LEADERSHIP

Politics is not my area of expertise. I steer away from giving my opinions about things on which I have no deep understanding or experience. I stick with what I know and leave the rest to people that do have the experience and understanding. But, I will step out on a limb just briefly. Please take what I am about to say with a grain of salt. I am not an expert.

We need to change our way of doing politics. How many times have you heard that line? The cracks and deficiencies in our political system are completely exposed during a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. I don't think it matters which party is in power or which people are the MPPs, MPs, Ministers and Premieres except that they must be skilled and they must understand when to call on someone else if they are outside their area of expertise. Presently, these folks are all part of the same democratic system where the focus on power, pleasing the power brokers and re-election are obstacles to completing the vital work that must be done to create a healthy, equitable and diverse society where suffering is minimized and all citizens are given the opportunity to reach their God-given potential.

All citizens.

I don't have the answers. But here is what we can do collectively. This is from Dr. Brian Henry Dingle who is a retired oncologist/ hematologist at London Health Sciences who was actively involved in this province's SARS crisis in 2003 ( also an outbreak caused by a coronavirus). He wrote this in the comments section of my last post.

"As we draw closer to the next election, our first question to every candidate has to be, repeatedly until they get the answers, "What is your pandemic preparedness plan for the country, for surveillance, for rapid response, for vaccine production, for PPE storage and inventory, for public health control, for business cooperation, for intermittent community lockdown, for world-wide cooperation." The only way to protect our first responders and our front line health care personnel is through preparedness. And God knows you will need them the next time."

I would add this: How will you make sure that the next political leaders follow the advice of the experts that are appointed to advisory positions at the beginning of the next pandemic?

You follow, they lead. You set aside your political aspirations and lead where the best leaders lead..... from behind your team with humility and compassion and no regard for your future political position.

A true leader never, ever throws one of their team members, (federal, provincial or public health) under the bus in order to make themselves look better or in order to absolve themselves of responsibility.

We have leaders like this in the world right now. And their countries are handling the pandemic very well.

Here is what your scientists and medical experts have recommended:

1/ Get everyone vaccinated as quickly as possible. Start with the most vulnerable and then the most at risk. Find the hotspots and vaccinate everyone in that hotspot.

2/ Provide paid sick leave to individuals who, at present, do not have the option to stay home when sick or to stay home from high risk work environments. Of the 4250 new cases in the province of Ontario today, 70 % are in the hotspots: Toronto, Peel, Durham, Hamilton and Ottawa. Most of the cases in these regions are occurring in low income areas where people work in manufacturing plants and live in multi-generational homes.

3/ Continue with strict stay at home orders but make them fair and based on the science with a focus on avoiding indoor gatherings AND education on how to be active outdoors safely.

4/ Shore up the mental health services we desperately need.

If we do all of this, your healthcare teams in emergency rooms and ICU's will be protected from burnout and will have the capacity to make our healthcare system strong again.

Feel free to write every government official in your area asking them to follow the advice given by our science and medical advisory committees.

BACK ON TRACK

Regardless of how confused and upset we feel, we are still only weeks away from having this third wave under control. Not months but weeks.

Almost four million Ontarions have received at least one dose of vaccine. That is 30 % of the eligible population. That makes me do a happy dance!

Source: https://howsmyflattening.ca/#/home

Despite the political issues, this mass vaccination effort will continue quietly in the background; regardless of the political noise and confusion that is drowning out the legitimate reasons we should be very hopeful.

THE ASTRAZENECA VACCINE: Some perspective

There may be an association between this vaccine and a rare clot called vaccine-induced pro-thrombotic immune thrombocytopenia (VIPIT). Our National Advisory Committee on Vaccinations ( NACI) is following the research closely and will give us new recommendations this week. If this risk exists it appears to occur in 1 out of every 250,000 to 1 million vaccinations. The group of people who may be most at risk are women under the age of 55.

- the odds of developing a regular clot that can be life-threatening are 1 in 5 for people hospitalized with COVID-19

- the risk of a woman between the ages of 15 and 45 developing any sort of blood clot is 1 in 3,300.

- if they take birth control, the odds are 1 in 1,600.

- if a woman is pregnant, the risk is 1 in 300.

I am not suggesting we should be comfortable with anyone developing a clot but medical recommendations are based on a risk- benefit analysis; which intervention is the least likely to cause harm. Unfortunately, we are in a situation where not being vaccinated against COVID-19 confers the highest risk, by far the greatest risk of harm.

