Would you look at those mid-summer carrots. No carrot catastrophes this year. No tomato hornworms yet either. Things are looking up in more ways than one. As we head towards a country with an 80 plus vaccination rate, I thought it might be time to reflect. What we have done as a country is truly remarkable. Will we get past 80 % fully vaccinated as a country? Maybe. Do we need to get further than that to keep the Delta variant under control? Yes, we do. As we get down to the wire with 80 % on board and 20 % hesitant or against vaccines, the fracture lines are becoming more and more evident in many areas of our lives: at work, in our families, in our social circles, in public spaces. Is it possible to remain civil and kind as the gap widens? Yes it is. Definitely. First goal, get as close to fully vaccinated as we can. Second goal, do it with dignity, civility and kindness. There are many reasons that someone might choose not to be vaccinated. Let's respect that. I have had several situations over the course of my career when I have felt threatened by a patient. I remember once being charged at in my exam room by a very angry young woman. She had a lot in her life to be angry about. I was a non-threatening target. I remember opening the exam room door to find most of my staff and a patient who had heard the screaming from the waiting room. This gang of folks in the hallway seemed to diffuse the patient's anger. Not a nice situation but I was safe and so was she. Female doctors, unfortunately, are sometimes the victims of sexual harassment and assault at the hands of their patients. Rarely, but I doubt there is not a female doctor out there who has not experienced this. Most of the time the assault is manifest as inappropriate behaviour or comments but I have been pinned against that same exam room door; very briefly but an assault is an assault. I was amazed at how little there was that I could do about this. The police needed evidence. Our regulatory authority suggested I meet with the patient and review why I was dismissing him from my practise. That's not protection. My husband had to sit in the reception area of our evening call clinic a few times after that. He threatened to find me there. Eventually, this fellow was charged with assaulting another woman, I assume not a physician, but someone that had a higher authority that was willing to accept her story and not rely on her professional position in society as acting as a layer of protection against these things. Even in this particular situation, I did not feel threatened or unsafe, just annoyed. A strategically placed marshal arts move and he was disarmed. My husband has no idea how much I have actually listened as he went on about self-defence during his martial arts years. Parents, make sure your daughters and sons learn some key self-defence moves. Short, quick and out of there! Makes me realize how impossible it is to escape domestic violence. There is no 'short, quick and out of there' for many, many people. So what is my point and what does all this have to do with COVID-19? People are on edge. People are angry and frustrated. Some tempers are boiling over. I experienced a very threatening situation at our call clinic this past week. A gentleman was not happy that I had chosen to complete most of the history part of his exam over the phone and the rest in person. That is one of our options for patients presenting with symptoms that may indicate COVID-19 who have not been vaccinated. Instead of risking the health of others inside, we make it a phone or virtual appointment in order to shorten the in person portion of the exam. This person became quite hostile and was much more interested in trying to make the concern all about his vaccination status and why I was treating him differently. I have been assessing patients this way for months, before vaccines were on the scene. I am also feeling more and more threatened by some of the comments on this Facebook post. So much so, that I have been avoiding the comments and therefore the good questions that often come in them. I will get over it. There is a much 'higher perspective' concern here. Do people have the right to threaten others on social media and how are we working against this? Here is what I have decided to do. I need a gang behind the door ready to 'take down' the hostile person. That gang is most powerful when they do nothing but make their presence known. Don't engage in a lengthy counter-comment conversation that can disintegrate into shocking conflict. Just send me a note and I will block the threatening person. They are entitled to their opinions but when their comments feel the same as an assault, the line needs to be drawn in a ' short, quick and out of there' kind of way'. If anyone would like to help me sort the hostile comments, give me a nudge. I could use the help. Not nice seeing the ugliness but ugliness is in the world. It is our dignified response to it that makes the world a safer place. There, that feels better. Thanks for listening. Answers to some important questions from our July 20th webinar: 1/ The mass vaccination clinics will close by the end of summer, early fall depending on the area. Vaccines will still be available through pharmacies, public health and family doctors offices....if we are supported in giving them. Public Health is working on several different scenarios for kids under 12 but right now access to these vaccines for the vaccine eligible will be much easier while these clinics are open. 2/ Currently there is no process to give people with mixed vaccines a third dose. At present, there are no international guidelines that state a third is required.....yet. 3/ More than a million people in Canada have had mixed doses of AZ and a mRNA vaccine. You will be able to travel. There will be a political solution to the issue of international travel in this group. It is in the best interest of all countries to open up their borders once it is safe to do so. Give each country time to review and approve the vaccines that they are not using. They can't approve your mRNA vaccine or your AZ vaccine unless it is approved for use by their regulatory authorities.....this will happen. 3/ We expect guidance as to the protocols around a return to school by the end of July. If your child has had two doses of vaccine and experiences a high risk exposure at school, they can stay in school. Those that are unvaccinated will need to stay home and quarantine. Got lots of nasty comments when I posted this last week. Nasty comments aside, this will be the rule. Stop the nastiness. 4/ Under 12- vaccinations.....we hope to have a vaccine for this age group by November. This may change if the phase three trials for the use of these vaccines in ages 6 months and up are completed and then approved by Health Canada before November. Until then, public health protocols will likely be required to keep this group safe until they are vaccinated. It is safe for these children to circulate in groups of vaccinated youth and adults as long as these vaccination bubbles stay tight and the public health restrictions around the number that can gather in and out are followed. 5/ Will masks be required in schools? The upcoming guidance document from the Ministry of Education will discuss this but masks provide a great layer of protection for our kids under 12 until they are vaccinated. We will see which way this goes. If I had a school-aged child who was not vaccinated, I would have them wear a mask in school until they are vaccinated. Just my opinion at this point. Anne-Marie Please share. For non-Facebook users, you can find this post here: https://braceletofhope.blogspot.com/ And if you'd like to help Bracelet of Hope work towards making sure that Lesotho has access to these vaccines, donate here: https://www.braceletofhope.ca/ways-to-
