Michael Schwandt
Public health physician in Vancouver. Antiracist ecoanxious xennial numtot. Healthy environments, equity, climate. Once posted a viral tw!tter thread on COVID prevention. Views mine. He/him.
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtHornby Street in downtown Vancouver has seen 4 recent incidents of driver incursions onto the sidewalk, one of which killed an infant. We're calling on the City to install bollards on Hornby to prevent this from continuously happening, and to serve as a pilot for expanded sidewalk protection.
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtVery bad news for all other road users in the UK, especially those on foot and on bikes.
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtAlex Pretti’s coworkers take a moment of silence this morning
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtTeaser here for “The Anti-State State” w/ Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Craig Gilmore: soundcloud.com/deathpanel/t...
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtIn our latest, we speak with Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Craig Gilmore about the rapid escalation of police forces and carceral logics on US streets and why abolition is the only way www.patreon.com/posts/149118...
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtGreat thread. This tragedy is deeply frustrating, because as much as many of us (including Mayor Johnstone) work to make roads safer, when drivers are running over pedestrians in parking lots like this, it makes us feel pretty powerless. Province & feds must step in w/ vehicle size regulation.
- Two older adults hit by drivers in separate incidents in separate *parking lots* in #NewWest in the same week; one killed, one seriously injured. Families devastated, lives alerted, because of momentary mistakes. Mistakes we all make every day driving or walking. How do we end this? 🧵
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtWe'll continue to adapt our roads in #NewWest to reduce the deadliness of mistakes; that often means slowing traffic down. We will also advocate for regulatory change that saves lives. Vehicle designs like super tall grilles that kill pedestrians for no reason other than marketing has to stop.
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtWe must learn from how mistakes turn deadly. Though education & enforcement can reduce mistakes, it's never been enough to ask, cajole, or tell people to stop making mistakes. Our roads (and, alas, parking lots) and our vehicles need to change to reduce the impact of mistakes...
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtA Vision Zero approach starts with recognizing road safety is not currently treated like workplace, medical, or aviation safety. In those examples, it's recognized that sometimes people make mistakes, and all effort is made to create environments where simple mistakes are not deadly...
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtTwo older adults hit by drivers in separate incidents in separate *parking lots* in #NewWest in the same week; one killed, one seriously injured. Families devastated, lives alerted, because of momentary mistakes. Mistakes we all make every day driving or walking. How do we end this? 🧵
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtI think this was our most furious podcast yet.
- New episode with @wendyorent.bsky.social about how the destruction of public health ties into the destruction in the streets of Minnesota. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtNew episode with @wendyorent.bsky.social about how the destruction of public health ties into the destruction in the streets of Minnesota. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
- You just can't make this stuff up.
- To be clear, California isn't becoming a WHO member nation in the sense that Canada is, or that the United States...was. But this is still a massive deal. 'California is becoming the first, and currently the only, state to join WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network (GOARN)'
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtGavin Newsom just announced that California will be the first state to join the World Health Organization. This is in direct defiance of Donald Trump, who just pulled the United States out of the organization.
- Ten! TEN links to articles describing abuses! When there are barely enough words in the sentence to provide hyperlinks to the litany of lies and failures. 😞
- Those mitts! 🥹 *"Four layers of trousers"!* "It's minus 9 degrees Celsius, about 15 degrees Fahrenheit...They're going to be facing some really extreme weather up here."
- (All week in Winnipeg...)
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtOh my Maybe he's from Vancouver 😂
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtThis is not the speech of someone who is actually standing up to US imperialism, just to the naked bullying of US imperialism that Canada has historically benefited from.
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtIt's really quite something that the administration is largely preventing federal scientists, some of our nation's top experts on climate, energy & the environment, from speaking to the press/public on most matters. If any of you wanna speak on background, please do reach out: Signal: jtemple.50
- Reposted by Michael Schwandt"Health Fascism and the Anti-State State" Essential listening from The Death Panel. #healthcare #fascism #democracy #RFKjr
- "Unfortunately, vaccines have become a party-loyalty litmus test in both the U.S. and Canada. When leaders use vaccines for their culture wars, children become collateral damage." www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
- "In November, Mr. Kennedy forced the CDC to walk back its clear statement that vaccines do not cause autism – ignoring clear evidence from more than 25 studies in top medical journals finding no link at all. That isn’t caution – it’s rewriting decades of science for political gain."
