact remains that it's still out there, that it will continue to cause strain on our health systems, disable people, and shorten life for many of us. We need a national body that will keep advocating for things like updated vaccines and therapies, as well as common-sense fixes that prevent the spread of disease, like cleaner indoor air (which could have been very useful stopping this nasty measles outbreak we're having). We need a national strategy to support and improve access to care for Long Covid sufferers, many of whom are simply unable to access any care for a devastatingly disabling condition. Two out of the three Long Covid advocates we approached for our launch event were not able to attend due to illness, which should tell you something! There's no way to predict who will get it, when they'll get it, and there is no cure, yet. 

You'll hear more from us as we grow the range of activities offered by the Society. We would love to share resources and help like-minded groups start national societies in their own countries. Would love to see and collaborate with an American Covid Society, a British Covid Society etc. It is time that we create a permanent effort to fight this disease, and not have these efforts subject to political whims or a societal wish to indulge in denial.

 

See their press release video from last Wednesday. Here's the gist of it:

They introduced the board, chairs Dr. Joe Vipond and Dr. Kashif Pirzada, and then engineer Cheryl White, Chris Houston who has work with many organizations including MSF, and physics professor Nancy Delagrave. Their mission: to protect the health and safety of people in Canada -- basically what public health should be doing. Hospital admissions continues to be a stressor on the health system from Covid, which causes immune problems, so it reactivates older illnesses and increased autoimmune illnesses. There's currently a 27% increased mortality in the 0-44 age group. It is decrease life expectancy, and here's no sign of slowing. If we have Long Covid patients, there's nowhere to send them. 

They're soliciting for donations to pay for ongoing staff. They have to be registered as a non-profit for a time before they can get charitable status, so they can only function with grassroots donations. They're working to fill the gap that public health has left open. There's virtually no mention of Covid or Long Covid. It's fallen off the radar. 

Their logo is a dandelion which has the shape of the Covid molecule and blows in the wind to remind us that Covid is airborne. 

The video also has testimony from a Long Covid patient who had every aspect of her identity affected by the illness. She had to pay out of pocket for hyperbaric chamber sessions. There's no single test to find Long Covid, and no treatment, so 70 million people worldwide are doing their own individual work to find solutions. 

Wearing a mask in a hospital or other healthcare facility should be like wearing a hardhat on a construction site. People shouldn't get sick from a hospital. We should never lose masks in hospitals. And the labour shortage of doctors and nurses are, in a big part, due to Covid, either themselves or a family member who now needs their care. 

They plan to look at what's worked in other places, e.g. Test or treat it, you can beat it, from California's public health.

Personally, I quit smoking years ago to avoid cancer; I exercise and eat well to ward off heart disease, and I wear a mask to reduce the chance of getting Covid. But it's good to know there are organization that can help when needed.