Christine Guenter
@dragginfly.bsky.social
Science.❤️Nature.❤️Music.❤️Gardening.❤️Cuisine. ❤️ Fly fishing! ❤️...and that pesky pandemic! #CovidIsntOver #WearAMask #CleanTheAirIfYouCare #H5N1 #AvianFlu
Reposted by Christine Guenter
This is a great resource for #science class because what is the purpose of basic science education but to prepare our students for tackling #ClimateChange in their present & future ?
www.canada.ca/en/environme...
www.canada.ca/en/environme...
Canada’s Changing Climate Report 2026: Headline statements - Canada.ca
www.canada.ca
September 9, 2026 at 4:59 PM
This is a great resource for #science class because what is the purpose of basic science education but to prepare our students for tackling #ClimateChange in their present & future ?
www.canada.ca/en/environme...
www.canada.ca/en/environme...
Reposted by Christine Guenter
BC Changed a Law to Keep Gas Royalties Secret via @thetyee.ca thetyee.ca/News/2026/09...
BC Changed a Law to Keep Gas Royalties Secret | The Tyee
‘Improved confidentiality’ for oil companies leaves the public without previously available payment data.
thetyee.ca
September 9, 2026 at 3:04 PM
BC Changed a Law to Keep Gas Royalties Secret via @thetyee.ca thetyee.ca/News/2026/09...
Reposted by Christine Guenter
There is a strategy called Étapisme, where a political goal is achieved through a series of smaller steps. Trump is at war with Canada but he is doing so by a series of economic steps that will, he hopes, weaken Canada to the point where he can achieve his full goal of annexation.
September 9, 2026 at 1:11 PM
There is a strategy called Étapisme, where a political goal is achieved through a series of smaller steps. Trump is at war with Canada but he is doing so by a series of economic steps that will, he hopes, weaken Canada to the point where he can achieve his full goal of annexation.
Reposted by Christine Guenter
I'm old enough to remember when polio put my friends into iron lungs.
We dutifully lined up at school to get vaccinated. We eradicated the disease. We protected the common good and saved lives.
What RFK Jr. is doing to public health in America is a disgrace.
We dutifully lined up at school to get vaccinated. We eradicated the disease. We protected the common good and saved lives.
What RFK Jr. is doing to public health in America is a disgrace.
August 11, 2026 at 9:00 PM
I'm old enough to remember when polio put my friends into iron lungs.
We dutifully lined up at school to get vaccinated. We eradicated the disease. We protected the common good and saved lives.
What RFK Jr. is doing to public health in America is a disgrace.
We dutifully lined up at school to get vaccinated. We eradicated the disease. We protected the common good and saved lives.
What RFK Jr. is doing to public health in America is a disgrace.
Reposted by Christine Guenter
Toxic PM2.5 exposure is going to be another one of those tricky public health situations. The outward physical symptoms of toxic exposure is not very strong considering the biological significance & a lot of the symptoms won't easily be associated with exposure.
August 18, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Toxic PM2.5 exposure is going to be another one of those tricky public health situations. The outward physical symptoms of toxic exposure is not very strong considering the biological significance & a lot of the symptoms won't easily be associated with exposure.
Reposted by Christine Guenter
Given past oversight failures around clinical trials and associated conflicts of interest at McMaster (e.g. the infamous N95 vs medical mask trial), ethics concerns need to be taken very seriously and trustworthiness demonstrated, or public confidence in the clinical trial ecosystem is at risk.
Sign the Petition
Long COVID Patients Deserve Better: Pause McMaster’s FALCON Lightning Process Trial
www.change.org
August 4, 2026 at 11:05 AM
Given past oversight failures around clinical trials and associated conflicts of interest at McMaster (e.g. the infamous N95 vs medical mask trial), ethics concerns need to be taken very seriously and trustworthiness demonstrated, or public confidence in the clinical trial ecosystem is at risk.
Reposted by Christine Guenter
They never measured the air. The filters were run at settings chosen for noise and comfort in communal rooms (low flow). They didn't even calculate room volumes — and no tracer, particle, or bioaerosol data confirms the intervention lowered airborne pathogen concentrations anywhere. 1/
Curious to hear what you think of this Kim @kprather.bsky.social ?
A large trial found no evidence that Hepa air filters reduce respiratory infections in care homes, challenging assumptions about their role in infection control.
