I have been trying to post an article on 19th-century Quebec. As workers tried to organize, many priests sided with the boss. Some threatened excommunication, if workers got together. A few workers were killed. In short, it’s heartbreaking.
Yet, I will write the shortest of posts. We are living and dying in the age of Covid-19. There are new outbreaks. So I want to tell you to wear a mask. It’s your only defense.
Social distancing does not work very well unless one also wears a mask. Nature has made us gregarious, so we automatically approach others.
The novel Coronavirus has taken many lives in Canada, 90% of which were in Quebec and Ontario. Moreover, we have no way of knowing whether persons who have recovered will be as they were before they contracted Covid-19. I caught the H1N1 virus in early February 1976 and developed what used to be called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It is now called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Covid-19 could trigger other illnesses.
Quebec is reopening, but the number of cases is nevertheless rising though not significantly. It has been ascertained that fewer people are infected on days when rules are observed. Social distancing and wearing a face mask protect people. However, the government is testing everyone.
As you know, most of the victims were living in long-term care facilities. Premier Legault could not recruit the health care givers he needed. So he has taken action. Ten thousand individuals will be trained as orderlies. Training will be condensed, but it is not for the Armed Forces to be doctors and health workers outside the Armed Forces are working as though they had been dispatched to a mission abroad and are remunerated accordingly.
The training of orderlies cannot be delayed due to the expected second wave of Covid-19. The Government must act now. The last time I looked at figures, there were 55,000 applications. Orderlies will be paid close to $50,000.00 a year, with all fringe benefits, such as a pension plan. Moreover, the Armed Forces leave in mid-September. They were a blessing.
It would be my opinion that Premiers have worked responsibly. I did not know monsieur Legault, but the pandemic has lifted a veil. Moreover, Premier Legault has appointed a Secretary for Anglophone Affairs. We must live in harmony with one another.
This logic may seem a little a cracked, but it has occurred to me that Anglophone Canadians may wish for French-Canadians to keep their language. We owe Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Justin Trudeau’s father, an officially bilingual Canada. Later, he described Canada as multicultural.
I am nor returning to the killing of George Floyd. This post is a pause.
Covid remains. It is the new reality and it will remain the new reality. Protesters who have taken to the streets are likely to catch the virus and spread it. Moreover, as I wrote in my last post, Mr Trump is seeing the protesters as thugs. He is not seeing them as individuals protesting an unjust death and asking that racial tensions in the United States come to an end.
I wasn’t well yesterday, and could not post anything, but I saw pictures that told a long story. The police was not allowing journalists to cover the events, which is their role. It is therefore difficult to know events precisely. We will not know who is destroying personal property. However, fatigue did not prevent me from reading.
As I feared, protesters had again taken to the streets, where no one is safe. Mr. Trump is a racist. Therefore, he wants the public to see that the protesters are thugs and will not let anyone see otherwise. This is authoritarianism, repression, bigotry and other evils I will not name. Not now. However, yesterday, The Washington Post reported that former defence secretary Jim Mattis has stated that:
“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,” Mattis wrote in a statement published by the Atlantic.
“We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership,” he continued. “We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.”
Mr Matis is right. This president wants to put protesters in the wrong and has the press pushed away so he is the only witness and divides Americans.
Mr Floyd’s murderer is in custody, and so are his fellow officers. When Mr Floyd said that he could not breathe, fellow officers didn’t pull Derek Chauvin away from George Floyd. I wrote that a heavy foot killed Mr Floyd, but it was a merciless knee and fellow officers did not intervene. They could have prevented George Floyd’s death.
All Officers Arrested
I have now read that all officers had been arrested. As for protesters, Mr Trump will not ever see them as protesters. As noted above, however legitimate the protest, the protesters will be seen as thugs. Moreover, it has also been reported that Mr. Floyd had been infected by Covid-19. Will this be used to explain away a genuine homicide? Mr Floyd died of Covid-19. How convenient! But we know the truth.
