Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Risk of rare heart complications in children higher after COVID-19 infection than after vaccination

Published November 4, 2025

Published by: University of Cambridge
Published on: November 4, 2025

Children and young people faced long-lasting and higher risks of rare heart and inflammatory complications after COVID-19 infection, compared to before or without an infection, according to new research. Meanwhile COVID-19 vaccination was only linked to a short-term higher risk of myocarditis and pericarditis.

The study is the largest of its kind in this population, and is published today in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health. It was led by scientists at the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh, and University College London, with support from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Data Science Centre at Health Data Research UK.

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Ontario School Safety Calls on Province for an Immediate Vaccine-PLUS Strategy to Tackle Current Measles Outbreak

What we must confront: Living with Long COVID

Published November 3, 2025

Published by: The Peak
Published on: November 3, 2025
By Ashima Shukla

The first winter of the pandemic, I was in Shanghai visiting my family when the first news reports began circulating — something about a new pneumonia, a city in lockdown. Within days, my family and I had boarded a flight to India, seeking temporary refuge. Three days before our flight back, India closed its borders. Airports emptied. Around the world, our lives shrank to the size of our homes. For millions around the world, it meant grieving in isolation, watching suffering multiply. It meant exposure to the deep inequities of our world, where access to safety, care, and health depended on privilege, geography, and luck.

Over time, things seemed to return to normal. However, the virus, though silenced, persisted, reshaping bodies and altering lives long after the headlines moved elsewhere.

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cardiovascular disease

Covid and Flu Can Triple Your Risk of Heart Attack

Published October 29, 2025

Published by: The New York Times
Published on: October 29, 2025
By Nina Agrawal

The risk of a heart attack triples within the first few weeks after a Covid-19 infection, the study suggested, and quadruples in the month after a flu infection. The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, was a large review and analysis of existing research.

“It endorses a general idea that we’ve been thinking about and talking about for the past several years — that infections are generally not benign,” said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, a senior clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, who was not involved in the study.

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research

A surprise bonus from COVID-19 vaccines: bolstering cancer treatment

Published October 20, 2025

Published by: Science
Published on: October 20, 2025
By Phie Jacobs

The innovative messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines that thwarted the ravages of COVID-19 may also help fight tumors in cancer patients, according to a new analysis of medical records and studies in mice.

People with cancer who coincidentally received the mRNA shots before starting drugs designed to unleash the immune system against tumors lived significantly longer than those who didn’t get vaccinated, a research team announced yesterday at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Berlin. Laboratory experiments by the group suggest the vaccines rev up the immune system, making even stubborn tumors more susceptible to treatment.

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PEI

P.E.I. hospitals bring back mask mandates as experts warn of viral surge across Canada

Published October 16, 2025

Published by: CTV News
Published on: October 16, 2025
By Maria Sarrouh

Mandatory masking is back at health facilities across Prince Edward Island as public health officials work to reduce the spread of respiratory illnesses.

The newest numbers from Canada’s respiratory virus surveillance report show that during the week ending Oct. 4, COVID-19 activity was increasing on the Island, with about 20 per cent of tests coming back positive. Nationally, the average was under 10 per cent.

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Colourized transmission electron micrograph of a measles virus particle (red), with a blue background. Photo: CDC and NIAID. Licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 DEED Attribution 2.0 Generic license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

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Ontario

Ontario School Safety Calls on Province for an Immediate Vaccine-PLUS Strategy to Tackle Current Measles Outbreak

Published April 24, 2025

Published by: Ontario School Safety
Published on: April 24, 2025

Toronto, Ontario – [April 24, 2025] – In an urgent appeal to protect the health and safety of Ontario’s students, education workers, and families, Ontario School Safety (OSS) has issued an open letter asking the Ontario Provincial Government and Public Health Ontario for an immediate vaccine-PLUS strategy, which includes the essential role of healthy indoor air, to curtail the spread of measles. This critical request comes in the wake of concerning measles infection rates – as of April 17th, 2025, Public Health Ontario is reporting 925 measles cases in the province, more than five times the number of cases than the total number of cases over the last 12 years. Encouraging a vaccine-only strategy is insufficient due to barriers to access, and because measles spreads not only through direct contact with secretions or contaminated surfaces, but through the air we breathe.

