Month: October 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: October 15, 2024
By Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon

New Brunswick has taken steps to make Paxlovid more affordable for some people at higher risk of becoming severely ill or dying from COVID-19, now that the federal government has stopped supplying the anti-viral medication to provinces for free.

But the drug designed to reduce symptoms from an infection and shorten the period of illness remains out of reach for many, either because of the cost of about $1,400 for a five-day course, a lack of timely access, or reduced eligibility.

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Northwest Territories

NWT coughs up flu and Covid vaccine clinic dates

Published October 10, 2024

Published by: Cabin Radio
Published on: October 10, 2024
By Ollie Williams

Dates for flu and Covid vaccination clinics in the Northwest Territories have been made public on the territorial health authority’s website.

The website now shows dates in November for Yellowknife, late October for Fort Smith and Hay River, and mid-October in Inuvik.

Not all communities have specific dates. Some residents are told to contact their local health centre instead.

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cardiovascular disease

Covid-19 may increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes and deaths for three years after an infection, study suggests

Published October 9, 2024

Published by: CNN
Published on: October 9, 2024
By Brenda Goodman

Covid-19 could be a powerful risk factor for heart attacks and strokes for as long as three years after an infection, a large new study suggests.

The study was published Wednesday in the medical journal Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. It relied on medical records from roughly a quarter of a million people who were enrolled in a large database called the UK Biobank.

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research

Ultra-powered MRI scans show damage to brain’s ‘control centre’ is behind long-lasting Covid-19 symptoms

Published October 8, 2024

Published by: University of Cambridge
Published on: October 8, 2024

Damage to the brainstem – the brain’s ‘control centre’ – is behind long-lasting physical and psychiatric effects of severe Covid-19 infection, a study suggests.

Using ultra-high-resolution scanners that can see the living brain in fine detail, researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford were able to observe the damaging effects Covid-19 can have on the brain.

The study team scanned the brains of 30 people who had been admitted to hospital with severe Covid-19 early in the pandemic, before vaccines were available. The researchers found that Covid-19 infection damages the region of the brainstem associated with breathlessness, fatigue and anxiety.

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Quebec

Quebec launches annual flu/COVID vaccination campaign

Published October 7, 2024

Published by: Montreal Gazette
Published on: October 7, 2024
By Aaron Derfel

Quebec public health authorities on Monday launched the annual influenza and COVID-19 vaccination campaign, administering the shots first to people in long-term care before making the vaccines available for free to the general population as of Oct. 16.

And for the first time this year, medical staff will be immunizing infants up the age of 18 months against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a seasonal pathogen that often leads to overcrowded pediatric emergency rooms during the winter. Health Canada has approved a monoclonal antibody therapy, Nirsevimab, which is now being injected into premature infants in Quebec before they leave the hospital.

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vaccines

Vaccine manufacturer won’t be making COVID shots at Montreal plant this winter

Published October 6, 2024

Published by: The Globe and Mail
Published on: October 6, 2024
By Kelly Grant

At the height of the pandemic in February of 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he had found a partner to make millions of doses…

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British Columbia

BC Conservative Leader John Rustad Suggests Province Would Participate in ‘Nuremberg’-Style COVID-19 Trials

Published October 6, 2024

Published by: PressProgress
Published on: October 6, 2024
By Luke LeBrun

BC Conservative leader John Rustad assured anti-vaccine activists British Columbia would be open to joining other jurisdictions in legal proceedings inspired by the Nuremberg Trials that would be aimed at prosecuting those deemed responsible for COVID-19 public health measures and vaccines.

“Nuremberg 2.0,” an idea popular among COVID-19 conspiracy theorists and the online far-right, is simultaneously inspired by the Nuremberg Code, a set of ethical principles on human experimentation, as well as the Nuremberg Trials that prosecuted Nazi leaders after the Second World War.

Nuremberg 2.0 advocates typically call for those who created, justified or enforced public health measures — including politicians, doctors, academics, journalists and police — to be jailed and even executed for “crimes against humanity.”

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long COVID

For kids with long COVID, “back to school” often means not returning at all

Published October 6, 2024

Published by: Salon
Published on: October 6, 2024
By Nicole Karlis

In January 2022, Jennifer Robertson’s now 11-year-old son, Fergus, developed long COVID, a condition in which the symptoms of COVID-19 linger for months or even years. Due to his symptoms, he missed nearly six weeks of school after his first infection. He’d be in and out of the classroom for the rest of the school year.

Robertson never knew how her son would feel day to day. After three months of daily fever spikes, red eyes, and chest pains, the family pulled him out of their school to be homeschooled for a year. There was hope when he returned to in-person school last year at a private, and more flexible, school.

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parosmia

London clinical trial targets lingering COVID toll on patients – smell distortion

Published October 6, 2024

Published by: The London Free Press
Published on: October 6, 2024
By Beatriz Baleeiro

Haunted for more than a year by phantom smells she couldn’t explain, Rebecca Bruzzese said she worried about her safety and mental health.

She could smell burning cigarettes in her living room, but no one was smoking. Beef frying on the stove smelled like “excrement in a pan.” Coffee was even worse.

“It smelled like hot garbage,” the 32-year-old said.

Unable to eat, Bruzzese lost 30 pounds and developed other health problems.

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Ontario

Updated COVID, flu vaccines arrive in London region, and health officials suggest you get both

Published October 6, 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: October 6, 2024

Shipments of updated COVID-19 and flu vaccines have arrived in the London region, according to the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU), with more rolling in as respiratory virus season inches closer.

