Still COVIDing Canada

Advocates Urge BC to Reinstate Healthcare Mask Protections Amid Rising Risks

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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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Everything Wrong with Canada’s Proposed Long COVID Recommendations

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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long COVID

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

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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take action

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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British Columbia

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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The Risks of Killing a COVID Early Warning System

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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British Columbia

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

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

Featured

British Columbia

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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Featured

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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long COVID

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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long COVID

Study: 6% of US adults have long COVID, and many have reduced quality of life

Published December 20, 2024

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: December 20, 2024
By Stephanie Soucheray

Two new studies paint a comprehensive picture of current long COVID cases in the United States, and both suggest the condition limits daily activities for a significant proportion of those affected.

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avian flu

Avian flu detected in Manitoba for the 1st time this year

Published December 19, 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: December 19, 2024

Manitoba has confirmed its first case of avian influenza in domestic birds for 2024 at a commercial poultry operation in Portage la Prairie.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the viral infection was detected on Nov. 26. Similar cases have previously been detected in the province in 2022 and 2023.

CFIA has set a primary control zone in the area where the disease was detected.

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Nova Scotia

Judge certifies Nova Scotia COVID-19 lawsuit as a class action

Published December 19, 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: December 19, 2024
By Blair Rhodes

⚠️ Content warning: mention of deaths.

A Nova Scotia judge has certified a class action lawsuit against Northwood, a company that was described as at the epicentre of COVID-19 deaths in the province at the height of the pandemic in 2020.

Some 53 people died in the Northwood complex in north-end Halifax.

A lawsuit was launched shortly after the deaths. On Thursday, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Scott Norton certified it as a class action.

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Ontario

Why doesn’t Doug Ford’s government want you to know if you have this dangerous disease?

Published December 19, 2024

Published by: Toronto Star
Published on: December 19, 2024
By Iris Gorfinkel

Transparency is crucial to public health, but far too little effort has gone into informing the public about the long-term health hazards posed by repeated COVID-19 infections. That needs to change. A good place to start is by providing free rapid tests to enable Ontarians to gauge their risk and that of their loved ones. Its messaging would be clear: Results still matter.

— Dr. Iris Gorfinkel

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pro-virus policies

America’s Public Health Breakdown Is Just Getting Started

Published December 19, 2024

Published by: The Tyee
Published on: December 19, 2024
By Crawford Kilian

The United States has a health-care system that is terrible and getting worse. It also has a health science system that is the best in the world and about to be dismantled.

The impending return of Donald Trump to the White House seems likely to collapse American health science, with consequences as disastrous for the rest of the world as for the approximately 340 million Americans in the U.S. Canada may be able to soften the impact here, but it will not be easy.

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avian flu

Gov. Newsom declares state of emergency over bird flu to boost California’s response

Published December 18, 2024

Published by: San Francisco Chronicle
Published on: December 18, 2024
By Catherine Ho

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday declared a state of emergency to boost the state’s response to the avian flu, which has infected more than 600 dairy herds and 34 people in the state amid a national outbreak that began in the spring.

The proclamation gives state and local agencies additional flexibility on staffing, contracting and other rules to support the H5N1 response, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

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CDC confirms first severe case of H5N1 bird flu in U.S.

Colourized transmission electron micrograph of avian influenza A H5N1 virus particles (yellow), grown in canine kidney epithelial cells (blue). Photo: CDC and NIAID.

avian flu

CDC confirms first severe case of H5N1 bird flu in U.S.

Published December 18, 2024

Published by: CBC News / The Associated Press
Published on: December 18, 2024

A person in Louisiana has the first severe illness caused by bird flu in the U.S., health officials said Wednesday.

The patient had been in contact with sick and dead birds in backyard flocks, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. Agency officials didn’t immediately detail the person’s symptoms.

Previous illnesses in the U.S. had been mild and the vast majority had been among farm workers exposed to sick poultry or dairy cows.

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Ottawa-Gatineau

Ottawa Public Health warns of very low risk of hepatitis A exposure at south-end Tim Hortons

Published December 17, 2024

Published by: CTV News
Published on: December 17, 2024
By Ted Raymond

Ottawa Public Health is warning residents about a possible risk of exposure to hepatitis A at a local Tim Hortons in the city’s south end.

OPH says it is investigating a confirmed case of hepatitis A in an employee at the Tim Hortons at 372 Hunt Club Rd.

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hydroxychloroquine

Invalidation of a landmark study on COVID-19 published by a French doctor

Published December 17, 2024

Published by: La Presse / Agence France-Presse
Published on: December 17, 2024

“Concerns have been raised” relating to respect for “publication ethics” of the journal’s publisher, and “the appropriate conduct of research involving human participants, as well as concerns raised by three of the authors themselves regarding the article’s methodology and conclusions,” stated Elsevier, the publisher of the scientific journal International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, in a lengthy note justifying this rare retraction.

The article, signed by 18 authors, notably Philippe Gautret, then a professor at the Marseille IHU, and Didier Raoult, who directed this institute, intended to demonstrate the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine, combined with an antibiotic – azithromycin – against COVID-19.