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Volunteers needed to test no-needle COVID vaccine made in Hamilton

Photo of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The building features a glass-walled atrium. In the foreground, there are some trees with green leaves. Photo by Captain108 / Wikimedia Commons.

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Federal cuts threaten to close Pennsylvania lab that certifies N95s and other respirators in June

Volunteers needed to test no-needle COVID vaccine made in Hamilton

Published April 21, 2025

Published by: Hamilton Spectator
Published on: April 21, 2025
By Joanna Frketich

A made-in-Hamilton COVID vaccine that requires no needles is moving to the next stage of testing and researchers are looking for volunteers to take part.

The vaccine that is inhaled instead of injected will be studied by McMaster University researchers with $8 million in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

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Illustration of a white N95 respirator torn into two pieces, with violet background. Based on image by Rossie C S from Pixabay.

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N95 respirators

Federal cuts threaten to close Pennsylvania lab that certifies N95s and other respirators in June

Published April 17, 2025

Published by: Pennsylvania Capital-Star
Published on: April 17, 2025
By Ian Karbal

The Pennsylvania laboratory that certifies all of the country’s NIOSH-approved respirators is on the chopping block. HHS is stonewalling employees who raise questions.

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BC patients, health advocates slam removal of healthcare mask protections

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I traded my U.S. medical career for life in Canada. Here’s how the two health systems stack up.

BC patients, health advocates slam removal of healthcare mask protections

Published March 31, 2025

Published by: DoNoHarm BC
Published on: March 31, 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DoNoHarm BC, Protect Our Province BC and the Canadian Covid Society warn the province’s decision endangers patients, healthcare workers, and the healthcare system

March 31, 2025 (British Columbia) – BC patients and health advocates are speaking out against the provincial government’s decision to drop healthcare mask requirements, at a time when there are multiple illness outbreaks in medical settings. Public health groups DoNoHarm BC, Protect Our Province BC, and the Canadian Covid Society warn that the move endangers vulnerable patients and frontline workers, while harming the sustainability and cost-effectiveness of BC’s healthcare system.

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A red emergency sign at a hospital. Photo: Pixabey.

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healthcare

I traded my U.S. medical career for life in Canada. Here’s how the two health systems stack up.

Published March 25, 2025

Published by: Canada Healthwatch
Published on: March 25, 2025
By Code Black

After more than a decade practicing emergency medicine in the United States, I very recently began working shifts in Canada. The differences hit me immediately, and are profound.

What follows are a series of working hypotheses — early impressions shaped by firsthand experience and years of health policy work in the U.S. I expect they will evolve with time, but they already point to important contrasts in how both countries approach medicine, physician autonomy, and the doctor-patient relationship.

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Smartwatch Data: Study Finds Early Health Differences in Long COVID Patients

A man with glasses, black shorts, and a grey long-sleeved top looks at his smartwatch as he runs alone on a road at sunset. In the background: green fields and trees. Photo: Benoît Deschasaux / Unsplash.

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BC’s Measles Vaccination Rate Is Lower Than in Gaines County, Texas

Smartwatch Data: Study Finds Early Health Differences in Long COVID Patients

Published March 20, 2025

Published by: Complexity Science Hub
Published on: March 20, 2025

People who later experienced persistent shortness of breath or fatigue after a COVID infection were already taking significantly fewer steps per day and had a higher resting heart rate before contracting the virus, according to a CSH study published in npj Digital Medicine. This may indicate lower fitness levels or pre-existing conditions as potential risk factors

Between April 2020 and December 2022, over 535,000 people in Germany downloaded and activated the Corona Data Donation App (CDA). Of these, more than 120,000 voluntarily shared daily data from their smartwatches and fitness trackers with researchers, providing insights into vital functions such as resting heart rate and step count.

