Still COVIDing Canada

BC health advocates demand return of mandatory masks in healthcare

Published May 14, 2024

Published by: The Peak
Published on: May 14, 2024
By Yashita Dhillon

In response to April’s removal of mandatory mask mandates in healthcare settings, BC’s health advocacy group DoNoHarm BC, joined by Protect Our Province BC and Masks4EastVan, are leading a campaign to urge the provincial government to reinstate these protections. The groups say that BC health authorities have ignored warnings about ongoing COVID-19 risks and other respiratory threats like measles and tuberculosis.

The decision to remove mask mandates in healthcare settings was announced by the Ministry of Health, “the peak of the respiratory illness season has passed.” Though COVID-19 levels typically lessen in the spring, COVID-19 has not been established as a seasonal illness.

The Peak reached out to Dr. Karina Zeidler who organizes with DoNoHarm BC and is the co-founder of Protect Our Province BC for more information. Zeidler referenced a research article from BC Medical Journal which noted that “for some of these most vulnerable patients, the air in the hospital can be deadlier than the diagnosis that brought them in.” This is due to hospital acquired infections, which can then lead to COVID-19 deaths.

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Ontario

Number of Ontario measles cases nears 10-year high as Peel Region confirms new case

Published May 14, 2024

Published by: CTV News
Published on: May 14, 2024
By Bryann Aguilar

Health officials in Peel Region have confirmed a Mississauga resident has contracted measles, as the total number of cases in the province approaches a 10-year high.

In a news release on Tuesday, Peel Public Health confirmed its second case of measles this year. Officials did not disclose how the man got infected but provided locations where the public may have been exposed.

Those who were at Silver Creek Convenience and Health Care Medical Clinic on May 10 between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., as well as Trillium Health Partners Mississauga Site Emergency Room at 9:15 a.m. on May 10 and 6:15 p.m. on May 11, are being advised to contact Peel Public Health at 905-799-7700 immediately.

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British Columbia

BC Supreme Court rules in favour of PHO’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for health-care workers

Published May 14, 2024

Published by: CityNews
Published on: May 14, 2024
By Charlie Carey, Dean Recksiedler

Health-care workers who pushed back against being forced to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or face losing their jobs have lost in the BC Supreme Court.

In a ruling released Monday, presiding judge Justice Simon R. Coval says the provincial health officer was right in mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for health-care workers.

The three cases in question were brought to court by a nurse practitioner and two doctors, with all three saying they didn’t want to get the shot.

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climate crisis

Risk of wildfire smoke in Ottawa low — for now: Environment Canada

Published May 13, 2024

Published by: Ottawa Citizen
Published on: May 13, 2024
By Blair Crawford

Smoke from wildfires in Western Canada will soon be drifting high overhead, but it poses no health risk in Eastern Ontario, says Environment Canada.

“Taking a look at our guidance and the weather patterns this week and the way things are panning out, it doesn’t look like Eastern Ontario needs to be concerned about its air quality at this time,” Trudy Kidd, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, said Monday.

“At best, people might see some haze in the skies in the coming days as the forest fire smoke makes its way through and disperses aloft, but from what we can tell at this time, the particulate matter — and that’s what’s of concern when it comes to forest fires — we’re expecting it to stay aloft,” she said.

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Ontario

Ontario will need tens of thousands of nurses and PSWs by 2032: document

Published May 13, 2024

Published by: Global News / The Canadian Press
Published on: May 13, 2024
By Allison Jones

Ontario will need 33,200 more nurses and 50,853 more personal support workers by 2032, the government projects — figures it tried to keep secret but were obtained by The Canadian Press.

The government recently won a fight in front of the Information and Privacy Commissioner to keep those figures under wraps after denying access to them to Global News following a freedom-of-information request from the outlet.

But the same FOI office made the information available to The Canadian Press through a separate request, a situation critics say exposes the frailties and arbitrariness of the access-to-information system.