A spokesperson for the MLHU said high risk populations are eligible for the shots for now, and the general population will have to wait until the end of the month to update their immunization.

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long COVID

Call for the creation of a national registry for long COVID

Published October 4, 2024

Published by: Radio-Canada
Published on: October 4, 2024
By Flore Tamko Mbensi

The second Canadian Symposium on Long COVID came to a close in Edmonton on Friday, with an urgent call for the establishment of a national registry for the condition.

The event, organized by Long Covid Web, a network dedicated to research and support for people suffering from post COVID-19 condition, in collaboration with the University of Alberta, University of Calgary, and Alberta Health Services, brought together researchers, clinicians and patients to discuss the challenges associated with the condition.

The speakers’ testimonies highlighted the devastating impact of long COVID on patients’ daily lives.

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Ottawa-Gatineau

Ottawa’s wastewater surveillance program extended for another year

Published October 4, 2024

Published by: Ottawa Citizen
Published on: October 4, 2024
By Elizabeth Payne

Two months after the Ontario government pulled the plug on wastewater surveillance, Ottawa health and research institutions have teamed up to extend the program in the city for a least another year.

Calling it an innovative solution that allowed for better monitoring of COVID-19 in the community, CHEO, the CHEO Research Institute, the University of Ottawa and Ottawa Public Health announced an extension of wastewater surveillance on Friday.

In addition to monitoring COVID-19 levels in wastewater, the program monitors levels of influenza, RSV and mpox in Ottawa. The program has been extended until September 2025.

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Ottawa-Gatineau

uOttawa, CHEO and OPH extend monitoring of viruses in wastewater to 2025

Published October 4, 2024

Published by: CTV News
Published on: October 4, 2024
By Ted Raymond

Our research group is truly grateful for the overwhelming support we’ve received from the community over the past few months through emails, letters, and phone calls advocating for the continuation of our wastewater monitoring system.

We’ve gained invaluable insights into how this information is essential for community members facing health challenges, and we are thrilled to continue providing this vital service. A heartfelt thank you to OPH, CHEO, and CHEO-RI for their unwavering support.

— Dr. Robert Delatolla

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Alberta

No flu or COVID-19 vaccines for medical clinics as Alberta’s fall immunization launch nears

Published October 4, 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: October 4, 2024
By Jennifer Lee

Family doctors and nurse practitioners have been told they will not be receiving deliveries of flu or COVID-19 vaccines in time for the fall immunization program launch later this month. And it is unclear if they will get any at all.

In addition to AHS public health clinics and pharmacies, community medical clinics can administer publicly funded vaccines, including those that protect against COVID and influenza.

But shipments of vaccines — to these clinics — have stopped, jeopardizing their participation in the fall immunization campaign.

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vaccines

COVID-19 boosters start rolling out to some Canadians. Who can get them?

Published October 4, 2024

Published by: Global News
Published on: October 4, 2024
By Saba Aziz

Updated COVID-19 vaccines are starting to roll out to some high-risk Canadians, but others will have to wait a little while longer before these new shots are offered to them.

Last month, Health Canada approved Pfizer and Moderna’s latest COVID-19 vaccines targeting the most recent variants of the virus.

Both shots are approved for everyone aged six months and older.

The new mRNA vaccines from both pharmaceutical companies target the KP.2 subvariant of Omicron that was dominating COVID-19 spread earlier this year.

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British Columbia

COVID-19 prevalence high and rising across most of province as BCCDC revamps reporting dashboards

Published October 3, 2024

Published by: CTV News
Published on: October 3, 2024
By Ian Holliday

The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – in B.C. wastewater is high and rising across most regions, according to the latest data from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.

The BCCDC released its first weekly data update of the 2024-25 respiratory illness season Thursday, and took the opportunity to dramatically revise the information it presents and the way it is presented.

Gone is the previous year’s “COVID-19 Situation Report” dashboard, replaced with a new dashboard titled “Viral Respiratory Outcomes.”

While the situation report included specific numbers for newly confirmed infections, hospital admissions, critical care admissions and deaths within 30 days of a positive COVID test, the new dashboard reports the latter three numbers as a rate per million residents.

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Ontario

People in Sudbury say free COVID-19 rapid test kits are hard to come by

Published October 3, 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: October 3, 2024
By Kate Rutherford

Along with an increase in colds and the flu across northern Ontario this fall; pharmacies are seeing a bump in people searching, unsuccessfully, for rapid antigen COVID-19 tests to take at home.

In Sudbury, Ont., Lucio Fabris was one of them.

He recently went on the hunt for a test for his wife who had been exposed to COVID-19.

They were expecting a grandchild and they didn’t want to spread the virus to vulnerable family members.

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vaccines

For Canadians seeking a non-mRNA COVID vaccine, lack of Novavax shot is ‘unfair,’ advocates say

Published October 3, 2024

Published by: CTV News / The Canadian Press
Published on: October 3, 2024
By Hannah Alberga, Nicole Ireland

The federal government’s decision to not provide Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine this respiratory virus season raises health equity concerns, experts and advocates say, as some Canadians look to the U.S. to get the shot.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said it won’t provide the protein-based vaccine called Nuvaxovid because the manufacturer required a minimum order that far exceeds last year’s uptake of the vaccine.

The health agency said 125,000 Nuvaxovid doses were ordered in 2023, but only 5,529 were administered. This fall, it will only supply provinces and territories with the reformulated Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.

But some Canadians who say they are immunocompromised and have had adverse reactions to the mRNA vaccines are calling the decision unfair.

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Month: October 2024

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