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cardiovascular disease

COVID-19 linked to more heart complications than flu, RSV

Published December 16, 2024

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: December 16, 2024
By Stephanie Soucheray

A new study published in BMC Cardiovascular Disorders shows that pediatric and young adult COVID-19 patients are more at risk for cardiac complications than flu or RSV patients of the same age.

The study was based on hospitalized US patients from 2020 through 2021 tracked through the National Inpatient Sample. In total 212,655 respiratory virus admissions were recorded, including 85,055 from COVID-19, 103,185 from RSV, and 24,415 from influenza.

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New Brunswick

New N.B. school air quality testing results are delayed. Here’s why

Published December 16, 2024

Published by: Telegraph-Journal
Published on: December 16, 2024
By Andrew Waugh

Annual school air quality test results haven’t been released on time because the former Higgs government ordered every school to be tested.

Usually the data, which measures carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in classrooms to indicate overall air quality, is released in the last few months of each year and focuses on several dozen schools without mechanical ventilation systems.

But this time, they’re all being tested.

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pro-virus policies

Trump nominees should ‘steer clear’ of undermining polio vaccine, McConnell says

Published December 15, 2024

Published by: The Associated Press
Published on: December 15, 2024
By Moriah Balingit

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a child, says any of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees seeking Senate confirmation should “steer clear” of efforts to discredit the polio vaccine.

“Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous,” McConnell said in a statement Friday. “Anyone seeking the Senate’s consent to serve in the incoming Administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts.”

The 82-year-old lawmaker’s statement appeared to be directed at Trump’s pick for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after a report that one of his advisers filed a petition to revoke approval for the polio vaccine in 2022. That vaccine is widely considered to have halted the disease in most parts of the world.

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Alberta

Over 300 COVID outbreaks hit Alberta acute care facilities last year

Published December 15, 2024

Published by: St. Albert Gazette
Published on: December 15, 2024
By Brett McKay

The reality is that people are dying from COVID in our hospitals, and we really are doing very little to prevent them getting ill and getting infected. And we wouldn’t do the same for any other infectious disease.

— Dr. Joe Vipond, an emergency physician in Calgary and co-founder of the Canadian Covid Society

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pro-virus policies

Kennedy’s Lawyer Has Asked the F.D.A. to Revoke Approval of the Polio Vaccine

Published December 13, 2024

Published by: The New York Times
Published on: December 13, 2024
By Christina Jewett, Sheryl Gay Stolberg

The lawyer helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine, which for decades has protected millions of people from a virus that can cause paralysis or death.

That campaign is just one front in the war that the lawyer, Aaron Siri, is waging against vaccines of all kinds.

Mr. Siri has also filed a petition seeking to pause the distribution of 13 other vaccines; challenged, and in some cases quashed, Covid vaccine mandates around the country; sued federal agencies for the disclosure of records related to vaccine approvals; and subjected prominent vaccine scientists to grueling videotaped depositions.

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Ontario

Guelph wastewater testing will continue for COVID-19 and more by university researchers

Published December 12, 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: December 12, 2024

Wastewater in Guelph will continue to be monitored for COVID-19, influenza and other illnesses through a new partnership between researchers at the University of Guelph and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health.

The researchers will get samples of wastewater three times a week, then will submit their findings to public health, which will in turn publish it to a public online dashboard.

Provincial funding for wastewater testing was cut on July 31 with the Ontario government citing a federal program that tests wastewater; however, none of the testing sites are in Waterloo region or Guelph.

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long COVID

We can, and must, do more to protect students in higher education from the risks of post-COVID condition

Published December 8, 2024

Published by: The Conversation
Published on: December 8, 2024
By Julia M. Wright, Dick Zoutman, Mark Ungrin, Ryan Tennant

Canada’s postsecondary institutions have a responsibility to protect students and others on campus from the risks of post-COVID condition as a matter of campus safety.

Canada’s Chief Science Advisor, Mona Nemer, recently released the report, Dealing with the Fallout: Post-COVID Condition and its Continued Impacts on Individuals and Society.

Post-COVID condition (PCC), also known as “long COVID,” refers to the poorly understood and often serious health damage left by the SARS-CoV-2 virus after the acute illness appears to have passed.

Universities, colleges and schools have a duty to take reasonable precautions to protect students, staff and faculty from foreseeable harms. They must ensure the water on campus is safe to drink. They must install fire and carbon monoxide detectors and make evacuation plans. Many have adopted a smoke-free policy on campus as part of a commitment to an international charter on health promotion in universities and colleges. Yet there is little pandemic health promotion on Canadian campuses.

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long COVID

New imaging shows virus invading the body and lingering for years, potentially explaining Long COVID

Published December 7, 2024

Published by: The West Australian
Published on: December 8, 2024
By John Flint

Next time you think of dismissing COVID as just another annoying common cold it may pay to visualise what you see so starkly in this paper, the virus moving freely around your body and finding a long-term home in all sorts of places where it can really cause trouble, including the brain and the heart.

This work further emphasises the need for individuals, and societies as a whole to take this infection more seriously and try and reduce the amount of transmission using the tools we currently have, most especially vaccination, clean indoor air approaches and well-fitted masks in crowded and poorly ventilated indoor settings.

— Professor Brendan Crabb, director and CEO of the Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health

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

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

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

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

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

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

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

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

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