I will close by repeating that Donald Trump should not have been elected to the Presidency of the United States. He is not sufficiently educated. A good education is a source of freedom. It broadens the mind. One sees what one had not seen before and one can wrap one’s thoughts in words. But what Mr Trump reads is fake news, and he thinks he is under attack. He has also learned to lie.
In short, Derek Chauvin killed Mr Floyd and President Trump is failing Americans abysmally. There could be new outbreaks of Covid-19 and President Trump is distorting the truth. To this effect, he is not allowing the press from chronicling events. Fortunately, Americans can see.
The protest must be peaceful and Americans must elect to the Presidency of the United States a person who will be accountable and will not divide the United States.
George Floyd had the right to live, despite the color of his skin. His death is murder most foul. It truly saddens me to see that a person who should protect others, a policeman, failed in his duties to protect a citizen of the United States and that fellow officers did not come to Mr. Floyd’s rescue.
I would like to express indignation at the brutal act that deprived Mr. Floyd of his life. A police officer’s first duty is to ensure the safety of others. The murderer and his colleagues failed Mr. Floyd and they failed the people of the United States. I also wish to express heartfelt sympathy to Mr. Floyd’s family, friends, and to his community.
However, in the days of Covid-19, demonstrations are not advisable. Covid-19 is so easily transmitted that demonstrations could infect hundreds of persons. Protective masks fall while buildings are set ablaze. Please remember that in the mind of a racist, a violent and destructive protest will be viewed as vandalism, which it has become. Violent protests could be used to justify Mr. Floyd’s murder. Yes, racism can go that far. Protest peacefully.
Racists walk a crooked path and many are not educated. President Trump is not as well-educated as his predecessor, President Obama. He would not even hear Dr Fauci, an exceptional immunologist who should have guided the President’s actions. President Trump has also severed the United States ties with the World Health Organization, the WHO. Such behavior is inexplicable and it is wrong. How to fight Covid-19 is for experts to determine. Elected officials act on their advice.
Allow me to say to African-Americans facing racism that they are not alone. Whites are also fighting racism. Americans of every creed and color elected Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States.
The American Elections
The electoral campaign is well under way. Therefore, Americans are at liberty to elect a President who will not tolerate racism and prejudices. But for the time being, we are in the midst of a pandemic. Covid-19 is as deadly as the heavy knew of the policeman who choked Mr. Floyd. In fact, it is deadlier. Many of you who have protested may have been infected. We have abused the environment and can expect horrific consequences. Do not engage in demonstrations that will destroy you and harm your cause.
Protest peacefully and be an instrument of change. Elect a good candidate to the Presidency of the United States. At the moment, Mr. Biden leads and he has many supporters. The world is watching, hoping for a change, but only American citizens can vote.
Here is a quotation from a piece Barack Obama published in Medium.
The “bottom line,” he wrote, is that “if we want to bring about real change, then the choice isn’t between protest and politics. We have to do both. We have to mobilize to raise awareness, and we have to organize and cast our ballots to make sure that we elect candidates who will act on reform.”
Uprooting racism and other societal ills is everyone’s task. Do not stand alone and stay safe.
Agnello di Dio, particolare della Crocefissione di Matthias Grünewald (it.wikipedia)
I have already reported that thousands of young people flouted the rules on Saturday 23 May, in Toronto. It has been suggested that the lockdown had flustered these young people. The lockdown has been difficult for all of us, but despite the gradual relaxation of confinement measures, the coronavirus remains and the young people had to obey regulations. Transmission of the novel coronavirus is rapid and, in too many cases, deadly. I hope the students will now join or cheer the people fighting Covid-19.
The pandemic in Canada is making more victims. Quebec still leads and Premier Legault has asked the Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, to deploy the military. It is not altogether normal for the Military to work in long-term care facilities. Their role had to be defined.
Quebec is currently recruiting a large number of orderlies who will receive a decent salary. Their training will be condensed, the need being enormous and urgent. The province is hiring a small army of health care workers.