Many pharmacies in the province have the AstraZeneca vaccine. If you are over the age of 55 and have not yet had a vaccine, book an appointment and get it. New guidelines from NACI may lower that age limit making this vaccine available to younger people. Stay tuned.

Anne-Marie

Please share.

This coming Tuesday, April 20th, we will be hosting a special edition of the Finding the Balance during COVID-19 webinar.

The event is free. Our guest is one of those great leaders I am talking about, Dr. Nicola Mercer, medical officer of health for the GWD Public Health Unit.

Click her to register:

https://us02web.zoom.us/.../reg.../WN_DF9g-C6hQLGkc-xboSd0wA

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-

Two Finding the Balance during COVID-19 Webinar this month

 Hey Folks,

Due to the seriousness of the current COVID-19 situation in the province of Ontario, we are hosting a second April 'Finding the Balance During COVID-19 Webinar: what the third wave means for our communities'. Our last webinar on April 6th had 34 thousand viewers. Now is the time to form a united and cohesive front. Please join me and our webinar team Helen Fishburn, Alison DeMuy, Tanya Stuart, Tracey McGrath and Marva Wisdom as we once again welcome Dr. Nicola Mercer, the medical officer of health for the Guelph-Wellington-Dufferin public health unit. We are here to help you navigate these difficult times. You can register for this free webinar at this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DF9g-C6hQLGkc-xboSd0wA 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-

At a loss for words

Slow motion..... For the first time in over a year of posting about COVID-19, I am at a loss for words. As I was driving home from work tonight, trying to calm myself down after a weary week and after hearing today's news about this third wave starting at a Zoom meeting this morning with all the family doctors in Guelph and the COVID-19 team leaders, this phrase started to come to mind, repeatedly. 'Slow motion' Slow things down. Stop the racing heart, the anxious thoughts. Stand still and just....be. 'Slow motion' I like to think that these words of wisdom that seem to download into my brain out of no where right when I need them the most are from God. That brings me comfort. Nurses and physicians are trained to slow their emotions down while facing extremely stressful situations. We put ourselves into an automatic response state. It's a state that has been drilled into us by years of training, years of running arrests, treating critically ill patients, pushing through emergency room shifts, delivering babies.... For me, the medical situation that triggered the most stress and required the most focused and levelled response was treating critically ill, HIV positive children in Lesotho; far away from the support of an intact healthcare system. Every night, in this rural district of Lesotho, the team of Canadian doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners would make their way home from the hospital, often walking in silence, shoulder to shoulder, deep in thought. Each night, recovery from the days trauma would begin with this walk home. We'd often share a meal and a bottle of wine. Russel was the HIV clinic administrator. He would often raise a glass and say these words, " Godspeed to those we have lost and healing to those we are about to save". Debriefing is what they called it; a time to discuss the ups and downs of the day sharing our deepest fears, regrets and anxieties while opening our hearts and souls to one another. There was always regret because no matter how hard we worked we just could not save everyone. But, we learned the value of celebrating the successes no matter how hard won they were or how tiny they seemed in the face of the catastrophic effects of the AIDS pandemic. And in this intimate process of debriefing, we found the beginning of healing. And here we are, as an entire country, 37 million of us facing our own pandemic with an intact yet now precarious healthcare system. None of us have been spared. Not a single soul. How can it possible get worse a year later? Where will we find the strength, resolve and hope to keep going? How can this be? Well, this is what pandemics do. They peak at just the time when we are all exhausted, hopeless and distraught. They bring chaos and confusion. They make us dig deep to find a way to face, head on, circumstances we never dreamed we could survive. They pull us together in ways we never thought possible and they make us appreciate the small things, the beautiful things, the minor wins and the miracles that drive us to tears. Most of all, they make us develop a new perspective on our own individual lives and on what hardship really is. Slow motion. Slow things down. Think clearly. Focus. Rise above the fear and look towards the goal. Step away from the pounding, incessant noise from the news and a thousand clamouring, negative voices. Slow. Silence. Healing will begin. Years of training teaches healthcare professional how to block out the distractions and focus on what needs to be down now, in this moment. We have had a year of training in COVID-19. We know how to do this. We know how to do this together, shoulder to shoulder (metaphorically speaking of course), following the same rules focusing on the same outcomes: the end of this most dangerous third wave, the vaccination of > 70% of the population and the slow return to a normal life. Almost 5,000 cases in Ontario today and ICU's filling up beyond what any health care team has ever seen? Yes. Patients that are younger and sicker? Yes. Variants that spread so much more rapidly and cause more serious disease? Yes. This is what pandemics will do. But, 105,000 vaccines were given yesterday in Ontario. Twenty-seven and a halt percent ( 27.5%) of Ontarions have received at least one dose. Source: https://howsmyflattening.ca/#/home We are vaccinating more than 1 percent of the population a day which will bring us to 40 % vaccinated by the end of April and 60 % vaccinated by the middle of May. And that's when we start to win. In every other country that reached this level of vaccination in a third wave, the number of new cases came crashing down. Will the vaccines arrive? YES. Are we wasting millions of doses that are just sitting in freezers unused? Nonsense. If a million doses are not held in storage the vaccines we need for the next four weeks of booked appointments in mass vaccination clinics would not be available. Toronto is not running out of vaccine. Toronto re-distributed it's vaccines away from vaccine clinics to hotspots where they were desperately needed. Leave those hotspots on fire and everyone gets engulfed. Hold on. We've still got this. Wear that three layer mask. It is more important than ever with these variants. A layer of polypropylene should be in your cloth mask. This keeps the variants out if the mask covers your face from ear to ear and the top of your nose to under your chin. hidesinhands.com Stay six feet apart. Avoid all indoor and outdoor gathering. Bush parties and house parties become super-spreader events that will push our hospitals past their point of capacity. Wear a mask outside where people may pass in close proximity. Hunker down. More restrictions may be coming. We are strong enough to do this. There is no doubt. 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-