“These high-resolution data served as the starting point for our study,” explains CSH researcher Katharina Ledebur. “We were able to compare vital signs in 15-minute intervals before, during, and after a SARS-CoV-2 infection.”

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Colourized transmission electron micrograph of a measles virus particle (red), with a yellow background. Photo: CDC and NIAID. Licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 DEED Attribution 2.0 Generic license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

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International Long COVID Awareness Day 2025

BC’s Measles Vaccination Rate Is Lower Than in Gaines County, Texas

Published March 14, 2025

Published by: The Tyee
Published on: March 14, 2025
By Michelle Gamage

In Gaines County, Texas, where a measles outbreak has killed one six-year-old and one adult, the measles vaccination rate among kindergarteners is just 82 per cent, according to reporting by The Atlantic.

That’s a higher measles vaccination rate than children have here in B.C.

Just under 82 per cent of two-year-olds have gotten one dose of the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine, and around 72 per cent of seven-year-olds have gotten both doses, according to the B.C. Childhood Immunization Coverage Dashboard’s 2023 data, which is the most recent data year available.

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Image of Ottawa sign with teal-coloured letters, with text in white reading: International Long COVID Awareness Day. Teal, grey and black symbol of International Long COVID Awareness Day.

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Ottawa-Gatineau

International Long COVID Awareness Day 2025

Published March 12, 2025

International Long COVID Awareness Day – COVID-cautious walk

Date: Saturday, March 15, 2025

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Where: Ottawa City Hall (meet at the entrance, Laurier Avenue side)

Join us for a walk on International Long COVID Awareness Day, Saturday, March 15, 2025 at 7 pm. The route is wheelchair-accessible.

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Advocates Urge BC to Reinstate Healthcare Mask Protections Amid Rising Risks

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Everything Wrong with Canada’s Proposed Long COVID Recommendations

Advocates Urge BC to Reinstate Healthcare Mask Protections Amid Rising Risks

Published December 10, 2024

Published by: DoNoHarm BC
Published on: December 10, 2024

DoNoHarm BC, Protect Our Province BC and the Canadian Covid Society warn of infection risks in healthcare

December 10, 2024 (British Columbia, Canada) – Advocacy groups in BC are calling on policy-makers to immediately reinstate healthcare mask requirements. The call comes as BC faces severe risks from COVID-19, a rise in “walking pneumonia,” local measles warnings, and Canada’s first human case of H5N1 avian influenza – which health officials warn could potentially turn into another pandemic.

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Photo of a doctor. She is wearing an obsolete blue medical mask, a blue cap and a white gown. Photo: Bermix Studio / Unsplash.

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Novavax now! We need access to the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine!

Everything Wrong with Canada’s Proposed Long COVID Recommendations

Published November 25, 2024

Published by: Canadian Health Sentinel
Published on: November 25, 2024
By Simon Spichak

Researchers involved in the organizations Cochrane Canada and the McMaster GRADE Centre at McMaster University are developing guidelines to prevent and treat Long COVID in Canada. Their effort is supported by the Public Health Agency of Canada and their recommendations would likely have major sway in the way Long COVID is treated if adopted.

Every month, they release new recommendations and provide an opportunity for public comment. On November 20th, the group released a new set of Canadian Post-COVID Condition (CAN-PCC) recommendations which propose harmful and ineffective treatments: Exercise to prevent Long COVID and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to treat post-exertional malaise (PEM).

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Photo of two vials of a vaccine and a syringe, accompanied by white and gold text on a blue background reading: Novavax now! We need access to the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine. StillCoviding.ca #NovavaxNow Photo: oasisamuel / Adobe.

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Novavax now! We need access to the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine!

Published August 25, 2024

📣 Let PHAC and health ministers know you want timely access to the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine this fall

✉️ Send letters to PHAC and health ministers to voice your support for access to the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine this fall. Use our online tool to send emails.

