Engineering Health

Today was Global Accessibility Awareness Day. I had a great chat with Juan Olarte about his work to make digital information (websites and documents) more accessible as well as what National Park Accessibility means to him. Near the end he highlights an event he hosted to mark this important day including a keynote talk from the co-founder of GAAD, Jennison Asuncion.

Tonya and I discuss how cases are increasing rapidly and what the province needs to do. Yesterday evening (when we recorded this) the number of new cases was just over 2400 - today it is just over 3100.

Vicki shared her journey through her undergraduate and graduate studies, applying for jobs in and outside academia and how to give a good job talk. In particular, she gave some great advice on how to deal with imposter syndrome. You can find her contact info here: https://engineering.ok.ubc.ca/about/contact/vicki-komisar/ Here is the products she worked on during her PhD are here: https://hartmobility.com/products/easy-range-600/ and https://hartmobility.com/products/easy-range-500/ Here is a video that demonstrates the impact one of her products is having on end users: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwq4EilsXEY

This is a quick introduction to what this podcast is about.

Ahmed took the time to share advice for deciding what to do after school for undergrad and graduate students. He also describes his plans for the next phase in his life as the Founder of Hellamaid. The Reddit article that helped Ahmed launch his business: www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/5lfy6n/4_years_ago_i_wrote_a_case_study_on_reddit_on_my Ahmed's website with pictures and videos including his undergrad project, masters project and DEEP experience: ahmedmezil.com/portfolio The psychology tool that helped him with important decisions (Ahmed is ENFJ): www.16personalities.com/personality-types

This was recorded over a week ago. Tonya and I talk about how worried we should be about a fourth wave.

Tonya and I discuss the record breaking COVID-19 case numbers happening now in the third wave.

Tonya and I both went back and listened to our podcast from 1 year ago (Friday March 13, 2020) and reflected on it.

Case numbers are going down but variant numbers are creeping up.

This episode was actually recorded a few months ago on November 29th when case counts were going up.

In this episode, Tonya and I discuss three pieces of good news: the Pfizer vaccine, Drs Lo and de Villa push back and Joe Biden becomes President Elect.

Tonya and I discuss the second wave and the likelihood of another lockdown in Toronto.

This episode was recorded on August 3rd. Tonya and I talk more about the plans for school reopening.

Tonya and I discuss the province's plan for September for getting kids back to school.

Tonya and I talk about the news today that two COVID-19 vaccines released findings and are showing promise

Tonya and I talk about how things are looking pretty good in Ontario right now. This episode was recorded on July 7th.

Tonya and I discuss the SickKids report on how schools should handle kids going back to school.

This episode was recorded on June 7th. Tonya and I touch on COVID stats but talk mostly about the Black Lives Matter protests and how some horrific events have gotten people around the world talking about the issue of police violence and racism and could lead to real change.

Tonight Tonya and I talk about the decision to start testing asymptomatic people in Ontario, how people in parks getting shamed.

Tonya and I talk about how we're starting to get antsy and we're ready for the lock down to be over...but we're not there yet. We also talk about how the Micheal Warner, a critical care doctor at Michael Garron hospital, thinks Ontario public health's target of completing 90% of contract tracing within 24 hours of a positive COVID test is a mediocre target. His team has started doing their own contact tracing as soon as they think they have a likely COVID case.

Tonight we talk about why we think the public health leadership in Ontario is not inspiring confidence as restrictions start to be lifted. Here is the article we discuss: https://nationalpost.com/news/lockdown-and-release-how-ontarios-imperfect-wall-against-covid-19-is-about-to-be-tested

Tonya and I talk about how we need to discuss the potential for stamping out COVID rather than just flattening the curve. Here's the article by Irfan Dhalla we discuss: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-elimination-not-adaptation-is-the-courageous-covid-19-choice-for/

Tonya and I talked about Ontario further easing restrictions on businesses, plan for Ontario schools still unclear and Montreal schools will not open until September.

Tonya and I talked about how the Premiere's inconsistent messaging around physical distancing may have set us back in Ontario but that it may reflect what much of the public is feeling.

