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Month: August 2024

Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

Long COVID leads to missed work days, economic loss

Published August 16, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on:
By Stephanie Soucheray

About 14% of participants in a new long-COVID study from Yale said they didn’t return to work in the months after their infection, suggesting that the condition results in major economic losses. The study is published in PLOS One.

The study was based on the outcomes of 6,000 participants at eight study sites in Illinois, Connecticut, Washington, Pennsylvania, Texas, and California from 2020 through 2022 as part of the Innovative Support for Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infections Registry, or INSPIRE study.

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Topic: AlbertaView all posts for the topic: Alberta

Opinion: Closing long-COVID clinics a devastating blow to patients

Published August 16, 2024

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Published by: Edmonton Journal
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By Laura Collison

I was dismayed to see Alberta Health Services’ decision to abruptly shut down the three long-COVID clinics and outpatient programs last week. This was done without any consultation, notice or consideration for those who access these crucial health care services.

As a long-COVID patient I was personally able to access their rehab services, which were incredibly helpful for me. Many may not realize how long-COVID impacts the entire body, and the extent of care supports many long-COVID patients require.

I went from being a very active person to being homebound and unable to work. The support I received through the clinic helped me regain some of my function and made my activities of daily living more manageable.

Through the clinic I was able to access cardiac and respiratory testing, as well as many rehabilitation therapists, including a physiotherapist, occupational therapist, recreational therapist (so critical when you’re housebound), a speech language pathologist, and a social worker.

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Fallout ensues after the closure of long-COVID outpatient programScreenshot of video from Global News. Petition organizer McKenna Kirby is speaking. She has light brown hair, glasses, and a light blue top.
Topic: AlbertaView all posts for the topic: Alberta

Fallout ensues after the closure of long-COVID outpatient program

Published August 15, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: Global News
Published on:
By Justin Sibbet

Those suffering from long-COVID in Alberta are fighting back after the government informed them the Long-COVID Inter-Professional Outpatient Program was ending.

For some, COVID feels like a distant memory, a time when the world seemed to stop as everyone navigated the pandemic. Yet for many, it’s not in the rearview mirror, it’s still an ever-present reality and daily fight.

Jennifer Hare has had long-COVID for three years.

“Literally, my entire life is planned whereas before, I was a normal human being,” said Hare.

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Topic: pro-virus policiesView all posts for the topic: pro-virus policies

The US Government Is Shutting Down A Key Covid Website

Published August 15, 2024

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Published by: ¡Do Not Panic!
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By Nate Bear

Tomorrow the US government agency responsible for biomedical and public health research, The National Institutes of Health, will shut down its Covid-19 ‘special populations’ website.

This site hosts a huge amount of information about how to treat covid and long covid in the immunocompromised and in people with HIV, cancer and similar immune supressing conditions – so-called ‘special populations.’

The site is going totally offline.

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Topic: mpoxView all posts for the topic: mpox

WHO declares mpox outbreak a global health emergency

Published August 14, 2024

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Published by: STAT
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By Helen Branswell

The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the spread of mpox in multiple African countries a public health emergency of international concern, the second such declaration in the past two years called in response to transmission of the virus.

The latest decision came on the recommendation of a panel of experts convened to advise WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the issue. It also follows a similar declaration Tuesday by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It’s clear that a coordinated international response is essential to stop this outbreak and save lives,” Tedros said in announcing the declaration of the PHEIC.

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Topic: TorontoView all posts for the topic: Toronto

Toronto seeing ‘spike’ in mpox cases: officials

Published August 13, 2024

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Published by: CTV News
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By Phil Tsekouras

Toronto is reporting a “spike” in mpox cases and health officials are urging eligible residents to get vaccinated to contain the spread.

In a news release issued Tuesday, Toronto Public Health said it has seen 93 confirmed cases as of July 31. This time last year, the city’s case count stood at 21.

The latest numbers indicate that there were 13 new cases confirmed in Toronto over the last two weeks of July.

According to TPH, mpox cases have been reported across the city, however a higher concentration of infections has been observed among residents in the downtown core.