As you know, their syndicate negotiated for medical doctors, fees up to 2,500$ (1,635.25 Euros) per day, which the government cannot afford. Day-care is also very inexpensive in Quebec, and tuition fees are the lowest in Canada. Combined, such programmes may not be sustainable.
There are Covid-19 cases in the education system. Schools were reopened outside Montreal, but no parent should allow his or her child to attend school. It means hiring help, but help may not be too expensive. There’s no point. One infection multiplies into several infections. Although lockdowns are a form of paralysis, they may be required if citizens do not see that precautions are the freedom they possess. We need certain services and, although the governments are generous, people want to return to work.
Our Prime Minister does not want to offend others, but Canada should not open its border to the United States. Both the United States and Canada need to protect their citizens. A New Brunswick doctor travelled to Quebec and returned to New Brunswick without respecting the 14-day quarantine. He or she had to be suspended. That doctor is a possible and probable source of infection. One does not travel to Quebec, especially Montreal. It’s not safe.
One cannot say that the pandemic has benefits, but Covid-19 has exposed flaws in the system and monsieur Legault spoke to the press in both French and English. Both Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Quebec Premier called in the military. I don’t know how Ontario doctors responded, but, to my knowledge, Quebec could not recruit the medical doctors it needed. I realize that there were risks. Yet, circumstances were and remain dire.
Looking at the photograph above, I cannot help remember earlier posts. You may recall that once the lockdown was being lifted, Quebec Premier François Legault urged Montrealers returning to the workplace to wear a face mask. The province was about to reopen, but the virus had not gone away. A lady, a journalist I suspect, stated that the Premier, monsieur Legault, was walking a fine line. He wasn’t. I believe the lady was referring to Quebec’s Bill 21, which imposes complete secularization. But the wearing of a mask is a health measure.
I once told my students that they had kept me awake most of the night and that they should know better. It was frosh (first year students) week. Someone objected that students were adults and that consequently they were free.
Free, I exclaimed? First, I said that since they were adults and therefore free, I would no longer telephone campus security, but the RCMP (the Royal Canadian Mounted Police). Second, I explained to them that one’s freedom ended where the freedom of others began and that this they had to remember for the rest of their life.
On 23 May, thousands of sun worshippers gathered in Toronto’s Trinity Bellwoods Park defying all regulations. They did not stand at a distance from one another and they did not wear a mask, which is now recommended by Canada’s top doctor. Premier Doug Ford had to extend the state of emergency.
When outbreaks of Covid-19 reached Canada, we were not prepared. But last Saturday, if a person did not know about aggressivity and transmissibility of novel coronavirus, that person had spent the entire lockdown in a coma. Therefore, it would be my opinion that these young people were engaging in reckless endangerment of human life, no less. There was a flare-up, une flambée, which forced Premier Ford to extend the state of emergency.
Canadians have received a great deal of information regarding Covid-19. At no point, did anyone say that the pandemic was over. On the contrary, Premiers and top doctors stated, in both English and French, that Covid-19 was here to stay and recommended the wearing a mask after the lockdown. It may be that Covid-19 will never go away completely. In Montreal, the situation is still critical, but I have not heard of violations of regulations. People wear their mask. In fact, persons using public transportation will be given a face mask and subways will not be crowded. It must end.
The Freedom we have …
It would be useful for people to look upon social distancing and the wearing of a mask as the freedom we have. The virus may linger, but if precautions are taken, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, doctors, opthalmologists, dentists, taxi drivers, etc. will be available. We need services. During the lockdown, nearly all services were closed. As well, thousands of people are now tested everyday.
The Armed Forces
Members of the Canadian Armed Forces were not doing what they do normally. But we could not have managed without them. They worked relentlessly in long-term care facilities, cleaning and sanitizing these facilities, and helping feed patients. Premier Legault will ask that they remain until September while CHSLDs are refurbished and air-conditioned. This is work that cannot be postponed. The province is also hiring healthcare givers for these nursing homes. The Armed Forces have now been called in Ontario where long-term care facilities are built like Quebec’s and are understaffed.