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Local groups join forces for Vancouver’s second annual Clean Air Festival

Light blue illustrated image with clouds. Text reads, the second annual Clean Air Festival! (The “R” in Air has cartoon eyes and is wearing a mask). A Covid-safer hybrid event.

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The Risks of Killing a COVID Early Warning System

Local groups join forces for Vancouver’s second annual Clean Air Festival

Published August 22, 2024

Published by: Clean Air Festival
Published on: August 22, 2024

Event spotlights clean air, community care, and award-winning talent

August 22, 2024 (Vancouver, BC) – On September 15, 2024, a coalition of community groups will present Vancouver’s second annual Clean Air Festival. From 1-6:30 pm, Clean Air 604, Clean Air in BC Schools, DoNoHarm BC, Masks 4 East Van, Millions Missing BC, Protect Our Province BC, SolidAIRity GVRD, Safe Schools Coalition BC, Spring Vancouver, and Vancouver Still Cares will join forces to present a COVID-safer, immuno-inclusive hybrid event, taking place in-person at Slocan Park and digitally via livestream and recording.

The event features a DIY air purifier-building workshop, tabling, children’s games and activities from 1:00 pm, with a stage magic performance at 3:45 pm and an outdoor concert from 4:30 pm. Masks, rapid tests, zines and DIY fit test kits will be available while supplies last. Air purifiers from the workshop will be donated to schools via Clean Air in BC Schools, and to vulnerable community members via Masks 4 East Van.

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Photo of a person wearing an elastomeric respirator, with an outstretched, gloved hand reaching forward towards the viewer. On the light blue glove, the text reads: Stop COVID-19. With a bokeh effect, there is a sharp image of the glove, and the person’s face and respirator are blurred in the background. Photo: fernando zhiminaicela via Pixabay.

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Ontario

The Risks of Killing a COVID Early Warning System

Published August 1, 2024

Published by: The Tyee
Published on: August 1, 2024
By Andrew Nikiforuk

COVID-19 is surging in parts of North America and Europe, and even played a role in ending the presidential campaign of 81-year-old Joe Biden, who was infected for the third time last month.

Nevertheless, on Wednesday the Ontario government shut down its early warning system to detect COVID and other emerging diseases.

Doctors, citizens and researchers are calling the decision to kill the province’s wastewater disease surveillance program both wrong-headed and dangerous. Ending the program will make it harder to track and thwart viral outbreaks, they say, and thereby increase the burden on Ontario’s understaffed hospitals, which experienced more than 1,000 emergency room closures last year.

“Pandemics do not end because science has been muzzled,” Dr. Iris Gorfinkel, a well-known Toronto physician and clinical researcher, told the CBC.

In emails to politicians, more than 5,000 citizens have demanded restoration of the program, with little effect.

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Ontario: Protect our health — save Ontario’s wastewater monitoring!

Photo of some test tubes and equipment in a lab, with text: Protect our health. Save Ontario’s wastewater monitoring. StillCoviding.ca.

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take action

Ontario: Protect our health — save Ontario’s wastewater monitoring!

Published June 4, 2024

📣 Let MPPs know you want funding for Ontario’s wastewater monitoring program to continue

✉️ Send letters to MPPs to voice your support for wastewater monitoring. Use our online tool to send emails.

Why take action? Wastewater monitoring is an essential public health tool that provides insights into the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses in Ontario’s communities.

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Ontario: Call Members of Provincial Parliament on #WastewaterWednesday!

Photo of the Ontario Legislative Building, and the surrounding green lawn and trees. It is a sunny day, and the sky is blue with some clouds. Text reads: Save Ontario’s wastewater monitoring! Call Premier Ford Phone: 416-325-1941 TTY/Teletypewriter: 1-800-387-5559 StillCOVIDing.ca #WastewaterWednesday

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take action

Ontario: Call Members of Provincial Parliament on #WastewaterWednesday!

Published June 4, 2024

📣 Take action! Let MPPs know you want funding for Ontario’s wastewater monitoring program to continue

📱 Call MPPs to voice your support for wastewater monitoring.

