I do want to talk a bit about connections, conflicts and information during a pandemic. Since @fordnation insinuated I have COI which I don't, let's take a look at a single instance where @fordnation and Hospital for Sick Children are both making interesting decisions.

Both share a powerful supporter in Peter Gilgan, who has been a great supporter of Sickkids

https://t.co/oL3pGiBny2
But his company, Mattamy Homes, has also substantially bankrolled Ontario Proud, which I have reason to believe pushed the Postmedia hit on my reputation.
Sickkids and Mattamy have very close ties. Here is Mary Federau, a longtime Sickkids exec who has moved to Mattamy but remains involved with the Sickkids foundation:
Mary's bio is too modest. It looks as though it has been scrubbed a bit over the last 72 hours. Here's the google cache from Jan 25:

https://t.co/DUk89IfHPU
Here's her more fulsome bio from a few days ago:
Mary Federau is the Executive Vice President of Mattamy Asset Management, the parent company of Mattamy Homes. Mary plays an integral role in setting direction and execution of the organization's overall strategies for long-term...
...growth, investment and operations across North America. She was appointed to this position in September 2018, after having served eight years as Chief Human Resources Officer for Mattamy Homes.
Mary is also Chair of the Peter Gilgan Foundation, which has contributed more than $300 million to a variety of worthy causes. [I guess 1/3 of that to her former employer]. Previous to joining Mattamy in 2010, Mary was the EVP Global Human Resources of MDS Inc...
an international life sciences company headquartered in Toronto. Prior to MDS, she held several executive roles at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, including SVP of Child Health Services (Operations), SVP of Corporate and Professional Services...
and Director of Strategic and Financial Planning. Mary holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business and was named one of Canada's Top 40-Under-40 in 1997. Mary has obtained the Chartered Director designation and currently serves on the board of the SickKids Foundation
and Good Shepherd Ministries in Toronto and is a member of the International Women's Forum.

She sounds like an impressive and good person. I am absolutely NOT suggesting any misdeeds on her part.
But given the oddness of Sickkids school guidance, the degree to which their reports seem very coordinated in both timing and message with government messaging, while simultaneously being at odds with some of the good guidance now being put out south of the border...
...I have wondered whether politics and the flow of donor money have politicized their messages.

Even more so having learned that Sickkids is pushing public messaging that lockdowns are harming child mental health, while sitting on data showing kids' mental health, according...
...to a number of different measures. They have the details...they can share them. That's a good news story. Why would you sit on that?

Again, I'm not accusing anyone of wrongdoing here. But if we're going to talk about transparency and who funds who, let's all do it, k?
Parenthetically, we can do this all day. At some point, thanks to friends who have helped me so much, I might. But I think this is a job for journalists, not epidemiologists.

Some very important conflict situations that exist are well known to journalists, and I realize...
...most outlets don't want to be perceived as doing smear jobs (leave that to Postmedia). But some of these relationships, whether monetary or romantic, probably are damaging our public discourse in a pandemic, and that literally kills people.
But as I say, that's your job, not mine.

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This may help for those considering MS/PhD in Public Health

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5. Fellowships in Public Health & Tropical

6. Fellowships to Promote Mental Health Journalism

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7. 2021-22 Jeroen Ensink Memorial Fund

8. Paul S. Lietman Global Travel Grant for Residents & Fellows

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9. Global Health Internships and Funding

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10. Kofi Annan Global Health Leadership

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12. MSc in Public Health Scholarships - Maastricht University,
Some thoughts on this: Firstly, it might be personal preference, but I am not keen on this kind of campaign as I feel like it trivialises cancer. Sometimes the serious message gets lost because people are sharing pics of cats or whatever and the important context is gone.


More importantly, the statistic being used in the campaign is misleading. It says 57% of women put off cervical screening if they can't get waxed. But on further investigation, that's not accurate.

The page here goes on to say "57% of women who regularly have their pubic hair professionally removed would put off attending their cervical screening appointment if they hadn’t been able to visit a beauty salon."

So the 57% represents a concern not across the whole population of women, but only those who regularly get waxed. So how big of an issue is this across the whole population? And what else is stopping people getting smears?

I think campaigns for cancer screening are really tricky because there is so much nuance that often doesn't fit into a catchy headline or hashtag. It's certainly not easy and is part of a bigger conversation.

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THE MEANING, SIGNIFICANCE AND HISTORY OF SWASTIK

The Swastik is a geometrical figure and an ancient religious icon. Swastik has been Sanatan Dharma’s symbol of auspiciousness – mangalya since time immemorial.


The name swastika comes from Sanskrit (Devanagari: स्वस्तिक, pronounced: swastik) &denotes “conducive to wellbeing or auspicious”.
The word Swastik has a definite etymological origin in Sanskrit. It is derived from the roots su – meaning “well or auspicious” & as meaning “being”.


"सु अस्ति येन तत स्वस्तिकं"
Swastik is de symbol through which everything auspicios occurs

Scholars believe word’s origin in Vedas,known as Swasti mantra;

"🕉स्वस्ति ना इन्द्रो वृधश्रवाहा
स्वस्ति ना पूषा विश्ववेदाहा
स्वस्तिनास्तरक्ष्यो अरिश्तनेमिही
स्वस्तिनो बृहस्पतिर्दधातु"


It translates to," O famed Indra, redeem us. O Pusha, the beholder of all knowledge, redeem us. Redeem us O Garudji, of limitless speed and O Bruhaspati, redeem us".

SWASTIK’s COSMIC ORIGIN

The Swastika represents the living creation in the whole Cosmos.


Hindu astronomers divide the ecliptic circle of cosmos in 27 divisions called
https://t.co/sLeuV1R2eQ this manner a cross forms in 4 directions in the celestial sky. At centre of this cross is Dhruva(Polestar). In a line from Dhruva, the stars known as Saptarishi can be observed.
🌿𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒓 : 𝑫𝒉𝒓𝒖𝒗𝒂 & 𝑽𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒏𝒖

Once upon a time there was a Raja named Uttānapāda born of Svayambhuva Manu,1st man on earth.He had 2 beautiful wives - Suniti & Suruchi & two sons were born of them Dhruva & Uttama respectively.
#talesofkrishna https://t.co/E85MTPkF9W


Now Suniti was the daughter of a tribal chief while Suruchi was the daughter of a rich king. Hence Suruchi was always favored the most by Raja while Suniti was ignored. But while Suniti was gentle & kind hearted by nature Suruchi was venomous inside.
#KrishnaLeela


The story is of a time when ideally the eldest son of the king becomes the heir to the throne. Hence the sinhasan of the Raja belonged to Dhruva.This is why Suruchi who was the 2nd wife nourished poison in her heart for Dhruva as she knew her son will never get the throne.


One day when Dhruva was just 5 years old he went on to sit on his father's lap. Suruchi, the jealous queen, got enraged and shoved him away from Raja as she never wanted Raja to shower Dhruva with his fatherly affection.


Dhruva protested questioning his step mother "why can't i sit on my own father's lap?" A furious Suruchi berated him saying "only God can allow him that privilege. Go ask him"