To my knowledge, no one in my building has been infected.
The archetype of the Creator is a familiar image in Blake’s work. Here, the demiurgic figure Urizen prays before the world he has forged. The Song of Losis the third in a series of illuminated books painted by Blake and his wife, collectively known as the Continental Prophecies. (Photo and caption credit: Wikipedia)
Covid-19
As Quebec was starting to reopen, Premier, lePremier Ministre, François Legault urged the population of Quebec to wear face masks. His audience was not entirely patient with him. Was this a change of policy?
Let’s see. Two months ago, after the Government of Quebec announced a lockdown. I saw residents of my building huddling by the mailboxes, less than two feet apart. As I was rushing down the hallway to safety, I walked past a woman who was saying that she didn’t believe in this virus. To my knowledge, take-out restaurants, such as McDonalds, were locked down, but I knew about the remains of a chicken that were thrown down the garbage chute, naked. As you know, my neighbours are mostly perfect, but these particular neighbours are not. The remains of a chicken should had been put in a bag and then dropped into one of the composting bins.
After two months of isolation, one may be confused. So, I phoned the authorities in order to ask if a policy was in place regarding the delivery of food to persons living in a condominium or an apartment building. I explained that sons and daughters, holding bags filled with groceries and other supplies, were ringing mother’s apartment and waiting for her in the lobby. Mother came down and picked up the bag or bags. However, delivery men were riding up and down elevators and walking along corridors carrying take-outs. If they came to my building, they also went to other buildings and various houses. They could spread the virus during a lockdown.
The authorities, or the person who took my call, did not know whether a policy existed, but she felt that social distancing precluded the delivery of meals to an individual’s apartment. Owners were to go to the lobby and pick up what they had ordered. I therefore suggested to the Committee that, during a lockdown, it seemed somewhat risky to let people circulate in the hallways. In fact, I wondered why we did not have a concierge monitoring access to apartments. The telephone and television system did not go the distance. Could we presume individual owners would be cautious? No, I thought, not if they threw down the chute, unwrapped, the greasy remains of a chicken. These neighbours must be newcomers.
We now return to Quebec’s Premier. I reflected that if François Legault was urging people to wear a mask, it was not a change of policy, but altogether consistent with lifting the lockdown when the coronavirus remained a genuine threat. The government feared that allowing untested people to return to work may lead to flareups, hence the Premier asking, but not dictating, the wearing of a mask. This led to more impatience. Why wasn’t the wearing of masks compulsory (“obligatory” said monsieur Legault)? He explained that it was not “obligatory” because masks were not easily available. Canada had ordered masks from China, which had arrived, but which were defective. They were not approved by Health Canada. Ironically, Canadian-approved N95 masks were being sought by Chinese counterfeiters. In short, some Quebecers do not have access to masks.
As you know, Covid-19 caught everyone unawares. For instance, the novel coronavirus hit Montreal like a bomb. It was a Canadian version of the “tsunami” Milan’s doctor Giacomo Grasselli had described so aptly. (See The Coronavirus. 3). The outbreak of Covid-19 surprised Italians just as it surprised Canada’s doctors, in Montreal especially.
The outbreak has therefore led to decisions, some of which were revisited and reversed. I should tell you that the Quebec government will not reopen schools, Montreal schools, in particular, until September. Some daycares remained open during the lockdown. Given flareups, reopening schools on May 19th was not appropriate. Flareups herald a second wave of Covid-19 that could be the same as the second wave of the Spanish flu of 1918, deadlier than the initial outbreak.
In Quebec, Muslims cannot wear the burqa, but the government was approving the wearing of facemasks. Was this another contradiction? A burqa conceals the face and the body. It can therefore be used to conceal a weapon. Masks cover the nose and mouth as do certain Islamic veils, but the purpose of masks is protection from a virus one can inhale. The virus is a weapon.