✉️ Use our online tool to send letters to MPPs.

✉️ Use our online tool to send emails to municipal councillors in Ottawa or Waterloo Region.

📸 Post photos on social media.

Why take action? Wastewater monitoring is an essential public health tool that provides insights into the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses in Ontario’s communities.

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COVID virus can infect your eyes and damage vision

Illustration of an eye with a SARS-CoV-2 virus particle; with blue, black and coral pink colours. Illustration by Monika Jurczyk / Adobe.

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vision loss

COVID virus can infect your eyes and damage vision

Published May 15, 2024

Published by: Futurity
Published on: May 15, 2024
By Rochita Ghosh / University of Missouri

The virus that causes COVID-19 can breach the protective blood-retinal barrier, leading to potential long-term consequences in the eye, new research shows.

The blood-retinal barrier is designed to protect our vision from infections by preventing microbial pathogens from reaching the retina where they could trigger an inflammatory response with potential vision loss.

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BC health advocates call on government to reinstate healthcare mask requirements

A white N95 mask with yellow head straps against an orange gradient background. White text reads, Vulnerability isn’t seasonal. #KeepMasksInHealthcare. Let’s get loud! www.DoNoHarmBC.ca

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Study: Infection-control measures stemmed COVID spread in hospitals from 2020 to 2022

BC health advocates call on government to reinstate healthcare mask requirements

Published April 25, 2024

Published by: DoNoHarm BC
Published on: April 17, 2024

Protect Our Province BC, DoNoHarm BC, and Masks4EastVan highlight harms and human rights violations from loss of healthcare safety

Wednesday, April 17, 2024 (British Columbia) – Independent public health groups Protect Our Province BC, DoNoHarm BC, and Masks4EastVan are calling on the BC government to restore healthcare mask requirements. They are urging British Columbians to call for airborne pathogen protections in clinical settings by joining DoNoHarm BC’s campaign.

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Lieutenant (junior grade) Kayla Marthy, from Long Island, New York (left), and Lieutenant (junior grade) Brianna Garcia, from St. Petersburg, Florida, treat a patient in the intensive care unit aboard the hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19), on April 13, 2020. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ryan M. Breeden.

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N95 respirators

Study: Infection-control measures stemmed COVID spread in hospitals from 2020 to 2022

Published January 17, 2024

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: January 17, 2024
By Mary Van Beusekom

Implementation of ventilation standards of at least five clean-air changes per hour, COVID-19 testing, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and universal wearing of respirators prevented most SARS-CoV-2 transmissions in a California healthcare system from 2020 to 2022, suggests a study published yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

For the study, University of California (UC) researchers used electronic health records and movement data of patients and staff to conduct viral genomic and social network analyses to estimate COVID-19 spread in the UC–San Diego Health system. The team analyzed 12,933 viral genomes from 35,666 infected patients and healthcare workers (HCWs) (out of 1,303,622 tests [2.7%]) from November 2020 to January 2022.

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“They’re Taking Away Your Right To Be Healthy.”

Image of a plague doctor wearing a plague mask and black clothes. The setting appears to be a smoky, dimly-lit room, with a bright light near the centre. Art by нυвιѕ тανєяη on Unsplash.

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activism

“They’re Taking Away Your Right To Be Healthy.”

Published January 12, 2024

Published by: OK Doomer
Published on: January 12, 2024
By Jessica Wildfire

The tide is turning. Thanks to all the people making noise on social media and bugging their families, while continuing to wear masks and build air purifiers no matter what anyone says, there’s a trace of hope.

—Jessica Wildfire

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Can You Catch Covid Outside? Yes, You Can.

Monochromatic image with a masked plague doctor in the foreground and a smoky background. Image generated using AI by Olivia. Source: Adobe stock image.

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outdoor transmission

Can You Catch Covid Outside? Yes, You Can.

Published November 28, 2023

Published by: OK Doomer
Published on: November 28, 2023
By Jessica Wildfire

You wouldn’t attend an outdoor party where measles or smallpox was present. Covid is no different, especially now.

