Event Medical Media Scan – November 2021 Edition

FOREWORD

A mass casualty tragedy unfolded in Houston, Texas last Friday at the Astroworld Festival, with at least 8 deaths and score of injured music festival patrons. While much of it remains under investigation, it is a reminder how a lively entertainment night can turn into a disaster in mere minutes. Our thoughts are with those affected by the tragedy. What is crowd crush? And what could be done for safety?  You will also find an article from the German publisher DW reflecting on the safety of music festivals in general. 

Music festival and drug use are not uncommon. New Zealand allows for legal drug checking, while Ireland is increasing its funding for harm reduction. We have 3 different articles that you might find interesting looking at the issue.

We have also located a number of interesting webinars on COVID that may be of interest to you. What is herd immunity you may ask?

We hope the links will spark some curiosity and engage for more learning opportunities in the future.

Upcoming Webinars – COVID

How to Have Effective Conversations about COVID-19 Vaccines and Pregnancy and Fertility
Date: November 18, 2021
Time: 1230 PST
Host: California Department of Health Care Services
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/2363343487846354189

Children’s Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Strategies for Parent and Child Wellbeing
Date: November 23, 2021
Time: 1300 MST
Host: Alberta Health Services
http://community.hmhc.ca/sessions/files/2021-10-21-17-00-53-Nov-23-Covid.pdf

COVID-19 and the Laboratory
Date: November 30, 2021
Time: 1200 MST
Host: Montana State University
https://msuextension.org/wellness/vaccine_outreach/mtexperts.html

Behind the Scenes of the Development of a COVID-19 Vaccine Suitable for Global Access
Date: December 8, 2021
Time: 1100 EST
Host: Technology Networks
https://go.technologynetworks.com/developement-covid19-vaccine

Burnout & Boundaries during Covid
Date: December 13, 2021
Time: 1030 MST
Host: Alberta Health Services
http://community.hmhc.ca/sessions/files/2021-10-21-16-49-59-Dec-13-Burnout-and-Barriers.pdf

Recorded Webinars – COVID

Expanding our understanding of post COVID-19 condition web series: Rehabilitation Care
Host: The World Health Organization
https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2021/10/06/default-calendar/expanding-our-understanding-of-post-covid-19-condition-web-series-rehabilitation-care

Imagining the future: conversations on the COVID-19 pandemic and other infectious threats
Host: WHO Information Network for Epidemics
https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2021/10/28/default-calendar/webinar-3-the-global-trends-that-are-shaping-our-world-(2-2)

mass Gathering

[Deutsche Welle] Are music festivals safe?

https://www.dw.com/en/are-music-festivals-safe/a-59742481

[The University of Dublin] Drug use at music festivals: reducing harm and protecting health and well-being

https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/festival-drug-use-reducing-harm-and-protecting-health-and-well-being/

[Radio New Zealand] New govt funding for drug checkers at events after soaring demand

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/454179/new-govt-funding-for-drug-checkers-at-events-after-soaring-demand

[The Guardian UK] Glastonbury: drug traces from on-site urination could harm rare eels

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/28/glastonbury-drug-traces-from-on-site-urination-could-harm-rare-eels

Image Credit

Adobe Stock Images

Event Medical Media Scan – January 2021 Edition

Foreword

Happy New Year! As “hindsight is 2020”, we welcome the new year knowing multiple approved vaccines for COVID-19 are being rolled out across Canada. While the majority of the population will unlikely to be fully vaccinated until the Fall, some event planners are itching to get their events back on track. Do you think we will be back seeing mass gathering in 2021? If one thing is certain – mass gathering comes with risk that has nothing to do with COVID. For examples, there have been fatalities at both of the music festivals recently concluded in New Zealand.  How will the post-COVID world look at medical teams at mass gatherings?

COVID Resources

As usual, we have gathered some clinical resources you may find useful.

Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Navigating Medical Emergencies: An interactive guide to patient management
https://navme.royalcollege.ca/EN/index.shtml

luis-sanchez-xYiOWrQ7n7M-unsplash

Australasian College for Emergency Medicine COVID-19 Clinical Guidelines
https://acem.org.au/Content-Sources/Advancing-Emergency-Medicine/COVID-19/Resources/Clinical-Guidelines

American College of Chest Physicians COVID-19 Clinical Resources
https://www.chestnet.org/Guidelines-and-Resources/COVID-19/Clinical-Resources

Live Music Industry

As reported in our last edition of the media scan, Taiwan successfully hosted a large music festival in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak around the world.