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heart failure

Data: Heart-failure patients have 82% better odds of living longer if vaccinated against COVID

Published May 13, 2024

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: May 13, 2024
By Mary Van Beusekom

The first study of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness in a large population of adult heart-failure patients suggests that vaccinated participants are 82% more likely to live longer than their unvaccinated peers, according to an analysis presented over the weekend at the Heart Failure 2024 scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in Lisbon, Portugal.

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climate crisis

Wildfire smoke could move into Ottawa, eastern Ontario tonight

Published May 13, 2024

Published by: CTV News
Published on: May 13, 2024
By William Eltherington

Wildfires in western Canada will likely bring smoke into Ottawa and eastern Ontario starting on Monday and into Tuesday morning.

CTV’s Your Morning chief meteorologist Kelsey McEwen says smoke could travel as far as Quebec City by Tuesday morning with air quality advisories being issued in five provinces.

“You can see the Jetstream pulling that smoke down south of the border through the Dakotas and back up through the Great Lakes,” McEwen said.

“By tomorrow, this begins to slide toward the Ottawa-Gatineau area, tomorrow morning and out toward Quebec City.”

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avian flu

CDC launching wastewater dashboard to track bird flu virus spread

Published May 13, 2024

Published by: STAT
Published on: May 13, 2024
By Megan Molteni, Helen Branswell

Reluctance among dairy farmers to report H5N1 bird flu outbreaks within their herds or allow testing of their workers has made it difficult to keep up with the virus’s rapid spread, prompting federal public health officials to look to wastewater to help fill in the gaps.

On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to unveil a public dashboard tracking influenza A viruses in sewage that the agency has been collecting from 600 wastewater treatment sites around the country since last fall.

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climate crisis

Smoky skies back in Alberta as wildfires spread

Published May 12, 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: May 12, 2024

Just as the last vestiges of winter gave way to a few days of warm weather, smoke has clouded Alberta’s skies, bringing with it a foreboding memory of summers past, as wildfires continue to burn in the northern parts of the province.

Environment and Climate Change Canada has issued 321 air quality alerts, spanning the province from High Level to Milk River. Alberta Wildfire is reporting 50 active wildfires as of 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, with two currently classified as out-of-control.

One, near Fort McMurray, tripled in size overnight to extend its reach to about 5,500 hectares. The other, burning in Grande Prairie County in northwestern Alberta, had grown to about 1,400 hectares as of 1 p.m. Sunday.

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climate crisis

Edmonton to see smoky skies, poor air quality into Monday night

Published May 12, 2024

Published by: CTV News
Published on: May 12, 2024
By Brittany Ekelund

Edmontonians saw a slight improvement in the smoky skies Sunday.

The air quality index in the city had dropped from a 10 – very high risk – to a high-risk 9 by Sunday afternoon.

According to Environment Canada, wildfire smoke is harmful even at low concentrations, and residents in affected areas were told to reduce or reschedule strenuous outdoor activities and watch for symptoms such as coughing and throat irritation.

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human rights

Feds ‘committed to doing more,’ but minister offers no timeline for Canadian Disability Benefit boost

Published May 12, 2024

Published by: CTV News
Published on: May 12, 2024
By Spencer Van Dyk

Reaction from the disability community has been unanimous that this initial investment creates little impact for removing people with disabilities from poverty. It simply is not enough.

— National Disability Network

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long COVID

International DJ forced to give up his dream after long Covid leaves him bedridden for a year

Published May 12, 2024

Published by: Independent
Published on: May 12, 2024
By Molly Powell

A DJ who traveled the world before he suddenly became bedridden for a year with long Covid, causing memory loss and mobility issues, has since “lost his career” and now predominantly spends his days lying down.

Rowan Clarke, 32, a part-time video editor and sound designer from Colchester, contracted Covid-19 in 2021 and progressively got “sicker and sicker” to the point where he was in constant pain, could not remember his own phone number and could hardly walk.