- "Disinformation is just as contagious as the diseases themselves, and is turbo-charging distrust in immunizations that have saved millions of lives."
- "The science is clear. Vaccines save lives and prevent misery. But the politicization of health care has never been about the vaccines themselves. It’s really about political power – grabbing it and keeping it – at any cost."
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtIMPORTANT: As Davos is back in the news, you should DEFINITELY watch and share this. It’s still right. “It feels like I’m at a firefighters conference & no one is allowed to speak about water.” “You’re counting the wrong things!” With @rutgerbregman.com & Winnie Byanyima youtu.be/P8ijiLqfXP0?...
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtFor all the Mark Carney praise for his speech, let's remember his domestic agenda remains neoliberalism on steroids. It's a plan that makes us poorer and weaker, despite his rhetoric.
- "...clocked at 147 km/h in the 80 km/h zone." 😵💫 We need automated speed enforcement. www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...
- “Incident at Loch Ness” could actually be quite instructive in this moment.
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtFor mental health reasons I’ve decided to stop following the news and will now only watch Werner Herzog movies. Same thing, basically.
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtI think a lot about Sarah Inama, the middle school teacher in Idaho who resigned rather than take down a "Everyone is welcome here" poster. With no platform or resources to protect herself, she showed more resolve and courage than most big law firms, media corporations, and Fortune 500 companies.
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtI actually think it’s fine to let me know that I’ve used the wrong word or phrase for something and I will pay attention to the lesson, but if you’re a prick about it for no good reason, I’m still going to clock that for what it is FYI, you can literally just say “hey, fyi”
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtI audibly gasped at this shortsighted move. We have failed to help the public understand that health isn't an individual issue, that you can't build a wall to keep disease out, and that community health is key to individual well-being. We see this with vaccination and we see it here. 💔
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtSo for context, i'm a 6ft tall person with bright blue hair. I am essentially a human signpost. I wear reflective gear at night. I've walked past trucks where the driver would not be able to see me and their hood is shoulder level with me. Lifted trucks, sometimes higher! It's so dangerous.
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtThe flamboyant carelessness with which these COMFORTING FABLES are produced and reproduced is part of the political context of drug prohibition that has encouraged governments to continue mass murder by policy and allowed the public to ignore mass death
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtTwo days after having this discussion about the danger oversized vehicles post to pedestrians, we are very sad to learn about a pedestrian killed by a pickup truck driver in North Van www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtSend this story to anyone complaining about visible homelessness (and then send them @brian-goldstone.bsky.social's book about the invisible kind). www.thestar.com/news/gta/cit...
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtThis is an Underground Railroad style operation. This is what I mean that we should study UR history, tactics, and strategy.
- They have quite an operation going. www.mprnews.org/episode/2026...
- “Vaccine policy now tracks political identity more closely than epidemiology.”
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtAnother win & message: public pushback matters. @savensf.bsky.social @planetarysociety.bsky.social (big caveat is NCAR whose future remains uncertain) www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...
- Reposted by Michael Schwandt
- 'It wasn’t, and has never been, set up to be a comprehensive approach to managing the challenges of addiction and substance use and the toxic-drug supply. We need housing, we need services, and we need regulated alternatives to the toxic-drug supply.' - Kora DeBeck. Article @andreawoo.bsky.social
- Asked and answered? (At least on decriminalization.) So disheartening. bcmj.org/editorials/b...)
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtDrug decriminalization “wasn’t set up to be a comprehensive approach to managing the challenges of addiction, substance use and the toxic-drug supply. In that context, we need housing, services, and regulated alternatives to the toxic-drug supply.” www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtProvincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry said she was disappointed but not surprised by B.C.'s decision to end its drug decriminalization pilot. “I believed, and I still believe, that it’s a sound policy," she said. "But the implementation has been fraught. It’s become a touchstone political issue."
