The federal government has decided against procuring a protein-based COVID-19 vaccine for the fall immunization campaign — despite it being the only type that some immunocompromised people say they have been able to tolerate.
While the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna are effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalization and death, some people with autoimmune diseases say the jabs can come with a terrible trade-off.
Comments closed✉️ Send letters to municipal councillors to voice your support for wastewater monitoring. Use our online tool to send emails.
Comments closedLinda Wilhelm, 64, of Bloomfield, N.B., is planning a road trip to the United States. But it’s not to go sightseeing or shopping.
Wilhelm, who suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis, hopes to get the updated Novavax COVID-19 vaccine, which won’t be available in Canada as part of the fall vaccination campaign, unless provinces and territories order doses on their own.
Wilhelm, president of the Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance and a member of the Canadian Immunocompromised Advocacy Network, says the protein-based vaccine is a better option for immunocompromised people like her than the more common Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines. She says she feels “expendable” and urges the federal government to reconsider.
Less than two months ago, the network wrote to numerous federal, provincial and territorial officials, calling for improved access to Novavax and increased awareness.
Comments closedThe number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in B.C. has risen to its highest level since January, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control’s latest monthly update.
There were 214 test-positive COVID patients in provincial hospitals as of Thursday, according to the BCCDC. That’s the second-highest total the agency has published all year, only slightly below the 219 seen on Jan. 4, the first – and still highest – total reported in 2024.
Thursday’s update showed the number of lab-confirmed cases rose each week in August, with 365 new positive tests recorded during the week of Aug. 4 to 10 and 462 recorded last week.
Comments closedBritish Columbia says its current supply of COVID-19 vaccines will remain available until new formulations are approved — unlike other provinces that say they’re following a federal directive to destroy existing doses.
A spokesperson for the provincial health officer says B.C. residents are encouraged to wait for the updated COVID vaccines if possible, but people can still get last season’s shots if they need them.
Officials in Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan and say they are following instructions from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to dispose of vaccine stocks that target the XBB.1.5 variant, since updated formulations are expected this fall.
Comments closedHealth Canada has directed provinces to withdraw and destroy remaining supplies of last year’s COVID-19 vaccines while it works to authorize updated shots, which is expected to happen in October, according to Ontario’s health ministry.
“Vaccines will be available once Ontario receives supply from Health Canada following their regulatory authorization of the new, updated vaccine formulation,” read a statement from Ontario spokesperson Hannah Jensen.
A notice posted on the federal government’s immunization guide says vaccines aimed at Omicron variant XBB.1.5 is no longer available in Canada. Updated shots, made to target the now-dominant JN.1 or KP.2 strains are expected to get the green light “in the coming weeks.”
Comments closedCOVID is surging once again and, if you live in British Columbia, you probably already know someone sick with fever, chills and a sore throat.
As of mid-August, about one in every 19 British Columbians were enduring an infection, with or without symptoms.
Although the media routinely dismisses all COVID infections as an inconsequential nuisance, that’s not what the science says. The virus remains deadlier than the flu and repeated infections can radically change your health.
Comments closedThe COVID-19 pandemic has been especially hard on individuals with disabilities. New research from the University of Kansas shows that this population is also experiencing long COVID at significantly higher rates than the general population, which exacerbates existing barriers to accessing care.
Researchers from KU’s Institute for Health and Disability Policy Studies at the KU Life Span Institute and the Patient-Led Research Collaborative published a study showing that more than 40% of individuals with pre-existing disabilities who had tested positive for COVID-19 experienced long COVID, defined as symptoms lasting three months or longer. This rate is more than twice the 18.9% of individuals without disabilities who contracted COVID and experienced long COVID symptoms.
Research has long documented that individuals with disabilities face barriers to health care access and experience poorer health outcomes than their nondisabled peers. However, many studies during the pandemic have only asked about disabilities present at the time of the survey rather than whether individuals had a disability prior to the start of the pandemic. The research team compared data from the 2022 National Survey on Health and Disability, conducted by the IHDPS, to the Household Pulse Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Comments closedThe Ontario government abruptly ended its wastewater surveillance program earlier than planned this summer, despite having funding in place until the end of September and being warned that the move could leave gaps in crucial information for public health, internal documents indicate.
The government pulled the plug at the end of July on the globally praised program that, at its peak, covered about 75 per cent of the province.
The program, overseen by the Ministry of the Environment, provided an early warning signal to health officials about the spread of COVID-19, influenza, RSV and other infectious diseases, based on wastewater testing.
Documents obtained through access to information by the Ottawa Citizen indicate that the province’s hasty decision last spring to end the program came before Ontario’s Ministry of Health had even begun negotiations with the federal government about taking over wastewater surveillance.
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