We have vaccinated 25% of the population...and that's before the bulk of the bulk of vaccines have arrived!

 

Now that's the ticket

Tomorrow morning, the Guelph-Wellington-Dufferin Health Unit will hit a great milestone. They will reach a 25 % vaccination rate. That means that 25 % of the population in this health unit have received at least one dose of a vaccine. The rest of the province is quickly reaching that number too. Awesome. Stellar work by all you beautiful public health employees and volunteers in every public health unit. We are glad you have our backs. As of this morning, our public health unit has started Phase III. I did a little in-office happy dance when I heard this. This means that anyone 16 and up can now register. Hold the fort a bit. When news of this got out, public health was overwhelmed with calls and their website went under for a bit. It may be difficult to register this week as the masses attempt to get in line but everyone will get a vaccine. When you register online, you will receive an email and/or a text notification confirming your registration. It may take 8 to 12 weeks before you receive your appointment time. Do not worry and do not call public health to ask when you will receive an appointment. You will receive one. The speed at which you receive an appointment is very much dependent on vaccine availability, not on public health's capacity to book appointments. If all goes according to plan, vaccine availability will increase dramatically by the end of April and into May. That will change our game plan and allow us to get everyone vaccinated sooner. If anyone 65 years of age or older preregistered more than 2 weeks ago but has not yet received a booking code ( needed to book your appointment) call this Booking Helpline: 1-844-780-0202 Remember that the first dose of vaccine gives you enough immunity to safely wait 16 weeks after the first dose of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines before receiving the second. Don't panic, the decision to extend the interval between dosages was the right decision. Many folks who have received their first vaccine have not yet received the date of their second vaccine. Again, don't worry. You will receive an appointment time. Remember that our community becomes much more safe for all of us when we reach our 75 % ( of the population vaccinated) target. Don't forget the AstraZeneca vaccine. It is safe for people over the age of 55. It is also very effective. I have 7 family members in their sixties. Four have already received the AstraZeneca vaccine. Many pharmacies and some doctors offices have this vaccine available across the province. You could have your first dose tomorrow if you are in this age group and a pharmacy near you has an appointment time available. Get a vaccine. Countries that have vaccinated 60 % of their populations ( USA, UK and Israel ) have crushed their third waves and are now re-opening their small businesses and restaurants. We could very well get to 60 % during this lockdown. But, it takes a combination of heavy lockdowns and mass vaccinations to get this done. Follow the provincial emergency orders: stay home, no non-essential travel, absolutely no indoor gathering of any kind, wear a mask and limit outdoor gatherings to five or less. These new variants are nasty. These guidelines will keep you safe. I am particularly worried about places of work. Tighten up your work place restrictions if they have become a little lax. We are riding a nasty third wave but this time, vaccines are here!!! Stay strong, stay hopeful!!! Anne-Marie Please share. Go to

www.wdgpublichealth.ca/register for more information about vaccine pre-registration. There is a Vaccine Registration and Booking Helpline: 1-844-780-0202 (Mon-Sat, 12-8 pm) for anyone who has issues pre-registering or booking online. 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-