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First-person stories from British Columbians

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First-person stories from British Columbians

Published August 28, 2023

Published by: DoNoHarm BC
Published on: August 28, 2023

CW: cancer, surgery, medical negligence, denial of care, disability grief

As part of DoNoHarm BC’s #Postcards4PublicHealth campaign, we’ve invited British Columbians to share their stories about the lack of Covid safety in BC – particularly the loss of mask protections in healthcare. Many wrote directly to policy makers. Some generously gave us permission to share their stories with the public and the press.

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pandemic myths

Ten COVID Facts Health Officials Dangerously Downplay

Published December 21, 2022

Published by: The Tyee
Published on: December 21, 2022
By Andrew Nikiforuk

Do not listen to powers that be who pretend that getting infected with COVID multiple times is now no big deal. They’re asking you to lower your guard for a nasty virus that can invade the brain, disregulate the immune system and damage the vascular system.

This strategy has led to predictable results — more direct deaths, more excess deaths, more disease and some 1.4 million Canadians reporting some form of long COVID over the last two years.

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One of Long COVID’s Worst Symptoms Is Also Its Most Misunderstood

Published September 12, 2022

Published by: The Atlantic
Published on: September 12, 2022
By Ed Yong

Brain fog isn’t like a hangover or depression. It’s a disorder of executive function that makes basic cognitive tasks absurdly hard.

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pro-virus policies

US formally withdraws from World Health Organization, leaving debt

Published January 22, 2026

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: January 22, 2026
By Stephanie Soucheray

Today the United States officially withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO), one year after the Trump administration shared its intention to leave the global agency.

At that time, the United States was said to provide about 20% of the WHO’s operational budget, but this week WHO officials said the United States has failed to pay membership dues for both 2024 and 2025, leaving the global alliance with a $278 million debt.

The WHO says withdrawal is not complete until the United States pays its debts.

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Post-COVID Brain Fog Linked to Elevated pTau-181

Published January 19, 2026

Published by: European Medical Journal
Published on: January 19, 2026
By Ada Enesco

NEW evidence from a prospective cohort study suggests that elevated plasma phosphorylated tau (pTau-181) may be a critical biomarker in patients experiencing neurological post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (N-PASC), particularly among essential workers.

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Minnesota

Minnesota residents delay medical care for fear of encountering ICE

Published January 16, 2026

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: January 16, 2026
By Liz Szabo

Tina Ridler has been living with long COVID since 2020. The condition has sent her to the hospital many times, including a trip to the emergency department to treat a life-threatening blood clot.

Until now, Ridler has never been afraid to seek medical care.

Ridler, 60, is delaying health appointments at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for fear of crossing paths with agents from Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), who are conducting raids and arrests near the hospital. Although Ridler is a US citizen who was born in this country, she said she worries about being stopped in her car, hassled by ICE agents, or caught up in the crossfire.

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education

How Universities Are Shutting Out Disabled Students and Staff

Some administrators treat accommodations as a favour—and those requesting them as problems

Published January 16, 2026

Published by: The Walrus
Published on: January 16, 2026
By Lygia Navarro

This article contains discussions of suicide. If you or someone you know is having a suicide crisis, please call Talk Suicide Canada (1-833-456-4566). There is also the Hope for Wellness Helpline for Indigenous people across Canada (1-855-242-3310).

NAOMI HAD ALWAYS hated school, so much so that she cried for hours when school breaks ended. She hadn’t always considered herself disabled, though. Sure, she’d felt lucky to have discovered her autism and learning disabilities relatively early—and to have started getting accommodations in junior high— given that most autistic women aren’t diagnosed until adulthood, if at all. But until her second semester of university, Naomi hadn’t realized how much autism impacted her life. Then, just before semester’s end, COVID-19 crashed in.

