Notices by Nili Kaplan-Myrth, MD PhD (nilikm@med-mastodon.com)

Today we mourn the horrific Oct 7 terrorist attack on Israel and the captivity of innocent hostages.

Hamas counted on the world rallying against Jews, against Israel.

Thank you to those who stand up against antisemitism.

⁦#BringThemHomeNow⁩ 🎗️

עם ישראל חי
נצח ישראל לא ישקר

Severely high rates of #COVID19 in much of #canada as children and educators return to school. We don’t have access yet to vaccine boosters. Most people don’t mask or even bother staying home when sick.

This is going to be a difficult autumn.

With long-term health consequences.

#MaskUp

Hi, I’m Nili, a 49 year old Jewish dual citizen (US/Canada). As an MD, I care about reproductive rights, gun control, BIPOC rights, 2SLGBTQ, disability rights, health care, education, and climate.

I’ll be voting for Kamala Harris @kamalaharris

Who’s with me, abroad?

#Harris2024
#YesWeKam

Popping in to say that patients are testing positive for #COVID19 in clinic.

So many. Sore throat, headache, cough, fever.

Don’t be the cause of a newborn, toddler, senior, pregnant person, essential worker, HCW, others ending up sick.

#MaskUp, test, isolate, get your booster.

Many of you have said Jews aren’t alone. Thank you. Who will speak up this week against worsening Jew hatred?

If you are silent while Jews anywhere in the world are threatened or harassed with antisemitic hate, you are complicit.

Over to you, non-Jewish colleagues & friends.

Day 3.

To the nudniks who ask if I’ve died yet:

1) Thanks to science, I’ve had #CovidVaccine boosters.
2) #COVID19 can result in serious sequelae, including #LongCovid. Death isn’t the only worrisome outcome.
3) #MaskUp. They work when everyone responsibly masks. (Preferably N95)
4) Canceling clinic is not a holiday. We have a family doctor shortage and a #healthcare crisis. Where do you think patients will go if I’m sick or dead?!?
5) I have a family and patients. Where’s your humanity?

TRIGGER WARNING:

Another email sent to threaten me as a Jewish Canadian physician and politician, Sept 5. This isn’t about my role as an #Ottawa school board trustee. This isn’t about vaccines or masks. This is organized #antisemitism and #bigotry.

Also in the last week, an antisemitic phone message left at my work.

One Canadian politician and 2 colleagues at the OCDSB have reached out to express concern and disdain for this #hate.

I shouldn’t have to face this on my own.
#onpoli #cdnpoli

CANADIANS, CALL THIS OUT. This is #antisemitism. It is anti-Black #racism, anti-trans #bigotry. This isn’t about health or education. It is #hate, stoked by white supremacists, organized in our country, targeting our school boards. It is a threat to all of us.

#ottawa
#EnoughIsEnough

Imagine turning to a room of colleagues to say their silence as I receive antisemitic death threats isn’t OK. The only person to respond says *they* are uncomfortable with the risk I bring to them (dismissing that I’m the target as a Jew), so can I please stay off social media…

So, it isn’t OK to make anyone feel awkward for choosing not to mask (angry remarks re my “safety plan is to mask” t-shirt idea). But it is okay to put others at risk? Doesn’t matter about the people who don’t want to be (re)exposed to #COVID19 or the toll of #LongCovid. Got it.

Long way from “we’re in this together.” Sadly, it is the prevailing attitude about health. Ditto re #ClimateAction.

Then it is your loved one who dies of #COVID19 or gets #LongCovid because someone else felt the same way.

Or your town is on fire.

Always someone else’s fault.

Malka, a 99 year old Holocaust survivor in my husband’s family, just died.

She was the second wife of a man whose first wife and child were murdered in Treblinka.

When we call out white supremacists and antisemitism, we aren’t talking about abstract dangers or ancient history.

Cannot believe this needs to be said in 2023, but this is too important to let slide:

What @fordnation said is egregious.

The Premier of #ontario condoned corporal punishment. He said that if we want to curtail escalating violence in schools, then we need parents like his, who would hit him if he misbehaved.

Hitting children is not acceptable. Violence in school should NOT be dealt with by parents hitting their children. Ever.

#onted #onpoli @CanPaedSociety