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.
Comments closedStill COVIDing Canada Posts
Volunteers needed to test no-needle COVID vaccine made in Hamilton
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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Federal cuts threaten to close Pennsylvania lab that certifies N95s and other respirators in June
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
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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I traded my U.S. medical career for life in Canada. Here’s how the two health systems stack up.
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
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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BC’s Measles Vaccination Rate Is Lower Than in Gaines County, Texas
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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International Long COVID Awareness Day 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
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
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!
📣 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
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
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!
📣 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!
📣 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
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
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
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.”
Comments closedThe 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.
Can You Catch Covid Outside? Yes, You Can.
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
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.
Comments closedTen COVID Facts Health Officials Dangerously Downplay
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.
Comments closedOne of Long COVID’s Worst Symptoms Is Also Its Most Misunderstood
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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New travel-related measles case found in the Lower Mainland
A new case of travel-related measles has been confirmed in the Lower Mainland this week.
Fraser Health says a traveller from Ontario who went to Vancouver and Chilliwack on April 20 has a confirmed infection of the virus.
Comments closedOntario reports 95 new measles cases, sending total above 1,000 since outbreak began
TORONTO – Public Health Ontario is reporting 95 new measles cases since last week, bringing the total number of people infected past 1,000.
It says a total of 1,020 people have had measles since the province’s outbreak began last October.
The agency says the ongoing rise in cases is “due to continued exposures and transmission among individuals who have not been immunized.”
‘On the precipice of disaster’: Measles may be endemic in 25 years if vaccine uptake stays low, model predicts
Without a 5% higher measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination rate, measles may revert to endemicity in the United States within 25 years, while a 10% decline in vaccination could lead to 11.1 million cases of the highly contagious illness in that timeframe, according to predictions from a simulation model published today in JAMA.
Also today, the World Health Organization (WHO); UNICEF; and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance warn that burgeoning outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases threaten to reverse years of progress.
Comments closedPossible treatments for long COVID at the centre of new Western study
More than 300 patients across four continents are at the centre of a Western long COVID study, which hopes to find an effective treatment for those who struggle with long COVID.
The study will look to trial two anti-inflammatory medicines as potential treatments, and hopes to bring into view people who struggle with the disease outside of North America.
“Despite the global prevalence of long COVID, patients report different symptoms and their presentation can be influenced by where they happen to live,” said Dr. Douglas Fraser, professor at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. “A study with global reach, tailored to examine each patient’s most severe symptoms, has the potential to bring hope to people well beyond Canada and the U.S.”
Comments closedNovavax says its COVID-19 shot is on track for full FDA approval after delay
WASHINGTON (AP) — Novavax’s closely watched COVID-19 vaccine is on track for full approval after additional discussions with the Food and Drug Administration, the company said Wednesday.
The news sent company shares soaring more than 21% in morning trading and appeared to resolve concerns that Trump administration officials might be holding up a decision on the shot.
Comments closedRFK Jr. eyes reversing CDC’s Covid-19 vaccine recommendation for children
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is weighing pulling the Covid-19 vaccine from the government’s list of recommended immunizations for children, two people familiar with the discussions told POLITICO.
The directive under consideration would remove the Covid shot from the childhood vaccine schedule maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and widely used by physicians to guide vaccine distribution, marking Kennedy’s most significant move yet to shake up the nation’s vaccination practices.
Comments closedMeasles outbreak ends in Quebec as number of cases explodes in Ontario
The measles outbreak that began in Quebec in December has officially ended, the Ministry of Health has confirmed. The situation is quite different in Ontario, which has recorded more than 900 cases.
The spread has stabilized in Quebec in recent weeks, with the last recorded case dating back to March 18. Quebec has confirmed 40 cases of measles during this outbreak, with the vast majority (32 cases) in the Laurentians.
According to the government’s technical parameters for the management of measles cases, contacts and outbreaks in Quebec, the end of the outbreak is set at the 32nd day following the last presence of the last contagious case in an environment.
Comments closedIs Public Health Really Dead?
Local podcaster Daniella Barreto called her latest project Public Health Is Dead to capture her frustration with how leaders handled the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It seemed like all of these things we’re taught in school, like prevention being key and using evidence to make decisions, was thrown out the window,” Barreto told The Tyee. “Mask mandates were being taken away, people were increasingly getting long COVID, and I decided I needed to do something because people were not getting the information they needed.”
