High quality 😷 ARE shields though, and are a very smart addition to other tools (💉, 🧼👐,🪟💨, 🛌🤧) when airborne illness rates are elevated and temperatures are pushing us all inside. We don't need to know what kind of flu it is, masks are variant-proof!

Is there really a “superflu” spreading across the U.S.? – CTVNews 💉 are less like SHIELDS (preventing every infection), and more like SEATBELTS (decreasing the severity of the damage) www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/vid...

Grand River Transit riders frustrated with delay in snow clearing at bus stops www.ctvnews.ca/kitchener/ar...

Hybrid event.

Ontario Public Health respiratory virus update January 9, 2026 % positivity Covid 5.2 Flu 24.8 (down from 34.4) RSV 4.2 Entero/Rhinovirus 3.5 Parainfluenza 1.3 Masks, vaccination, ventilation and staying home when sick help to reduce spread. www.publichealthontario.ca/en/Data-and-...

Our letter to WHO, signed by over 2,300, calls for respirator use in healthcare to protect patients and staff. Covered by Kat Lay in The Guardian: www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

- ...many healthcare workers still don’t believe that long COVID is real, despite dramatically disabling symptoms in people with no preexisting risk factors www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...

Face masks ‘inadequate’ and should be swapped for respirators, WHO is advised Experts are urging guideline changes on what health professionals should wear to protect against flu-like illnesses including Covid

Holiday Bonus: Long Covid is real and it shatters people’s lives open.substack.com/pub/johndupu...

A peer-reviewed 2024 study in The Lancet Regional Health Americas found that out of 899 young and healthy Marines, a fourth of them went on to develop #LongCOVID after infection. Most of those people had mild symptoms in the up-front infection stage, and over a third of them hadn’t felt sick at all

If there was *any* leadership on masking in healthcare we would start to see change. I routinely train new staff and almost all of them continue to mask after being paired with me - and that is just because I model appropriate behaviour.

The reason you don’t see masks in hospitals is because IPAC does not want masks in hospitals. They are totally fine with coughing into your elbow as long as you wash your hands.

One thing that's especially disappointing in #skpoli is the Chief Medical Officer is willing to show up for a vaccination against influenza (or #COVID19SK too) without a respirator. And his staff giving the shots are provided with only obsolete surgical masks, and no guidance to use N95+.

🎭 Call for Volunteers: Front-of-House for The Prince KWLT is looking for volunteers to help with front-of-house for our upcoming production of The Prince! 👉 Sign up here: bit.ly/FOHThePrince

Listes (plus ou moins à jour) de Mask Blocs : maskbloc.org associationarra.wordpress.com/mask-bloc/

It is not ableist to talk about how Covid infections in utero can cause neurodevelopmental disorders. This is a scientific fact. Amid RFK Jr. removing protective Covid vaccines for pregnant people, we're not helping by being quiet about this jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

This! And also imagine if people werent being selfish assholes and did the group project of masking in public. If you're not masking, you're the reason someone still trying to protect themselves got sick. Dick move tbh, do better Flu hospitalizations were SO LOW when we were all masking 2020-2021

We need a phrase for when the news headlines are the same every winter yet try to sound like something novel is happening. Hospitals are overcrowded... so during flu season they become catastrophically so. Who could have predicted that doing nothing to fix this would lead to the same bad outcome?

Had the chance to speak on CityTV about the surge in Flu cases. Probably one of the worst seasons I've seen, especially hitting the elderly and young hard. There needs to be way better public health messaging on prevention and when to seek care.

Does clean air matter to you? Please help push this agenda by signing this petition to the Toronto Board of Health to direct Toronto Public Health to adopt Health Canada’s new IAQ Guidance! You don’t need to live in Toronto to sign! Takes less than 1 minute. cleanindoorairto.ca

Hospitals need to do a better job of preventing the spread of airborne infections - all year round, not just during #flu season. Proper masking of healthcare workers is required always. Surgical masks are not PPE. whn.global/scientific/m...

I can't help but notice that like half the replies here are from disabled/chronically ill people who have been pushed out of organizing spaces by groups that refuse to wear masks or take other covid precautions. 😭

Hybrid event.

Earthshakers Creativity Club 2026 schedule posted. "We meet online every month (all year), and in person every other month (from March to November)." For more information, see www.nikkistclair.ca/earthshakers/

People pay attention! 👇 For years now good health care professionals warned about dropping our guard against a novel virus and now the tabulation of the damage is coming in.

Letting a SARS virus be rebranded as “Covid” was such a fucking mistake.