Third State of Emergency

 

THIRD STATE OF EMERGENCY

I was cleaning an upstairs room this morning. Hanging on the back of the door was a jacket and a travel bag that I lasts used in Jan of 2020. I have seen these items many times but today my eyes lingered over that beautifully coloured quilted bag, the one that I was supposed to use again for a trip to Lesotho in the fall of 2020. Something shifted in me as I stared. It was like a window had opened or maybe it had closed. I realized that I will no longer be the same, carefree person that travelled last year, ever again. Carefree I hope, the same, no. We have lived with the consequences of COVID 19 for too long now. We have all suffered, lost, learned to cope, learned to be alone, learned to live with scarcity and uncertainty. A global catastrophe like this will change who we are as a society. But, many, many generations before us have lived with similar or worse catastrophic events and as a race, we have survived. I believe that the capacity to survive is embedded in our genes. We have the strength, wisdom and intelligence to overcome and it is hard-wired in our DNA. A little science and philosophy thrown at you on this fine Sunday afternoon at the start of our third stay at home order. 4456 new cases in Ontario today. The highest number of new cases ever in this pandemic. I am going to take you to some links that we have all seen before. Click on this link: https://www.covid-19canada.com/graphs Scroll down to Ontario (ON). Find the graph titled, "New cases Analysis by Date" and click on the 7 day rolling average. You will see the first, second and third waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario. The peak of the first wave looks like a minor blip. It took us five months to reach the peak of the second wave at the end of January and only a month to reach the same level in the third wave, a rapid increase in the number of new daily cases caused by the variants of concern. WE NEED THIS THIRD EMERGENCY ORDER. Now look to this link: https://globalnews.ca/news/7751278/covid-19-ontario-cases-april-11/ Scroll down to find these three graphs: New confirmed cases Current hospitalizations New deaths. This may not last but the number of new deaths is climbing at far less a rate in the third wave than the rate of deaths in the second wave. This may be due to the fact that we have vaccinated the vast majority of our vulnerable population, the folks over 70. Younger people are becoming infected and more and more are hospitalized and on ventilators. This group may be more resilient and more able to overcome the consequences of serious illness from COVID-19 requiring ventilation. Vaccinations work. We have protected our most vulnerable. In Ontario, we have vaccinated 3,139,743 of our vaccine eligible population. That's almost 25 % of the adult population. In the last 4 days, we have vaccinated more than 100,000 /day, that's 1 % of the population/ day. As more vaccines arrive, we will have the capacity to vaccinate more that 200,000/day and that's a conservative number but let's say we stay at 100,000/day. That means that during this 28 day lock down, we will vaccinate 28 % of the population, added to the 24 % that are already vaccinated and we will have vaccinated more than 50 % of the adult population by the first week of May. What happens when 50 % of the eligible population is vaccinated? Let me take you back to this tried and true link: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html On the left hand side, scroll down to the United Kingdom. Look to the bar graph in the lower right corner. The United Kingdom has vaccinated 60 % of it's population as of today and the result? The number of new daily cases of COVID 19 has dropped. They have smashed their third wave and they did it with a combination of a heavy lock down combined with mass vaccinations using the AstraZeneca Vaccine. There is a quote at the end of my husband's emails: "'Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored - Aldous Huxley'" The numbers do not lie. Science is based on data and facts. These vaccines work. Countries that have combined a stay at home order with mass vaccinations have wiped out their third wave. Twenty eight days. That's all it will take. Don't despair and keep your eye on the goal. Twenty-eight days. Stay at home, do not gather and get vaccinated. We may be tired and angry and frustrated but that does not change the hope that sits right in front of us. It is a hope based in fact, and science and amazing vaccines. Trust public health. Support your front line workers. Think twice before adding to their burn out with our doubts and frustrations. This lockdown will not be easy but it will be over....soon And, one more commentary. Postponing the interval between vaccine dosages to 16 weeks was a brilliant decision. The mRNA vaccines are effective up to 6 months. As a result of the delay, we will get to 50 or 60 % of eligible adults receiving their first dose in short order and likely before this emergency order is lifted. The decision was a wise one to make in this era of COVID-19 vaccine scarcity. The more people with that first dose, the more are protected and the quicker we end this third wave because there is now ample evidence that these vaccines not only dramatically reduce the risk of a person from getting infected but they also prevent a person from transmitting COVID-19 to others. Many of you have not received the date of your second vaccine appointment. I believe that is because that once vaccines are no longer scarce which in Ontario will likely be the end of April, you will be called for a second shot in 2 to three months. No word on the safety of delaying the second dose of the AZ vaccine. Keep moving in this direction and it will not be delayed beyond it's effectiveness. This should be our focus. Hope based on facts and numbers and science. Real hope. 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-

