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Good questions!

Thread 1/5
RE: Staffing/Fair wages:
I've talked about how this system reflects the trifecta of racism/sexism/ageism: https://t.co/hcjb0fB5xr
*We have a majority older, female resident population cared for my a majority racialized, female workforce.

20 years ago (pre-Harris privatization), nursing homes were staffed primarily by NURSES (hence the name, NURSING HOMES).

Privatization kicks in....and these FP owners need to cut costs to increase their profits. How? STAFFING, TO START.

What unfolded over the last 20 years as Privatization increased was the reversal of the staffing mix from majority nurses to majority PSWs (who are an unregulated workforce comprised primarily of racialized women who are often new to Canada).

This strategy is NOT NEW (its how the 2nd phase of predatory capitalism took hold) by expanding quite literally on the backs of women, often from the Global South whose labour is assumed to be both cheap and disposable (I studied this in my PhD).

And indeed, @Revera_Inc in their recent report defending their COVID performance expressed these same calls for an increased use of a gendered & racialized workforce....seeking to have @fordnation adjust immigration policies as a result
My thoughts on 1-dose vs 2-dose approach.

TL; DR

Wrong questions give you wrong answers.

We assuredly should want 2 doses, the only issue is the timing of 2nd dose. And a brief delay is a risk worth taking.

But let's prioritize >65 year old 2nd doses at same time.

1/9


First, let's start with @VirusesImmunity brilliant thread:

We know enough to know that there is vast benefit from giving substantial immunity to as many as possible as quickly as possible.


We also know that the timing of second dose was never set in stone. Pfizer chose to give second dose at 19-23 days; Moderna chose at 28-31 days. They tested at these levels and proved safety and efficacy. Safety is not at issue with delayed dosing. Efficacy probably is.

3/9

Most of medicine, as practiced, has not been subjected to rigorous clinical trials for various reasons. We weigh available evidence & act accordingly. We pivot when new evidence is available. We should want more RCTs, but they are often unethical or impossible to perform. 4/9

Ideally, Pfizer &/or Moderna would have already done a single dose arm. JNJ is testing both a single-dose & 2-dose regimen. We will have some data in a few weeks on the 1-dose regimen.

But we don't live in an ideal world. We live in the real world.
The Great Software Stagnation is real, but we have to understand it to fight it. The CAUSE of the TGSS is not "teh interwebs". The cause is the "direct manipulation" paradigm : the "worst idea in computer science" \1


Progress in CS comes from discovering ever more abstract and expressive languages to tell the computer to do something. But replacing "tell the computer to do something in language" with "do it yourself using these gestures" halts that progress. \2

Stagnation started in the 1970s after the first GUIs were invented. Every genre of software that gives users a "friendly" GUI interface, effectively freezes progress at that level of abstraction / expressivity. Because we can never abandon old direct manipulation metaphors \3

The 1990s were simply the point when most people in the world finally got access to a personal computer with a GUI. So that's where we see most of the ideas frozen. \4

It's no surprise that the improvements @jonathoda cites, that are still taking place are improvements in textual representation : \5