July 30, 2026 at 2:51 AM
They never measured the air. The filters were run at settings chosen for noise and comfort in communal rooms (low flow). They didn't even calculate room volumes — and no tracer, particle, or bioaerosol data confirms the intervention lowered airborne pathogen concentrations anywhere. 1/
Reposted by Christine Guenter
This is terrible. The authors admit that their intervention failed to provide the correct Clean Air Delivery Rate. I mean, if you know the intervention you’re testing is inadequate, why test at all?? And why demand they REMOVE existing HEPA fitration units (which might have had the right CADR)?
Not much to say here. The same vibes-based medicine that has been driving anti-PPE misinformation since long before COVID hit.
Imagine a drug manufacturer testing its competitor's product at a subclinical dose (but "we feel like that's good enough") and then claiming it doesn't work.
Unserious.
Imagine a drug manufacturer testing its competitor's product at a subclinical dose (but "we feel like that's good enough") and then claiming it doesn't work.
Unserious.
July 30, 2026 at 12:41 AM
This is terrible. The authors admit that their intervention failed to provide the correct Clean Air Delivery Rate. I mean, if you know the intervention you’re testing is inadequate, why test at all?? And why demand they REMOVE existing HEPA fitration units (which might have had the right CADR)?
Reposted by Christine Guenter
I don’t understand how this got published. It would be akin to saying “seatbelts don’t save lives” because of a study when people who didn’t use them properly had just as bad injuries as people who didn’t use them at all.
Not only did only ~12% of participants get in-room HEPA (sharing common areas with the other 1,570 who didn't, with "up to 5" shared HEPAs), in-room HEPAs were only (reportedly) "usually" (which is...not a scientific unit of measure! 🙄) turned on.
For "pragmatic" read "sloppy"
For "pragmatic" read "sloppy"
July 30, 2026 at 12:37 AM
I don’t understand how this got published. It would be akin to saying “seatbelts don’t save lives” because of a study when people who didn’t use them properly had just as bad injuries as people who didn’t use them at all.
Reposted by Christine Guenter
The usual scientifically illiterate gibberish from deeply conflicted aerosol transmission deniers.
🧵(1/n) An unfortunate example of confusion around the value of RCTs common to practitioners with limited research training. RCTs are a useful scientific method, but they are only a small part of the biomedical researcher's deep toolbox.
bsky.app/profile/mark...
bsky.app/profile/mark...
"Unnecessary content" placeholder I will use in reposting old Twitter threads with broadly applicable content on bsky. Some were responses to positions taken by others, where the value today is in addressing the idea rather than naming & shaming any one particular individual.
July 29, 2026 at 2:34 PM
The usual scientifically illiterate gibberish from deeply conflicted aerosol transmission deniers.
The elite have this technology in their “high end” buildings. The general public deserves these same technologies - in school and hospitals especially. It’s time to make this happen!
"Engineers have continued to develop sophisticated systems to keep air healthy. High-end apartment buildings occasionally boast about the technology used to keep their tenants safe. But these systems are far from ubiquitous."
Buildings May Soon Have ‘Immune Systems’ That Fight Airborne Disease
www.nytimes.com
June 20, 2026 at 7:12 PM
The elite have this technology in their “high end” buildings. The general public deserves these same technologies - in school and hospitals especially. It’s time to make this happen!
Reposted by Christine Guenter
"Engineers have continued to develop sophisticated systems to keep air healthy. High-end apartment buildings occasionally boast about the technology used to keep their tenants safe. But these systems are far from ubiquitous."
Buildings May Soon Have ‘Immune Systems’ That Fight Airborne Disease
www.nytimes.com
June 20, 2026 at 1:34 PM
"Engineers have continued to develop sophisticated systems to keep air healthy. High-end apartment buildings occasionally boast about the technology used to keep their tenants safe. But these systems are far from ubiquitous."
Reposted by Christine Guenter
"If you confine people, they will need to be supported with food. And if they don’t get food, they will move":
www.straitstimes.com/world/ebola-...
www.straitstimes.com/world/ebola-...
Ebola patients flee treatment centres in Congo for food as hunger crisis deepens
Over 150 escapes from Ebola treatment and isolation facilities have been documented since late May. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.
www.straitstimes.com
June 19, 2026 at 2:19 PM
"If you confine people, they will need to be supported with food. And if they don’t get food, they will move":
www.straitstimes.com/world/ebola-...
www.straitstimes.com/world/ebola-...