Vaccines, Vaccines and more vaccines. Variants, Variants and more Variants

 

Hey folks.

I think surviving the next several months will be all about balance: balancing chronic stress with healthy eating, regular sleep, daily exercise and daily safe connections with other people.....along with positive thoughts and practising gratitude and for me, on my knees in prayer. Why? Because believe it or not, in the next several months, WE will have control of the virus, not the other way around. By the end of June, there will be enough vaccines for all of us. This is way ahead of the original predictions of September as the date by which all of us would be offered a vaccine.

As of today, 6,518,600 doses have been given in Canada. That's translates into 15.2 % of the the Canadian population that have received at least one dose. This is a good link to follow Canada's progress:

https://covid19tracker.ca/vaccinationtracker.html

More than 2.5 million people in Ontario have received a vaccine which is almost 20 % of the population!! Check out this link to follow the vaccination progress in this province:

https://howsmyflattening.ca/#/home

Canada is set to receive 1,019,070 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 855,600 doses of the Moderna vaccine in the next week along with 500,000 of the AstraZeneca vaccine. That's almost 2.2 million million doses following a peak of more than 3 million doses last week.

We expected 6 million doses in the first three months of 2021. We received 9.5 million. In the next three months, Canada is set to receive one million doses of the Pfizer vaccine every week until the end of May when the supply will ramp up to two million a week in June.

By Canada day, Canada is set to receive 44 million doses of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines.

The infrastructure is here. The mass vaccination clinics are ready as are many pharmacies and doctors offices.

So breathe.

We've got this.

The variants will not take control if we stay the course but right now, "Younger Canadians are getting sick, really sick."

People in their 20's and 30's are on life support and if they survive, many will end up with longterm debilitating symptoms.

In Ontario, nearly 500 people are in the ICU and 210 admitted in the last week were under the age of 50.

The P1 variant ( the Brazil variant) which is spreading on the west coast is even more transmissible with a higher risk of serious illness than the B.1.1.7 variant that now makes up the majority of new cases in Ontario. BUT the vaccines are still effective at neutralizing this virus's ability to cause severe illness.

Here is what happens when we get to 50 % of the population vaccinated. My son lives in San Francisco. He received his second dose of the Pfizer vaccine last week. California has reached a 50 % vaccination rate and is expected to reach 75 % by May. They are planning on hosting concerts and live events this summer open to people who have been vaccinated. We'll talk about the ongoing debate of proof of vaccination in another post. That's a contentious issue.

The UK was devastated by the the B.1.1.7 variant. Now after a remarkable mass vaccination campaign, London a city of 9 million individuals, has had no deaths for two days in the past week, and today, after a 4 month lockdown, the country has made plans to start reopening. That's us in two months. Two months.

We know what we need to do and we have proven that we can do it. Wear a surgical level 2 mask or a good quality three-layer cloth mask with a layer of polypropylene at all times when you are in public. Be careful on those trails. If people are close to you, put the mask on. Avoid absolutely any gathering inside. I am not going to specify this. We know this recommendation well. Households members only inside.....PERIOD. I would avoid gathering outside right now. I went for a beautiful walk with a close friend today. We stayed six feet apart and we wore masks.

Just to be safe, put that mask on.

Enjoy the sun, the dawn of spring, the greening of nature. Focus on the good, stay in the moment, practise gratitude and acknowledge that you have the inner strength and resilience to persist for just a bit longer. And if you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out.

Tomorrow night is our 9th Finding the Balance during COVID-19 webinar. Our guest is our medical officer of health, Dr. Nicola Mercer. This event will calm your soul and reassure you that everything is going to be alright.