No, it was not a contradiction. The coronavirus enters one’s nose and mouth. Coughing has therefore become a potentially lethal weapon. If one is infected with the virus and coughs without wearing a mask, one may inadvertently spread the highly transmissible coronavirus to a person who does not wear personal protective equipment. If everyone wears a mask, everyone is protected to a significant extent. The mask is not a violation of a person’s privacy, but protective personal equipment, which explains why Premier Legault is urging Quebecers who are re-entering the workplace to wear a mask. The virus may be with us for a very long time and it is coriace, tough, coriace as coriace can be.
Distancing saves lives. It would therefore be my opinion that until our top doctors and scientists find a vaccine or a cure, good masks are our only protection.
I agree with Premier Legault. If one re-enters the workplace, one wears a mask. A mask could allow us to revive our hope and let us rebuild our economy. We can now see the Himalayas, not to mention the stars. The new economy should be a different economy, one that does not pollute the air and cause global warming. However, Premier Legault linked the wearing of a mask to a revival of the economy we know. The two are inextricably linked:
Opening up businesses could hinge on Montrealers wearing masks in public — something Legault has been pushing for several days.
“We will still give ourselves a few days to take a decision on retail businesses,” Legault said. “A crucial element that would help us to reopen is for the majority of people to wear a mask in public.” (The National Gazette)
It may be years before the coronavirus is defeated. Scientists may find a vaccine and a cure, but this may not happen in the near future. Working from home can be extremely difficult and it is at times impossible. So if masks can protect us, let us wear masks.
I was shocked when I realized the extent to which Covid-19 affected Montreal and decided one could not like a post containing the following information:
half of Canada’s victims of the Covid-19 pandemic live in Quebec;
the province of Quebec is failing its elderly citizens;
20,000 of Canadian cases of Covid-19 were Québécois.
Finding helpers
On the 8th of April, police found neglected seniors in a long-term facility: Herron. This facility is private, but private nursing homes are nevertheless subsidized, to a point, by the Quebec government. Conditions drew a parallel with concentration camps.
Given this emergency, Premier François Legault and Health Minister Danielle McCann called on teachers to help in nursing homes, the CHSLDs (Centre d’hébergement et de soins de longue durée [long term care facilities]).
Teachers
On Friday, the 10th of April, Quebec’s Premier, François Legault and Health Minister Danielle McCann tried to “force employees in the education sector to help in the health sector.” Schools were closed and the province had an emergency. Teachers did not enter long-term care facilities or nursing houses.
“Confédération des syndicats nationaux [Unions] did not take long to respond. It said it recognized the gravity of the crisis and the need to resort to exceptional measures, but is worried about how this decision would be implemented and the potential for abuse.”
“Forcing education personnel to work in the health network, without any form of consultation with those affected, is at the very least heartbreaking,” said CSN [Confédération des syndicats nationaux] president Jacques Létourneau.
However, it had been discovered that some of the elderly who had been transported to hospitals were not the victims of Covid-19.
Dr. Vinh-Kim Nguyen says the Jewish General is seeing more and more seniors admitted — not necessarily for COVID-19, but because of issues related to dehydration and starvation.
“We started to see a shift in the kinds of patients we’ve admitted to the hospital,” Nguyen told Global News.
“More and more patients are coming from old-age homes, nursing homes and CHSLD long-term care facilities, most of them coming in with dehydration, hypernatremia, high blood sodium, renal failure.”
After three days, Premier Legault thought he had not made himself clear.
“I think I am clear today: we need, ideally, 2,000 doctors — whether they are general practitioners or specialists — to come treat the people, wash patients, feed patients, to come and do the work of nurses.”
Danielle McCann was quite convincing:
“There are many GPs and specialists who go on humanitarian missions outside Quebec, to Africa and other countries,” added Health Minister Danielle McCann. “They go help. They are quite devoted. What I want to say to them today is that this time the humanitarian mission is in Quebec — it is in the CHSLDs.”
The Agreement
Doctors responded, but money talks. Two thousand doctors are working in nursing homes and seniors are losing their life to Covid-19. One doctor has died. However, it has been agreed that doctors “will be paid $211 an hour, regardless of their tasks, to a maximum of $2,500 a day. The average wage of an orderly now is $21.50 an hour.” It’s “danger pay.” I doubt very much that a Quebec doctor would have accepted to work in nursing homes without a generous danger pay.