New Zealand hosted 2 large music festivals (Hidden Valley Music Festival and Rhythm and Vines Music Festival) in December, and both have unfortunately ended with tragedies with “medical events” unrelated to COVID.

Shambhala, a music festival in BC recently announced they are planning ahead with their August launch. Is it really possible to host a large mass gathering in 2021 in this part of the world?

Live music crowd experiment tests effectiveness of same-day COVID-19 testing
https://djmag.com/news/live-music-crowd-experiment-tests-effectiveness-same-day-covid-19-testing

Music Festivals Return To Australia And New Zealand Following Control Of Coronavirus Spread
https://music.mxdwn.com/2020/12/09/news/music-festivals-return-to-australia-and-new-zealand-following-control-of-coronavirus-spread/

 ‘It’s really demoralizing.’ COVID-19 crushed Canada’s independent music scene. The recovery is expected to be slow at best
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/12/27/its-really-demoralizing-covid-19-crushed-canadas-independent-music-scene-the-recovery-is-expected-to-be-slow-at-best.html

Covid Could Be ‘Catastrophic’ for Live Music, Says Ed Sheeran and Lauv’s Live Agent
https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/jon-ollier-ed-sheeran-covid-music-op-ed-1104635/

COVID-19 taking heavy toll on B.C.’s working musicians
https://globalnews.ca/news/7504574/bc-coronavirus-live-musicians/

The future of play: Canada’s entertainment industry races to rehearse for post-pandemic encore
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/the-future-of-play-canada-s-entertainment-industry-races-to-rehearse-for-post-pandemic-encore-1.1538570

FILM PRODUCTION

Odyssey, like many other event medical services providers, pivoted towards providing COVID-19 services for the TV and film industry with all music festivals and large gatherings cancelled.

As the COVID number continues to trend exponentially upward in the US, Canada is increasingly looking attractive to the film/TV industry.  A quick review below on what the BC industry looked like in 2020.

B.C. film industry saw improvements, frustrations following 2020 pandemic shutdown
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-film-industry-saw-improvements-frustrations-following-2020-pandemic-shutdown

Photo Credit

Photo by Jude Beck on Unsplash

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Photo by Luis Sánchez on Unsplash

Photo by Hush Naidoo on Unsplash

Photo by Mufid Majnun on Unsplash

Photo by Mufid Majnun on Unsplash

Photo by Tony Pham on Unsplash

Photo by Benjamin Wagner on Unsplash

Photo by Austin Neill on Unsplash

Photo by Felix Mooneeram on Unsplash

Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash

Photo by William Bayreuther on Unsplash

Building Trust As Communities Begin To Re-Open During A Global Pandemic | Our Pandemic Promise

Communities are coming together and businesses are beginning to re-open in the midst of an unprecedented global pandemic.  The Community Pandemic Promise is a tool, or ‘social contract’ that you can use to represent the mutual trust we all require, whether you are re-opening a business, returning to work, shopping, or attending sporting and entertainment events.  By making this Promise you are doing your part to reduce the spread of this highly contagious virus called COVID-19.

From January through March, we began planning for our upcoming event season.  In late March, we were hopeful that this ‘pandemic’ that was gaining traction in the news wasn’t going to impact our season very much.  As more information began coming through, it became very clear that this summer was going to be much different than we have ever experienced before.  Event after event began cancelling or postponing until next summer. 

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A is for Abracadabra – Staying Current in the Real World

In a perfect world, by virtue of some unique magic, everyone would know what they need to know to do their best work. Every source of knowledge and learning would be consistent. Every piece of information would align with every other piece of information, without contradiction.

Continue reading “A is for Abracadabra – Staying Current in the Real World”

Odyssey Welcome Blog

Welcome to our little corner of the Internet. We’ve wanted to have a place for quite some time where we can harness, showcase and share the thoughts, knowledge, wisdom, talents, sense of humour and lived-experiences of our many team members and leads all across Canada, and internationally.

As an opening entry in our blog, we thought we’d fill you in on why the name ‘Odyssey’ has some meaning for us.

Continue reading “Odyssey Welcome Blog”