Reposted by Christine Guenter
Between funding cuts and general cluelessness, national and international public health orgs like the WHO are not equipped to manage Ebola. Rolling the dice on aerosol transmission plus hopes and prayers that it stays over there and "only" kills Africans are causing yet another unnecessary disaster.
![1.85 Professor Noakes told the Inquiry in Module 2: Core decision-making and political governance that:
“[T]here was just a tendency to assume the other transmission routes, and then require the evidence for airborne transmission.”141
Such a mindset was consistent with Ms Imrie’s defence of the initial position of infection prevention and control guidance, which was that “there wasn’t enough good evidence to say that we were uncertain”.142 Members of the UK IPC Cell thus appeared to consider that it was necessary to disprove pre-existing beliefs rather than keeping an open mind to the potential risks of all plausible transmission routes.
Source: https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/reports/module-3-full-report/#:~:text=there%20wasn%E2%80%99t%20enough%20good%20evidence%20to%20say%20that%20we%20were%20uncertain](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ou6sjyhswn7s3qyfqhw7mbk6/bafkreigbx7we7pmrtbgnh44kb34ziugwsxhe42gowqbtcn5f7x3fusnupe)
June 20, 2026 at 11:52 AM
Between funding cuts and general cluelessness, national and international public health orgs like the WHO are not equipped to manage Ebola. Rolling the dice on aerosol transmission plus hopes and prayers that it stays over there and "only" kills Africans are causing yet another unnecessary disaster.
Reposted by Christine Guenter
Getting COVID after age 65 and even more so after age 75 is associated with heart attacks, strokes and other bad things. Getting your COVID vaccine reduces this risk!
Get your COVID vaccine!
Get your COVID vaccine!
June 15, 2026 at 10:57 PM
Getting COVID after age 65 and even more so after age 75 is associated with heart attacks, strokes and other bad things. Getting your COVID vaccine reduces this risk!
Get your COVID vaccine!
Get your COVID vaccine!
Reposted by Christine Guenter
The elephant in the room for the Pandemic Agreement is that public health and IPC leaders have demonstrated a deficit of judgement, professionalism, and trustworthiness. The rubber meets the road on integrity when it's time to admit and address a mistake. Their silence says it all.
UK COVID Inquiry:
UK COVID Inquiry:
June 15, 2026 at 12:30 PM
The elephant in the room for the Pandemic Agreement is that public health and IPC leaders have demonstrated a deficit of judgement, professionalism, and trustworthiness. The rubber meets the road on integrity when it's time to admit and address a mistake. Their silence says it all.
UK COVID Inquiry:
UK COVID Inquiry:
Reposted by Christine Guenter
"We think that these virus infections can be almost like fuel for the fire"
If viral infections can help reactivate dormant cancer cells like some data suggests, shouldn't we have respirator masks in oncology?
www.latimes.com/science/stor...
If viral infections can help reactivate dormant cancer cells like some data suggests, shouldn't we have respirator masks in oncology?
www.latimes.com/science/stor...
What COVID is teaching doctors about the relationship between viruses and cancer
The pandemic has left some evidence that viral infection may play a role in reawakening dormant cancer cells already present in a patient’s body before infection.
www.latimes.com
June 16, 2026 at 1:16 PM
"We think that these virus infections can be almost like fuel for the fire"
If viral infections can help reactivate dormant cancer cells like some data suggests, shouldn't we have respirator masks in oncology?
www.latimes.com/science/stor...
If viral infections can help reactivate dormant cancer cells like some data suggests, shouldn't we have respirator masks in oncology?
www.latimes.com/science/stor...
Reposted by Christine Guenter
Public health and infection control leadership, covering themselves in glory as usual. What a massive unnecessary waste of lives, health and resources.
Homeless person steals a loaf of bread? Jail.
Well-connected medical managers waste an enormous number of lives, double down and kill more?
🦗🦗🦗
Homeless person steals a loaf of bread? Jail.
Well-connected medical managers waste an enormous number of lives, double down and kill more?
🦗🦗🦗
Important paper documenting that the healthcare costs in those with long COVID were almost twice as much as the control group.
"Total average annual healthcare costs per person were estimated at €1,136 ($1315), €616 ($712), and €678 ($785) for the PCC, COVID-19 and control group, respectively. "
"Total average annual healthcare costs per person were estimated at €1,136 ($1315), €616 ($712), and €678 ($785) for the PCC, COVID-19 and control group, respectively. "
Healthcare Resource Use and Costs under Pandemic Circumstances in The Netherlands: Results from the Lifelines COVID-19 Cohort
The unprecedented influx of COVID-19 patients during the pandemic has confronted health
authorities across multiple countries with severe capacity limits in physical infrastructure
and healthcare work...
www.ijidonline.com
June 16, 2026 at 2:18 PM
Public health and infection control leadership, covering themselves in glory as usual. What a massive unnecessary waste of lives, health and resources.