Launching the podcast in November 2024, Barreto used her background in public health, with a master of science in population public health from the University of British Columbia and a bachelor of science in health science from Simon Fraser University, to help explain what went wrong. So far she’s released five episodes and has many more in the works.
Comments closedManitoba rolling out COVID-19 spring vaccination campaign for high-risk groups
Manitoba is rolling out a vaccination campaign for those at the highest risk of developing serious outcomes from COVID-19, aiming to get people vaccinated before summer, when virus circulation might increase, the province says.
Between May 1 and June 30, the province will make additional COVID-19 vaccine doses available for people who have already had a dose since last fall, but meet specific criteria.
The extra doses will be available to anyone age 65 or older, Indigenous people over the age of 45, residents of long-term care homes, and anyone age six months or up who is moderately or severely immunocompromised.
Comments closedInternal budget document reveals extent of Trump’s proposed health cuts
The Trump administration is seeking to deeply slash budgets for federal health programs, a roughly one-third cut in discretionary spending by the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a preliminary budget document obtained by The Washington Post.
The HHS budget draft, known as a “passback,” offers the first full look at the health and social service priorities of President Donald Trump’s Office of Management and Budget as it prepares to send his 2026 fiscal year budget request to Congress. It shows how the Trump administration plans to reshape the federal health agencies that oversee food and drug safety, manage the nation’s response to infectious-disease threats and drive biomedical research.
Comments closedWHO member states agree to landmark accord on future pandemic responses
Countries united under the World Health Organization on Wednesday agreed to a milestone accord on how to respond to future pandemics and avoid repeating the mistakes made during the Covid-19 crisis. The agreement comes despite US foreign aid cuts and possible tariffs on pharmaceuticals casting uncertainty over the talks.
Years of negotiations culminated early Wednesday with countries agreeing the text of a landmark accord on how to tackle future pandemics, aimed at avoiding a repeat of the mistakes made during the Covid-19 crisis.
After more than three years of talks and one last marathon session, weary delegates at the World Health Organization’s headquarters sealed the deal at around 2am (0000 GMT) Wednesday.
“Tonight marks a significant milestone in our shared journey towards a safer world,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
“The nations of the world made history in Geneva today.”
Comments closedMeasles is spreading in Ontario — here’s what you need to know
A major outbreak of measles has infected more than 800 people in Ontario. It’s the first outbreak of its size since the disease was declared eliminated in 1998.
Now, lower vaccination rates are leading to a serious outbreak in the province, enough to garner a travel advisory to the province from New York State south of the border.
Here’s what you need to know about measles — how it’s transmitted, how you can protect yourself, and whether you need to update your vaccinations.
Comments closedSeniors 75 and over invited to get COVID-19 vaccine
(Montreal) A COVID-19 vaccination campaign is launched this spring for people at risk of developing complications, Santé Québec announced on Monday.
Teams are currently deployed in the province’s long-term care homes, after which vaccination will be offered in private seniors’ residences (RPA) with a more vulnerable clientele.
In addition to CHSLDs and RPAs, seniors 75 years of age or older and people with immunodeficiency or dialysis are encouraged to go get their vaccine dose. This vaccination campaign also aims to reach people aged 65-74 who live with a chronic disease or in remote and isolated areas.
Non-targeted people aged 6 months and older can also receive the COVID-19 vaccine free of charge, says Santé Québec. If they have already been vaccinated, they should wait at least six months after their vaccine before receiving a new dose.
Comments closedIs Covid Rewriting the Rules of Aging? Brain Decline Alarms Doctors
Five years after the pandemic’s start, millions of Americans are still struggling with long-lasting symptoms of Covid-19. Cognitive difficulties are among the most troubling and common symptoms in people both old and young.
These ailments can be severe enough to leave former professionals like Ken Todd unable to work and even diagnosed with a form of mild cognitive impairment.
Comments closedHealth secretary RFK Jr. declares certain vaccines have ‘never worked,’ flummoxing scientists
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has expressed another unorthodox view on vaccines, with the long-time vaccine critic declaring that vaccines for respiratory bugs that target a sole part of the pathogen they are meant to protect against do not work.
The claim was dismissed as erroneous by vaccine experts, who were befuddled by the secretary’s theory, espoused during an interview with CBS News.
Kennedy made the claim in explaining a controversial recent decision by political appointees at the Food and Drug Administration to delay granting a full license to Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine, which is still given under an emergency use authorization or EUA.
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