On top of this, Rowan had constant headaches, meaning he could barely work and look at his emails, and ended up having to close his recording studio.

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convoy occupation

Convoy leader Pat King heads to trial

Published May 12, 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: May 12, 2024
By David Fraser

One of the most polarizing figures to gain notoriety during what became known as the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa more than two years ago will stand trial Monday, signalling the tail end of criminal proceedings that have dogged hundreds of individuals who participated in the historic protest.

Pat King, from Red Deer, Alta., is facing charges of mischief, intimidation, obstructing police, disobeying a court order and other offences for his role in the protest that gridlocked downtown for nearly a month in early 2022.

Arrested and jailed for five months before his release that summer, King is unlikely to serve more time behind bars if he is found guilty, given laws around credit from time served.

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Alberta

UCP board urges Premier Danielle Smith to make COVID vaccine policy changes for children

Published May 11, 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: May 11, 2024
By Jason Markusoff, Joel Dryden

The United Conservative Party’s board is urging Premier Danielle Smith to reform COVID vaccine policy because the directors are worried about the safety of mRNA vaccines for kids, the party president says.

“We have serious concerns about them for children,” Rob Smith, the UCP president, told CBC News in an interview Friday.

“I would say that the board of directors’ position is that if parents are going to get their children vaccinated, they need to be very, very sure that they know what they’re doing.”

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Ontario

Family doctor group calls for Ontario health minister’s resignation over ‘slap in the face’ comments

Published May 10, 2024

Published by: Ottawa Citizen
Published on: May 10, 2024
By Elizabeth Payne

The Union of Family Physicians of Ontario (OUFP) is calling for the resignation of Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones after the Ministry of Health suggested recruitment and retention of doctors in Ontario is “not a major concern.”

The group said the comments from the ministry are “insensitive and dangerous” during a period in which family medicine is in crisis.

The ministry made the argument as part of arbitration with the Ontario Medical Association over physician compensation.

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‘FLiRT’ COVID-19 subvariant dominant in Canada. What to know about the strain

Electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles. Virus particles are shown emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. Image captured and colourized at NIAID’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana. Photo by: NIAID. Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 DEED Attribution 2.0 Generic license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

variants

‘FLiRT’ COVID-19 subvariant dominant in Canada. What to know about the strain

Published May 10, 2024

Published by: Global News
Published on: May 10, 2024
By Katie Dangerfield

Canada’s lull in COVID-19 cases faces a potential disruption with the emergence of a new family of subvariants, playfully dubbed the ‘FLiRT’ variants.

These genetic cousins, originating from JN.1, the Omicron subvariant that fuelled the winter surge, are now spreading nationwide, with one variant, KP.2, quickly gaining dominance in Canada.

KP.2 is the dominant subvariant of the JN.1 strain, explained Gerald Evans, an infectious disease specialist at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. As of April 28, national data shows that KP.2 accounted for 26.6 per cent of all COVID-19 cases in Canada, surpassing other JN.1 subvariants.

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Ottawa-Gatineau

$1 million investment for cleaner, healthier air, energy savings at CHEO

Published May 9, 2024

Published by: CTV News
Published on: May 9, 2024
By Toula Mazloum

The federal government says the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario’s (CHEO) will have major updates, resulting in healthier and cleaner air, and energy savings.

An investment of up to $1 million from the Low Carbon Economy Fund (LCEF) will go to the hospital to support its Deep Energy Retrofit Program, the government announced on Thursday.

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vaccines

Researchers estimate vaccines have saved 154 million lives over past half-century

Published May 9, 2024

Published by: Medical Xpress
Published on: May 9, 2024
By Bob Yirka

An international team of health and medical researchers including workers at the WHO, working with economists and modeling specialists, has found that the use of vaccines to prevent or treat disease has saved the lives of approximately 154 million people over the past half-century.

In their study, published in The Lancet, the group used mathematical and statistical modeling to develop estimates for lives saved due to vaccines and then added them together to find the total.

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