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Topic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia

‘High’ COVID levels show virus may no longer be an emergency in B.C. but it’s still a threat

Published August 12, 2024

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Published by: Vancouver Sun
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By Michelle Gamage

B.C.’s [top doctor] has ended the COVID-19 public health emergency, but experts warn that COVID-19 still poses a serious and potentially deadly threat to the public.

“COVID is still a major, ongoing health issue and crisis,” said Tara Moriarty, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, an infectious disease expert and co-founder of the COVID-19 Resources Canada database.

By Moriarty’s calculations, one in 52 British Columbians currently has COVID. According to recent federal wastewater testing from mid-July, B.C. has “high” COVID-19 activity levels.

This can have major implications for public health because hospitals don’t have mandatory masking requirements.

Continue reading‘High’ COVID levels show virus may no longer be an emergency in B.C. but it’s still a threat
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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

New studies estimate long-COVID rates, identify risk factors

Published August 12, 2024

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Mary Van Beusekom

As new variants continue to emerge and infect people, older adults remain highly vulnerable to long-term health effects from this pathogen. Continued multidisciplinary research is needed to understand and prevent long COVID to reduce morbidity and mortality and maintain quality of life in older adults.

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Topic: COVID denialView all posts for the topic: COVID denial

Noah Lyles’ collapse underscores our collective COVID denial

Published August 10, 2024

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Published by: Salon
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By Troy Farah

The 2024 Olympic Games are serving up some less-than-subtle metaphors for how poorly we handle public health. Just after winning a bronze medal in the much-anticipated men’s 200-meter race, U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles collapsed on the track in exhaustion — not just because he’d completed a brutal run in just 19.7 seconds, finishing third, but also because he was sick with COVID-19, a diagnosis that he’d concealed from others. He had been favored to take home gold, as he did in the 100-meter race a few days earlier.

But seeing an American Olympic star sprawled out and gasping on the track, and then taken away in a wheelchair, was more than a shocking image. It also represented the general “mission accomplished” attitude toward SARS-CoV-2: We think we’ve won against this virus and we haven’t.

COVID isn’t just spreading like wildfire through the Olympic Village in Paris — we are undergoing surges across the globe, with the World Health Organization tracking steep rises in infections in 84 countries. After more than four years fighting this thing, it is still knocking us out.

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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

About 400 Million People Worldwide Have Had Long Covid, Researchers Say

Published August 9, 2024

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Published by: The New York Times
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By Pam Belluck

About 400 million people worldwide have been afflicted with long Covid, according to a new report by scientists and other researchers who have studied the condition. The team estimated that the economic cost — from factors like health care services and patients unable to return to work — is about $1 trillion worldwide each year, or about 1 percent of the global economy.

The report, published Friday in the journal Nature Medicine, is an effort to summarize the knowledge about and effects of long Covid across the globe four years after it first emerged.

It also aims to “provide a road map for policy and research priorities,” said one author, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, the chief of research and development at the V.A. St. Louis Health Care System and a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis. He wrote the paper with several other leading long Covid researchers and three leaders of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative, an organization formed by long Covid patients who are also professional researchers.

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Topic: AlbertaView all posts for the topic: Alberta

Alberta shuts down long-COVID program

Published August 9, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: Edmonton Journal
Published on:
By Matthew Black

Alberta Health Services (AHS) is closing down its long-COVID outpatient program that had been operating since 2021.

In a letter to patients dated Aug. 8, AHS says the program has concluded.

“Your health and well-being remain a priority, and we are committed to ensuring you receive support during the transition,” it reads.

“We understand that this change might be challenging for some and thank you for your understanding and co-operation during this transition period.”

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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

Long COVID is a $1 trillion problem with no cure. Experts plead for governments to wake up

Published August 9, 2024

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Published by: Fortune
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By Carolyn Barber

For months, governmental officials around the world have appeared to want to forgo discussing the specter of long COVID. As a new review makes clear, that is wishful thinking—and the latest COVID variants may well kick long COVID into overdrive, a scenario that researchers and experts have been warning about for some time.

“I think they (government agencies) are itching to pretend that COVID is over and that long COVID does not exist,” says Ziyad Al-Aly, director of the Clinical Epidemiology Center at Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System and lead author of the review. “It is much more pleasant to pretend as if emergency department visits and hospitalizations haven’t been rising sharply this summer.”