- The First Nations Health Authority, a health system partner to the B.C. government, said it is disappointed that it was "not engaged in a decision that will disproportionately impact First Nations people, communities and families." www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
- Reposted by Michael Schwandt"Decriminalization is still good public policy," writes @picardonhealth.bsky.social. "It makes no sense to jail people for having an illness like substance-use disorder – or because they want to get high for the pleasure of it, for that matter." www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtSo ... if a person wants mental health support but can't afford it, they just have to wait until they are sick enough and then the govt will force them into treatment? Seems a bit backwards to me. Why not expand Medicare to cover mental healthcare?
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtThis government really doesn’t like government
- 'New observations and more detailed reexaminations of familiar worlds revealed entire classes of planets with no counterparts at home — super-Earths, mini-Neptunes and hot Jupiters.' 🪐🔭🤩 www.space.com/astronomy/ex...
- 👏 @skuthunur.bsky.social This is the year-end summary I didn't know I needed.
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtSpotify? Apple Podcasts?? Regardless of the podcast-conduit you use, you need to tune into @chanface.bsky.social & @denisagar.bsky.social's new podcast, Dwell Time! Have these two in your ears on your next commute 🚌⏳https://zencastr.com/z/qhTvgQKp open.spotify.com/show/7mgTQAy...
- 'The change could make it easier to repeal limits on these pollutants. It’s a seismic shift that runs counter to the EPA.’s mission statement, which says the agency’s core responsibility is to protect human health and the environment, environmental law experts said.' www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...
- 'The change could make it easier to repeal limits on these pollutants. It’s a seismic shift that runs counter to the EPA.’s mission statement, which says the agency’s core responsibility is to protect human health and the environment, environmental law experts said.' www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...
- “The idea that EPA would not consider the public health benefits of its regulations is anathema to the very mission of EPA."
- Q: "Why would the U.S. be able to acquire Greenland?" A: "The fact of the matter is Greenland sits between us and Russia." 😐
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtWelcome to your low carbon world 🌏 Commuting in the snow (Utrecht, Netherlands) youtube.com/watch?v=SmMR...
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtFlying foxes die in their thousands in worst mass-mortality event since Australia’s extreme heatwave of Black summer #xwx #heatwave Rapid Anthropogenic Climate #MassExtinction #ClimateExtinction www.theguardian.com/environment/...
- Reskeet this with your home river. Mine is the Red River; Rivière Rouge du Nord; Misko-Ziibi!
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtAN OLD GUY TYPES ON HIS COMPUTER: "Back in my day, we didn't have Starter Packs. We had to follow everyone by hand. It took days, clicking uphill both ways."
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtReskeet this with your home river. Mine is the less mighty Colquitz River 😊 The small brown lump in first image is a river otter. The big brown lump in the second picture is my doggo
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtEarth’s past climate hints at unstable rainfall ahead www.earth.com/news/earths-...
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtTonight’s #UrbanismBookClub offering is “The Design Of Childhood” by @langealexandra.bsky.social. A GREAT book by an author who WON THE PULITZER PRIZE for a series of articles on the same broad subject in @opinion.bloomberg.com Citylab! Alexandra interviewed me for the book on Vancouver’s work. 6/
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtSOMETHING NEW: Since SO MANY great new books on cities, city-building & urbanism have been published since I did my “Top 100” List back in 2013, on 100 (non-consecutive) days I’ll profile 100 NEWER BOOKS for the #UrbanismBookClub in THIS thread! Starting today (in no order), with “Messy Cities!” 1/
- Reposted by Michael Schwandt@ttcdoors.bsky.social Full height platform screen doors greatly reduce brake dust & other particulates from being breathed in by subway riders.
- Reposted by Michael Schwandt
- We're seeing by far the single greatest surge in Bluesky verifications dating back to the launch of blue checks on 4/20 (nice) Three of the five days with the highest number of Bluesky verifications were in this weekend bsky.app/profile/alex...
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtWe're seeing by far the single greatest surge in Bluesky verifications dating back to the launch of blue checks on 4/20 (nice) Three of the five days with the highest number of Bluesky verifications were in this weekend bsky.app/profile/alex...
- Reposted by Michael SchwandtExport to PDF—don't print to PDF. #A11y youtube.com/shorts/N8qps...
- Reposted by Michael Schwandtwhat if we understood this as the consequences of decades of policy choices, as the intended result of the system we live in and rather than further punishing the people victimized, we were to realize that we need to get rid of this system and create a new one