On this day in COVID history, January 6, 2020: Questions still swirl over China's unexplained pneumonia outbreak Source: University of Minnesota https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/questions-still-swirl-over-chinas-unexplained-pneumonia-outbreak

COVID killed >100,000 people per year over the course of 2023 and 2024 in the US alone. The level of indifference to this massive annual toll among both the public and the majority of my public health colleagues is stunning. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

The highest rate on record. It staggers me that no-one in public health seems to be acknowledging that immune dysregulation caused by prior SARS-CoV-2 infection is likely a significant factor in this, and the implications of this concept going forward. abcnews.go.com/Health/flu-a...

It's not "super flu". It's that flu isn't "just a flu". People really need to understand about lineage diversity, mechanisms of evolutionary change, and shifting fitness landscapes for the virus. The idea of immunity theft from COVID should be taken seriously also.

6 years, still no clean air in schools. There has been a huge increase in sickness absence since 2019 due to COVID. Policy isn’t keeping pace with the science. Ignoring #Longcovidkids is part of the problem. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2573814...

Telegraph Journal: 'Patient pushes for ER protocol for uncommon disorder' 'She would like to see the health authorities establish a protocol for when patients with POTS or dysautonomia present to the emergency departments...' tj.news/moncton-mira...

Join Egale Canada for an informative webinar exploring the lived experiences of 2SLGBTQI people navigating dementia care on January 20, 2026, from 12 pm – 1 pm ET. This session will explore what meaningful, affirming, and inclusive dementia care can and should look like for everyone.

Happy New Year from the cast of the next production at KWLT! The Prince by Abigail Thorn is being directed by Eliza Grafton and opens January 30th. Get your tickets at: buff.ly/euMtlus Find more information on The Prince visit kwlt.org/theprince.

This is a preprint, but implications are very interesting #MEcfs Wondering about #MCAS implications

I can't quite put my finger on why, but Nadella requesting we stop saying "AI slop" reminds me of Jeb Bush asking the audience to "please clap".

“It’s just going to make society worse. It’s going to increase health care costs. It’s going to increase stress. It’s going to increase road rage,” he said. Yep. Daily back to office means more sickness and more pollution for no tangible benefit to anyone, even employers.

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is highly effective. The vaccine protects against the high-risk HPV types 16 and 18, which cause most cervical cancers and have been shown to be safe and effective in preventing HPV infection and #CervicalCancer

"The only and most likely possibility is that we will be invaded by the US government in pursuit of nothing more than the global maintenance of its hegemony at the expense of our resources, our sweat, and our blood, both ours and that of our children." canadiandimension.com/articles/vie...

Among people not taking antihistamines, #LongCOVID risk increased with each reinfection, while no Long COVID cases were observed after two or three infections in antihistamine users. www.preprints.org/frontend/man...

#COVID #vaccines protect children from severe illness per the CDC with a 76% reduced risk of emergency department and urgent care visits in kids 9 months to 4 years and a 56% reduced risk of ED visits in kids 5 to 17 years. From www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes...

In a study meta-analysis of 97 million people, #COVID-19 was associated with a 49% increased risk of new-onset autoimmune-related diseases. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The UKHSA reports show increased risk of secondary infections 28 days after the #flu and #COVID, with an overall higher risk after COVID. COVID and influenza viruses can affect the immune system’s ability to fight other infections long term. From: www.gov.uk/government/s...

Healthcare personnel with confirmed #COVID symptoms, 293 (7.9%) reported presenteeism, defined as working while sick. The researchers observed a clear upward trend in presenteeism over time, rising from 1.4% in 2020 to 15.2% in 2024. www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/pre...

✨Please share! My mega newsletter is out in 2 parts.✨ 📈Part I: Current Data on COVID, record high Influenza, RSV, and Measles buff.ly/m7IL9GK 🔎Part II: Latest Research on COVID & on Health buff.ly/RVIwpuN #medsky #pedsky 🛟😷🧪

#UWaterloo Staff RTO guidelines are now in effect, meaning they're now expected to come to campus 5 days a week. It's also peak illness season w much higher positive flu case numbers than last year. Wear a K/N95 mask when you come in so everyone else can stay safe and healthy!!!

Wow, #flu A levels in Ontario... #WearAMask and protect yourself against all of it.

On this day in COVID history, January 4, 2020: Experts search for answers in limited information about mystery pneumonia outbreak in China Source: STAT News https://www.statnews.com/2020/01/04/mystery-pneumonia-outbreak-china/

Our linktree cannot be opened from our Instagram profile currently (we are appealing to Meta), but you can access it here: linktr.ee/maskblocwr

Thank you for the recent donations! We will soon be restocking our test supply and acquiring masks in more sizes.