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It’s like she’s been training for this her whole life.
Two weeks after being propelled onto the provincial and national stages, Dr. Deena Hinshaw has already become something of an overnight celebrity.
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She’s attracted more than 29,000 Twitter followers in mere days and a dress she wore recently, featuring the periodic table of elements, had the phone ringing off the hook at Victoria, B.C., clothing maker Smoking Lily, which quickly put the item back into production.
Only thing is, Hinshaw hasn’t trained at all for her current star turn: Alberta’s chief medical officer of health has devoted much of the past two decades to the world of medicine, getting her undergraduate degree at Augustana University College in Camrose, then her medical degree at the University of Alberta.
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, though, the province’s top doctor has had to go from being a mostly behind-the-scenes expert to one featured daily on TV and internet. It’s a job most mere mortals would run screaming from, having to deliver increasingly disturbing reports on new cases and, as of Friday, at least one death of our fellow Albertans.