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N95 respirators

Experts Call For N95s To Replace Surgical Masks As Flu, Covid Viruses Spread

Published January 15, 2026

Published by: Forbes
Published on: January 15, 2026
By Judy Stone

Nationally, we are seeing very high levels of influenza and, again, a growing wave of COVID-19 infections. A new variant of influenza A H3N2 called subclade K is driving some of this epidemic. Subclade K has already appeared in Japan and Europe and is more severe, especially in the elderly and very young.

Last week, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reported 39,945 hospital admissions^⁠, up from 33,301 admissions the week before. While numbers have varied some week to week, they have been relatively high. There have been 19 pediatric deaths so far this season. The CDC estimates that there have been at least 15,000,000 illnesses, 180,000 hospitalizations, and 7,400 deaths from flu so far this season.

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respirators

C.D.C. Brings Back Hundreds of Suspended Workplace Safety Employees

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. placed about 90 percent of the roughly 1,000 employees of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health on administrative leave last April.

Published January 14, 2026

Published by: The New York Times
Published on: January 14, 2026
By Apoorva Mandavilli

The Trump administration reinstated on Tuesday hundreds of employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who had been placed on administrative leave in April.

The employees are all staff members of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a C.D.C. unit charged with preventing work-related injuries.

“This moment belongs to every single person who refused to stay silent,” said Micah Niemeier-Walsh, an industrial hygienist at NIOSH and the vice president of an American Federation of Government Employees union local that represents C.D.C. employees.

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RFK Jr. appoints 2 vocal opponents of vaccine use in pregnancy to federal advisory board

Published January 13, 2026

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: January 13, 2026
By Stephanie Soucheray

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. today appointed two obstetricians-gynecologists to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Both appointees have a history of questioning vaccine safety in pregnancy, and one has erroneously claimed COVID-19 vaccines caused miscarriages.

Adam Urato, MD, of UMass Memorial Health, is the first listed appointee to ACIP. In October of 2024, he wrote on X, “CDC & ACOG recommend 4 vaccines in pregnancy: Flu, Tdap, RSV, & COVID. My patients often ask: ‘How do we know that all these vaccines won’t have adverse effects on my baby & me?’ The answer is: ‘We don’t.’ Women’s vax concerns should be acknowledged & their choices supported.”

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Increased levels of Alzheimer’s-linked protein found in some with long COVID

Published January 13, 2026

Published by: Medical Xpress
Published on: January 13, 2026
By Stony Brook University

A study of 227 individuals who experienced neurocognitive difficulties post COVID-19 infection—such as headaches, vertigo, balance dysregulation, changes in taste/smell, and brain fog—displayed a significant increase in their blood plasma of a crucial protein called tau, which is found in nerves and especially in the brain. Excess levels of tau are linked to neurodegenerative diseases and found in many Alzheimer’s patients.

Published in eBioMedicine, the study suggests that people who experience long COVID neurocognitive symptoms could be at further risk for neurodegenerative diseases.

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Moderna COVID vaccine 53% effective against adult hospitalization in 2024-25 season, data suggest

Published January 12, 2026

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: January 12, 2026
By Laine Bergeson

A large observational study using US healthcare claims and electronic health record data suggests that Moderna’s updated 2024-25 COVID vaccine was 39% effective at preventing medically attended illness among adults and 53% effective against hospitalization, particularly those at high risk for severe disease.

The study, led by scientists from the vaccine manufacturer and published late last week in Infectious Diseases and Therapy, analyzed outcomes among 596,248 adults who received the updated mRNA-1273 vaccine, which targeted the Omicron KP.2 variant, from August 2024 to April 2025. Vaccinated people were matched 1:1 with unvaccinated counterparts.

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Northwest Territories

Yellowknife adds more flu and Covid shot walk-in clinics

Published January 12, 2026

Published by: Cabin Radio
Published on: January 12, 2026
By Ollie Williams

Yellowknife public health workers say two walk-in clinics for flu and Covid-19 shots will take place this week.

The first runs from 9am-4pm on Monday including the lunch hour, staff said in a Monday morning email, and the second operates to the same times on Friday, January 16.

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