Tonight I talked about how experts have been predicting an outbreak for many years. In November 2019, an Expert Panel released a report on the Potential Socio-Economic Impacts of Antimicrobial Resistance (https://cca-reports.ca/reports/the-potential-socio-economic-impacts-of-antimicrobial-resistance-in-canada/) that predicted much of what we are experiencing including dramatic shifts in the way people now behave in what used to be mundane interactions such as taking a flight (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/05/is-flying-safe-coronavirus/611335/).

Tonya shares some thoughts on Mother's Day.

Tonight we talked about how things are about to start opening up but the risk of getting COVID-19 for us isn't really any less than it was 3 or 4 weeks ago, Amazon's plans for reinvesting their profits to deal with COVID, and Ontario will move as one on easing restrictions.

Tonya and I discuss even more COVID conspiracies that are out there and how youtube and facebook are taking them down.

Tonya and I discuss how Sweden is not doing too bad considering they didn't shut down as hard as we did here, whether people from the GTA should be going to cottage country and Ontario starts to open up.

Tonight Tonya and I talked about how Sweden is doing pretty well considering they didn't lock down, the difficulty in keeping people from going to their cottages and how the power of stories isn't always a positive thing and can lead society in a bad direction at times.

In this episode, I discuss stories and why they are so important to us as human beings - perhaps they are what makes us human. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e80BbX05D7Y https://jamesaltucher.com/podcast/yuval-noah-harari/ https://play.acast.com/s/akimbo/cheapplacebos

Tonya and I talk about, faceshields, Ed Yong, and bylaw officers in Toronto going too far.

Tonya and I talk about how there are still so many questions regarding COVID-19, how silly banning window visits at long-term care facilities seems and how there is evidence that regularly processing our feelings in journals at difficult times leads to better outcomes for people in the longrun and how there are groups that are interested in archiving these entries: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-april-23-2020-1.5542275/we-want-it-all-keeping-a-covid-19-diary-it-could-help-future-historians-and-your-mental-health-1.5542907

Tonight I talk about the news that a vaccine could be out by September (?), a handwash prompting device for home idea, and Apple/Google are working together on an API that could help with contact tracing.

Tonya and I did a short chat tonight. Among the topics of discussion were the fact that TD bank wasn't allowing healthcare workers in to their banks and what happens to those that slip through the cracks in our society.

Tonight we talked about Ontario's plans for loosening the lockdown along with a comparison of plans from a few other provinces.

We discuss how well does COVID spread outdoors and whether things might be back to normal by Christmas.

On my own tonight - just a quick thought on art and why I think it's important.

Tonight Tonya and I talked about my trip back to the bank, antibody testing show that the numbers of people getting COVID-19 are 5-50 times higher than the numbers reported in the media and a number of jurisdictions are now starting to talk about planning to end the lockdown.

Tonya and I talk about serum testing for antibodies and the first signs that jurisdictions are starting to think about opening things up again.

Tonight Tonya and I talked a little about our feelings, how Sweden's alternative approach is working and how the phrase evidence-based may be used inappropriately at times.

Tonight we discussed the shooting in Nova Scotia, the Ontario press conference where they announced the good news that Ontario had peaked, and my trip to the bank.

Tonight Tonya and I talk about how there are bidding wars for personal protective equipment among different states in the US, there is good news from the Ontario hospital data on patients with COVID-19 in ICU and on ventilators and we cut my hair today.

On my own today. I discuss how we could all build a time machine for our kids and future generations as well as why it's more important than ever for us all to understand how science if funded in Canada and how we might be able to encourage more people to go into science.

We talk about Eileen de Villa creating a new COVID-19 tracking system for Toronto because Ontario's is outdated and the outsized impact COVID-19 is having on individuals with disabilities for a number of reasons.

Among other topics, we talk about a couple of studies that show that there are a lot of people infected with COVID-19 that are asymptomatic out there.

Tonight Tonya recounted her experience taking our 2 year old son Cayden to SickKids during COVID-19.

Cayden went to SickKids today following a couple of days of having a fever, high heart rate, and breathing rate. His fever is gone and he's nearly back to baseline. Looking forward to getting him home tomorrow.

The number of patients with COVID-19 in the ICU has been flat for a number of days now - a good sign that we are flattening the curve! https://howsmyflattening.ca/

Our main topic of conversation was this article/video Tonya showed me: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-hospitals-bronx.html

Tonya vents about David Williams and the people behind #endtheshutdown