The Military
Premier Legault’s has nevertheless requested further help from the military. He needs 1,000 soldiers who would work in a CHSLD (long term care facility.) I doubt that they will receive “danger pay.”
Similarly, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario has also requested the assistance of the armed forces. So the military is becoming the “force … of last resort.”
One can count on a soldier’s sense of duty. They came, they assessed and they found a strategy. In other words, soldiers can organize, which is what the first group did. The request for one thousand soldiers is Quebec’s second request.
I have since read that the death toll in Quebec was 1,243, which means that “Quebec with 23 percent of Canada’s population, is home to 52% of cases and 57 percent of the death.” But the death toll has now risen to 1,446 and keeps rising.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2020.
Red Cross volunteer Stephane Corbeil adjusts an opening in a tent at a mobile hospital at the Jacques Lemaire arena in the Montreal suburb of LaSalle, Sunday, April 26, 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues in Canada and around the world. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
Conclusion
There is more to tell: herd immunity, lifting the lockdown… But it suffices to say that one has very little respect for doctors in Quebec who will not come forward until their union negotiates a salary of $2,500 a day. There are good doctors, but, by and large, it’s all about money. They have a powerful syndicate and one fears being a snitch. The fact remains that in Quebec, half the victims of Covid-19 are the elderly. I suspect that the orderlies left because they feared contamination.
You may know that I lost fourteen brothers and sisters to a congenital blood disease. The Insurance Company ceased to contribute money, but my father’s employers footed the bill. It was small. These were the days when I could phone our doctor and say: “Dr Saine, Thérèse has a fever and she is in considerable pain. I don’t know what to do.” He said the magical words. “Don’t worry Micheline, I’m coming over.”
But I will stop here. I was kept away by a case of sadness. The videos show the Premier, Danielle McCann and Quebec’s top doctor: Dr Horacio Arruda. Canada’s top doctor is Dr Theresa Tam.
More than 2,500 coronavirus deaths in Canada as confirmed cases cross 46K.
Love to everyone 💕 I was not able to enter all captions. My post disappeared. I will try to enter captions and credit later.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault and Quebec Health Minister Danielle McCann, right, arrive at a news conference on the COVID-19 pandemic, Wednesday, April 15, 2020 at the legislature in Quebec City. (JACQUES BOISSINOT / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Quebec’s Premier François Legault said yesterday afternoon that the province had 19,319 cases of COVID-19, an increase of 963 from the day before. A total of 939 people have died. Quebec now has 20,000 cases.
(I hope the following links take you to the correct quotation. I had to leave my desk because of fatigue and illness. The last link I found today.)
Many Québécois would like to return to work, but several have yet to be tested. Social distancing helps considerably and it could also be that people exposed to the virus grow a degree immunity. Be that as it may, Quebec has not “flattened the curve” and I do not think it will in the foreseeable future. In fact, the Premier of Quebec, François Legault, requested that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau send medically-trained members of the Canadian Armed Forces to help fight Covid-19. A large proportion of victims live in long-term care facilities.
I have already mentioned that Quebec’s early March-break may have led to contamination. I went into self-isolation on 10 March, but nearly a week later, people were going on a holiday inside or outside Quebec. Other factors may have led to the rapid spread of the disease. Covid-19 is a pandemic and, by definition, contagious, but one should be careful.
Prime Minister Legault leads a party and a government that is devoting significant energy turning a lay society into a lay society. Québécois could not wear a veil that hid their face. But Coalition avenir Québec went further. One cannot display a sign of one’s religion. In other words, a Muslim woman cannot wear a veil, including a discrete veil. Quebec has welcomed North Africans, white and black, because they speak French. In 1974, Quebec became a unilingual province, but its birth rate was very low. Is laïcité (secularism) so important an issue? Finding a general practicioner is difficult in Quebec. The waiting-list is three years.