Click here to register:

https://us02web.zoom.us/.../reg.../WN_J9N1Dr9NSM2a4m8QOACaTQ

My next post will discuss conspiracy theories, our greatest threat to conquering COVID-19. Vaccines are safe and effective. Please question anyone who is suggesting otherwise.

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-

You know we will still defeat COVID -19

 

Look past the next month and see the horizon

Not great news today but expected. In the last 10 days or so there has been significant surge in new cases across the county. In Ontario, 67% of new cases are caused by the B.1.1.7. UK variant of COVID 19. Those who catch one of the new variants of COVID-19 are more likely to be hospitalized or die because of it. With the B.1.1.7 variant the risk of dying is 1.5 times higher, the risk of requiring a ventilator is three times higher and the risk of transmitting it quickly to another person is 2.5 times higher. This COVID is killing faster and it is killing people in a younger age group. More and more people under sixty are ending up in hospital. Entire families are being admitted to ICU's all at the same time. Thus. this new lockdown preventing us from gathering on yet another Easter weekend. I read my church's email announcement about this coming Easter Sunday's indoor service being cancelled and with that email came a reminder which at some level, in a strange way, brought me comfort. “Days and seasons of discouragement will occur. None of us are exempt from the human struggle of difficult times." Suffering is part of the human condition. In more affluent countries like ours, the majority of us might forget that and be somewhat offended by our present circumstances. After all, it has been more than a year of this harsh new reality of lock downs and mask wearing and physical distancing. But, here we are facing an even deadlier virus. Will we still win against this virus? You bet we will. Will our days of suffering continue forever? No way. In general, our public health measures of masking, gathering only with our households and maintaining physical distance still work against the B.1.1.7 variant. Our vaccines are proving to be just as effective against this variant but we can't mess around. Allowing a virus to spread allows that virus to replicate itself in the human host a million times over. Each time a virus takes over a human cell it turns that cell into a virus making factory where replicative errors can occur. Meaning, as it is reproducing itself, mistakes can be made which change the make-up of the virus and more specifically, change the surface proteins of the virus. With the COVID-19 B.1.1.7. variant, it appears that the surface spike proteins have been altered. Remember, the spike proteins on the surface of the virus are what allows the virus to attach to the human cell through a receptor site or a point of entry. The altered spike proteins may make this cell entry system much more efficient. Breath in the old COVID-19 virus and your immune system kills a lot of the virus before it infects. Breath in this new variant and it can sail past your first line of immune system defence and then more easily enter your cells making your body become quickly overwhelmed by the virus. The more virus that is allowed to infect your cells, the more illness you may experience, the more serious that illness may be and the more likely that the virus can kill. None of this is new science. This is what viruses do. Give them hundreds of millions of hosts to infect and they will mutate with the stronger mutated viruses taking over. Have no fear. The vaccines are here and and millions will arrive this month and next month. If we stay hunkered down for just a bit longer, we will be able to vaccinate the majority of people in this country while not giving the present COVID-19 variant a chance to race too far ahead of us. Young people are now at risk. Can we get this message to people between the ages of 20 and 39? We really need to. 6 million doses administered in Canada so far. And we are just ramping up now. GWD has administered 50,000 doses. That's 17.3 % of our population. We just need to get to our target of 75 %. None of the mass vaccination clinics are running at full capacity yet but they are ready and as more vaccines arrive, we may be able to vaccinate more than 15,000 people a week. Ten weeks, 250,000 people......do the math. We are GOLDEN. Click on to this link to follow the status of vaccinations in our region: https://wdgpublichealth.ca/your-health/covid-19-information-workplaces-and-living-spaces/covid-19-information-public/covid-19-1 Our job is to make this vaccination process easy and effective by taking the first vaccine we are offered and adhering to the public health guidelines. Deprive this virus of the hosts it needs to survive. Not an easy time ahead of us. We are suffering. Reach out if you need to. Find people who are suffering more than you are and serve them in anyway you can. That's how we thrive in dark times. Our next Finding the Balance during COVID-19 webinar is on April 6th. Very timely. Our medical officer of health, Dr. Nicola Mercer will be our guest. Here is the link to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/.../reg.../WN_J9N1Dr9NSM2a4m8QOACaTQ Please note, people 60 and above in the WDG health unit can now register online along with other Phase II eligible groups. Here is the link to register online: https://register.wdgpublichealth.ca/ OR Call to register: Pre-registration/Appointment Booking: 1-844-780-0202 (7-10 day response time) Open Monday to Friday 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. 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-