The first report from a Royal Commission of Inquiry to review New Zealand’s response to the COVID pandemic was due to be released this month.
But the coalition government plans to withhold it, potentially until a second phase of the inquiry (with a new set of questions and commissioners) can be completed in 2026.
Comments closedA British Columbia (BC) teen from the Fraser Health region who was hospitalized with an earlier announced presumptive positive H5 avian flu infection is in critical condition, the province’s top health official said today.
In a media briefing streamed live on Canada’s Global News, Bonnie Henry, MD, BC’s health officer, shared the latest investigation findings, noting that the patient’s symptoms began on November 2, and he or she was seen that day at a hospital emergency room. She said initial symptoms included conjunctivitis, fever, and cough.
Comments closedB.C.’s provincial health officer says the teenager who has tested positive for bird flu is in critical condition in B.C. Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Bonnie Henry says the teenager, who has the first presumptive human case of bird flu contracted in Canada, was admitted to hospital late Friday. B.C. tests last week confirmed the teenager has the virus, but are waiting confirmation from a national laboratory in Winnipeg.
Comments closedComments closedDuring his last time in office, Trump botched the pandemic response, he spread misinformation everywhere, he contributed to restricting access to reproductive health care, he tried to repeal [the Affordable Care Act] and he set the world back on climate action. For me, it’s extremely worrying to have someone in charge with such a poor track record on health and science.
British Columbia health officials are investigating what’s believed to be Canada’s first human case of avian influenza after a teenager tested presumptively positive for the disease, the Ministry of Health announced Saturday.
Comments closedB.C. health officials say they have detected Canada’s first-ever case of H5 avian influenza in a human.
In a news release Saturday afternoon, the office of the provincial health officer said a positive test for the H5 influenza virus was performed at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control’s public health laboratory.
Comments closedJust over 52,000 New Brunswickers have received the latest COVID-19 vaccine, and more than 91,000 have received this year’s flu shot since they became available on Oct. 3, according to the government.
Comments closedBetween now and Inauguration Day, President-elect Donald Trump and his allies will have the Herculean task of appointing 4,000 people to staff his administration. Trump campaign surrogate and “Make America Healthy Again” flagbearer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seems positioned to exert broad influence on who will run the nation’s health-related agencies. He’s already begun soliciting nominees — albeit in an unconventional way.
Comments closedAs bird flu infections continue to rise among livestock and humans in the United States, surveillance is ramping up in Canada.
Wastewater testing for the H5N1 bird flu virus is set to begin in the coming weeks in Ontario communities considered at high risk, said Rob Delatolla, whose University of Ottawa lab will lead the wastewater surveillance as part of a research program based at the University of Guelph. That will likely mean testing wastewater in communities in agricultural regions of the province. It is unclear whether there will also be testing in larger cities.
Comments closedAustralian life expectancy has gone backwards for the second year straight after a surge in COVID-19 deaths in 2022.
An Australian girl born today is expected to live to 85.1 years, and a boy to 81.1 years.
Australians still have the fourth-highest life expectancy in the world after Japanese, Swiss and Koreans.
Comments closedAn eagerly anticipated serology study in farm workers exposed to H5N1-infected dairy cattle shows that 7% had antibodies suggesting prior infection, findings that today triggered enhanced testing, prophylactic (preventive) treatment, and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Comments closedA Kingston, Ont., doctor celebrated for organizing drive-thru vaccination clinics that helped thousands get shots at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic is now being ordered to pay back more than $600,000 in fees for those same services.
Dr. Elaine Ma said she organized 45 mass vaccination clinics that administered roughly 35,000 doses between April 2021 and the following February.
Her work was recognized by the Ontario College of Family Physicians, which granted her its Award of Excellence in 2021, in part pointing to Ma’s role in boosting local vaccination rates.
Comments closedDonald Trump has suggested vaccines could be banned if he becomes president, in the clearest sign yet of a radical shake-up in public health policy should he put his ally Robert F Kennedy Jr in charge of it.
Trump on Sunday told NBC that Kennedy, the anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist and former independent candidate who dropped out and endorsed Trump, would have a “big role in the administration” if wins Tuesday’s presidential election. Trump said he would talk to Kennedy about vaccinations.
Comments closedVaccine production is nearly three years behind schedule at a federally owned plant in Montreal and the future of a deal between Ottawa and an American company to make COVID-19 vaccines here is now under review.
Comments closedA regional public health department in Idaho is no longer providing COVID-19 vaccines to residents in six counties after a narrow decision by its board.
Southwest District Health appears to be the first in the nation to be restricted from giving COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccinations are an essential function of a public health department.
Comments closedWhile on the front line at the height of the COVID-19 health crisis, many healthcare workers are struggling to access care after contracting long COVID. Only 12% of healthcare workers who suffer from it have received rehabilitation care, according to a research report by the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ).
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