Homeless person steals a loaf of bread? Jail.
Well-connected medical managers waste an enormous number of lives, double down and kill more?
🦗🦗🦗
Homeless person steals a loaf of bread? Jail.
Well-connected medical managers waste an enormous number of lives, double down and kill more?
🦗🦗🦗
Reposted by Christine Guenter
Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak in DR Congo: current trajectory and potential risk for a Pandemic Emergency - The Lancet Infectious Diseases www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak in DR Congo: current trajectory and potential risk for a Pandemic Emergency
On May 15, 2026, DR Congo declared the 17th orthoebolavirus disease outbreak—the third
in the country in two decades caused by the Bundibugyo virus variant (Orthoebolavirus
bundibugyoense)—in the conf...
www.thelancet.com
June 9, 2026 at 1:49 PM
Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak in DR Congo: current trajectory and potential risk for a Pandemic Emergency - The Lancet Infectious Diseases www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Reposted by Christine Guenter
I have been trying to raise awareness about the recent cuts to pandemic preparedness by provincial institutions in BC for the past 1½ months. Most of the cuts were not announced to the public beforehand and media coverage has been scant. 1/?
![[Text on an yellow octagon meant to look like the output of an overhead projector.]
The silent erosion of COVID-19 awareness & management in B.C.:
A TIMELINE
[A timeline of the year 2025 and the January of 2026. Numbered diamonds are placed on the timeline to mark the events below.]
1. April 16: Amount & timeliness of SARS-CoV-2 sample data uploaded to GISAID, an online repository, deteriorate.
2. May: The end of RAT Kit Distribution Program is announced in a professional newsletter. This provided free RAT kits to pharmacies.
3. May 31: RAT kits orders from this day onwards would not be reimbursed.
4. June: The BCCDC page dedicated to how COVID-19 spreads is removed.
5. September 1: Under the BC medical services plan, less than 20 people will be allowed in an online group medical visit. An unknown number of bed- & house-bound people will lose telehealth access to the BC-CLMF, a long COVID & ME/CFS clinic. Implementation delayed until January.
6. September 15: Vancouver Sun publishes a sponsored article, suggesting the program responsible for generating SARS-CoV-2 data from wastewater samples would be expanded & describes the then-current state of the program.
7. September 18: The wastewater surveillance program is cut: 8 of 12 wastewater treatment plants will no longer be monitored, and 1 sample will be taken per week instead of 3.
8. October 14: The year's vaccination campaign begins to widespread shortages.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dy4l7kqcar73iaezbjxzwiui/bafkreibyc7hcwrwtwlid453tk3fv523vx3cziv4g5qksvdrks6b3ymxo2a)
November 7, 2025 at 3:14 AM
I have been trying to raise awareness about the recent cuts to pandemic preparedness by provincial institutions in BC for the past 1½ months. Most of the cuts were not announced to the public beforehand and media coverage has been scant. 1/?
Reposted by Christine Guenter
Hey everyone! The minimizer who overconfidently "blew it" with SARS (to quote her colleagues) and overconfidently dismissed airborne transmission of COVID as a "tempest in a teapot" (which the UK COVID Inquiry found was a "widespread failure") is "confident there's no additional risk".
Feel safe?
Feel safe?
![Everybody wanted it to be over, and Carolyn Abramson in the Globe said that once they … things changed once they lifted the travel advisory, the travel
advisory was a sort of a shift in the whole psychology in the city and all of a sudden everybody now was together.When the travel advisory came down, there
was the City, the Province, Health Canada, everybody
1139
SARS Commission Final Report: Volume Three © Spring of Fear
Did Politics Intrude?
was outraged and fighting together, and then when they got the travel advisory turned back, everybody
celebrated about that and once everybody were getting
back to normal and everybody was … that is part of why the lack of leadership. There should have been somebody who said … nobody questioned it. [Dr.] Jim Young went off to China to talk about our
successes and how we controlled it. [Dr.] Bonnie [Henry] went with him and [Dr.] Tony [Mazzulli] went with him and nobody said, “how do you know it is over?” including myself. None of us said “well, just because,” and it is such a simple question to ask and we blew it. It is just amazing everybody blew it.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ou6sjyhswn7s3qyfqhw7mbk6/bafkreiaaly6pkg2vrs5ziksycoka46yfowzgo4paou76lbb7mwvcy34qu4)
May 16, 2026 at 8:56 PM
Hey everyone! The minimizer who overconfidently "blew it" with SARS (to quote her colleagues) and overconfidently dismissed airborne transmission of COVID as a "tempest in a teapot" (which the UK COVID Inquiry found was a "widespread failure") is "confident there's no additional risk".