The Shortage of Tests
Moreover, the shortage of tests has been the bane of this Pandemic. It has led to massive self-isolation in many countries. If persons have not been tested, they cannot return to the workplace safely. Many would test negative, but many would test positive. Persons who would test positive could infect others. The pandemic could therefore grow more severe. However, people fear a recession and, possibly, another Great Depression.
In this regard, it may be useful to remember that the Spanish Flu Pandemic and Word War I were followed by the roaring 20s. The Great Depression occurred in the 1930s and was ended when World War II broke out. For the United States, war broke out on two fronts. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan, after the surprise and devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, on Sunday, 7 December 1941. I would agree with Dr Fauci. Returning to work too soon could result in a second wave of contagion. It could “backfire and slow economic recovery.”
This topic is touchy. In Quebec, students do not need to complete a Bachelor of Science degree before entering medical school. They enter medical school after the CEGEP, their twelfth and thirteenth years of schooling. During the two years they attend a CEGEP, they prepare for the profession or trade they have chosen. They enter medical school three years earlier than they would if they studied outside Quebec. This may not make Quebec doctors lesser doctors, but…
More importantly, if a doctor’s patient needs to be hospitalized, he or she is treated by a hospital doctor. My mother was admitted to a hospital after a fall, and she was treated by a hospital doctor. She was taking Coumadin, a blood thinner, which was indicated on her chart. She was nevertheless given another blood thinner, which caused her to hemorrage. She nearly died and lost the ability to use her legs. The staff had made a mistake. They said they were too busy. Would this have happened had she been under the care of her own doctor? In this instance, the system failed a patient.
As for patients who enter a long-term care facility, or Nursing Home, similar to the one my mother lived in, they are treated by that facility’s doctor(s). My mother could not understand why her doctor never visited. It was a source of distress, which is not trivial. Distress is stress and stress leads to illnesses. However, seriously ill Covid-19 victims are treated in an intensive care unit, an ICU. Yet, they are infected in a long-term care facility.
So, one wonders.
How many patients are assigned to one caregiver?
Can patients be treated in nursing homes? These differ.
Moreover, if a doctor visits, does he or she visit patients regularly and establish a rapport with them?
Are these facilities sufficiently sanitized?
etc.
I may be wrong, but I am inclined to believe that the system might be failing older citizens in Quebec. There have been and there are outbreaks in nursing homes outside Quebec, but are these as overwhelming as they are in Quebec? The medically-trained members of the Armed Forces are assessing the situation.
In short, I am alarmed and doubt very much that the lockdown will be lifted before early June, not to mention that the lockdown itself is leading to health problems, such as addictions and domestic violence. Rich provinces, Alberta for instance, can help persons who are in self-isolation. Not all provinces are as rich as Alberta.
Love to everyone 💕
P. S. I have disabled the “like” button for this post. One likes to be informed, but the information is grim. During the night I kept thinking I had made an error and reported the wrong numbers. The “like” button tells me I have a community.
The difficulty facing doctors is the scarcity of testing devices and the time it takes to obtain results. However, a new test device has just been approved by Health Canada. It was developed by Spartan Bioscience of Ottawa, Canada.
The testing device is called the Spartan Cube, le cube Spartan, and it does not differ considerably from the test used until now. However, it is smaller, the size of a coffee mug, portable and results are ready in less than an hour: a half hour. It is its own lab, which explains is rapidity.
I wouldn’t dare state that the nightmare is about to end, but I see hope. Spartan Bioscience has a contract with the Government of Quebec, the most severely affected province of Canada, but all Canadian Provinces are buying large supplies of the Spartan Cube. The previous test worked, but it was slow. A diagnostic will now be reached more rapidly.
The Spartan Cube is a testing device. It cannot cure individuals whose life is threatened by Covid-19.
Tiziano Vecellio, Tobiolo e l’Angelo, Olio su tavola, 1512-14, Gallerie dell’ Accademia, Venezia (Franco Canavesio blog)