In a Nature Medicine review this week, Al-Aly and several other top researchers lay out a difficult truth: Long COVID has already affected an estimated 400 million people worldwide, a number the authors say is likely conservative, at an economic cost of about $1 trillion annually—equivalent to 1% of the global economy.

Continue readingLong COVID is a $1 trillion problem with no cure. Experts plead for governments to wake up
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Topic: AlbertaView all posts for the topic: Alberta

Hundreds of long-COVID sufferers affected as AHS abruptly closes outpatient program

Published August 8, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: Global News
Published on:
By Krista Sylvester

Confusion and frustration.

Those are the feelings that 56-year-old Calgary grandmother Barbara Pencala was left with after she learned on Wednesday via email that Alberta Health Services (AHS) is concluding its long COVID Inter-Professional Outpatient Program (IPOP).

The temporary initiative was set up in 2021 and was never meant to be permanent, but the news came as a surprise to hundreds of program patients, many of whom took to social media to express their concerns.

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Topic: data suppressionView all posts for the topic: data suppression

COVID data quietly disappears while cases rise

Published August 6, 2024

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Published by: Prism
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By Ash Peterson

California-based engineer and scientist Patrick Vaughan made a troubling discovery July 10. Dozens of facilities providing COVID-19 wastewater data went offline, seemingly overnight.

Vaughan had been following WastewaterSCAN, a national program that monitors wastewater for diseases. He noticed that 42 of the previously reporting 194 facilities suddenly displayed small blue triangles with the message “data is no longer collected from this site.” The development came just as people across the U.S. scrambled for information during a summer COVID wave that even infected President Joe Biden.

“This is a major blow to our COVID wastewater tracking abilities,” Vaughan told his followers in a video he posted the same day.

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Topic: mask bansView all posts for the topic: mask bans

Nassau Legislature approves act prohibiting mask wearing in some scenarios

Published August 5, 2024

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Published by: News 12 Long Island
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By Krista McNally

The Nassau County Legislature passed the Mask Transparency Act Monday – a law that prohibits the wearing of masks in public in some scenarios.

Those over the age of 16 will not be allowed to wear masks, unless it is being worn for the person’s health, religion or celebratory purposes. Officials say police will be the ones to determine whether or not the masks are being used for those purposes.

Legislators explained their reasoning for supporting the measure during the hearing.

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Topic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia

No Longer an Official Emergency, COVID Remains a Crisis

Published August 5, 2024

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Published by: The Tyee
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By Michelle Gamage

British Columbia’s top doctor has ended the COVID-19 public health emergency, which began nearly 1,600 days ago on March 17, 2020.

Declaring COVID-19 a public health emergency gave provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry the ability to issue mask mandates, travel and gathering restrictions and vaccination requirements for health-care workers to curb the spread of the virus.

While experts The Tyee spoke with agree the public health emergency may no longer be needed, they stressed that COVID-19 still poses a serious and potentially deadly threat to the general public.

“COVID is still a major, ongoing health issue and crisis,” said Tara Moriarty, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, an infectious disease expert and co-founder of the COVID-19 Resources Canada database.

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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

Sanders Proposes ‘Moonshot’ Bill to Combat Long Covid Crisis

Published August 2, 2024

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Published by: Common Dreams
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By Jessica Corbett

For far too long, millions of Americans suffering from long Covid have had their symptoms dismissed or ignored — by the medical community, by the media, and by Congress. That is unacceptable and has got to change.

The legislation that we have introduced finally recognizes that long Covid is a public health emergency and provides an historic investment into research, development, and education needed to counter the effects of this terrible disease. Congress must act now to ensure treatments are developed and made available for Americans struggling with long Covid. Yes. It is time for a long Covid moonshot.

— U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP)
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The Risks of Killing a COVID Early Warning SystemPhoto 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.
Topic: OntarioView all posts for the topic: Ontario

The Risks of Killing a COVID Early Warning System

Published August 1, 2024

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Published by: The Tyee
Published on:
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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