Feel safe?
Feel safe?
Reposted by Christine Guenter
Canadian COVID Forecast: May 23 - Jun 5, 2026
SEVERE: none
VERY HIGH: none
HIGH: NL
MODERATE: CAN, AB, BC, MB, North, NS, ON, PEI, QC, SK
About 1 in 314 people in Canada are CURRENTLY infected.
SEVERE: none
VERY HIGH: none
HIGH: NL
MODERATE: CAN, AB, BC, MB, North, NS, ON, PEI, QC, SK
About 1 in 314 people in Canada are CURRENTLY infected.
May 27, 2026 at 12:16 AM
Canadian COVID Forecast: May 23 - Jun 5, 2026
SEVERE: none
VERY HIGH: none
HIGH: NL
MODERATE: CAN, AB, BC, MB, North, NS, ON, PEI, QC, SK
About 1 in 314 people in Canada are CURRENTLY infected.
SEVERE: none
VERY HIGH: none
HIGH: NL
MODERATE: CAN, AB, BC, MB, North, NS, ON, PEI, QC, SK
About 1 in 314 people in Canada are CURRENTLY infected.
Reposted by Christine Guenter
With ongoing hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks, this paper is worth (re)reading.
When someone coughs, sings, talks or breathes they produce aerosols from their respiratory fluids - along with whatever pathogens are in those fluids.
COVID screwups have committed PH/IPC leaders to covering that up.
When someone coughs, sings, talks or breathes they produce aerosols from their respiratory fluids - along with whatever pathogens are in those fluids.
COVID screwups have committed PH/IPC leaders to covering that up.
The physics of respiratory particle generation, fate in the air, and inhalation - Nature Reviews Physics
In this Perspective on the physics of particle generation in the respiratory tract, fate in the air upon exhalation and the physics of inhalation, the authors conclude that the general understanding o...
www.nature.com
May 19, 2026 at 2:25 PM
With ongoing hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks, this paper is worth (re)reading.
When someone coughs, sings, talks or breathes they produce aerosols from their respiratory fluids - along with whatever pathogens are in those fluids.
COVID screwups have committed PH/IPC leaders to covering that up.
When someone coughs, sings, talks or breathes they produce aerosols from their respiratory fluids - along with whatever pathogens are in those fluids.
COVID screwups have committed PH/IPC leaders to covering that up.
Reposted by Christine Guenter
Unroll of @jmcrookston.bsky.social 's citation-filled thread from 2022 on reasons public health should not be so mindlessly dismissing airborne transmission of #Ebola
Thread by @jmcrookston on Thread Reader App
@jmcrookston: Ebola transmits by air Believe me (and others) or not, at your peril. Just the main posts from the main thread. No time. 38 from hospital room? Touch? Sure. Tell me another one. article ...
threadreaderapp.com
May 19, 2026 at 2:41 PM
Unroll of @jmcrookston.bsky.social 's citation-filled thread from 2022 on reasons public health should not be so mindlessly dismissing airborne transmission of #Ebola
Reposted by Christine Guenter
Dear @who.int
Amoy. Gardens.
Like. I. Said.
No further evidence was required.
Please apologise for the decision you made to not inform the public.
Millions are dead.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/vir...
Amoy. Gardens.
Like. I. Said.
No further evidence was required.
Please apologise for the decision you made to not inform the public.
Millions are dead.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/vir...
Virus in the vents: Study traces COVID spread in high-rise apartment
www.cidrap.umn.edu
May 16, 2026 at 1:19 AM
Dear @who.int
Amoy. Gardens.
Like. I. Said.
No further evidence was required.
Please apologise for the decision you made to not inform the public.
Millions are dead.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/vir...
Amoy. Gardens.
Like. I. Said.
No further evidence was required.
Please apologise for the decision you made to not inform the public.
Millions are dead.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/vir...