There have now been around thirty cases of measles in Quebec since the start of the year. While this number may not seem high, measles outbreaks indicate that vaccination coverage is inadequate. Interview with Ève Dubé, anthropologist and holder of the CIHR Applied Public Health Chair in the Anthropology of Vaccination Issues, INSPQ-ULaval.
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Topic: pandemic responseView all posts for the topic: pandemic response
Montreal university study describes COVID-19 sanitary measures as ‘generally effective’
A study aimed at countering online misinformation finds that health measures taken by governments to protect against COVID-19 helped save lives and reduce the number of people hospitalized in 2020.
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Non, les vaccins contre la COVID-19 n’ont pas fait 17 millions de morts
The COVID-19 vaccination campaign did not result in millions of deaths, as claimed by a former University of Ottawa professor during an interview on Monday’s Network X show with conspiracy activist Alex Jones.
Denis Rancourt, a former University of Ottawa professor, was invited this week to participate in Alex Jones’ Infowars. The appearance came three days after Tucker Carlson’s show referred to Rancourt’s claims that COVID-19 vaccines have killed at least 17 million people worldwide.
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How Musk Sold MAGA on HCQ — and Opened the COVID-19 Disinformation Floodgates
When the pandemic hit American soil, the country faced a tragic lack of leadership in President Donald Trump, a man who famously did not bother to read his daily briefs. He also spent a lot of time on Twitter, and not only religiously watched Fox News but took policy cues from it. In the emerging crisis — which happened to coincide with Trump’s reelection campaign gearing up — while scientific experts couldn’t get the ear of the president, social media and right-wing media very much could and did.
Trump, who had promised the pandemic would simply disappear, came to embrace a too-good-to-be-true pandemic “solution” in the form of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), which had captured the excitement of Silicon Valley — and the attention of Elon Musk on Twitter. Though the repurposing of existing drugs is not inherently a bad idea, Team Trump was not interested in engaging in the scientific process to test for safety and efficacy. And it certainly wasn’t the only time Musk or Trump recklessly took off with an idea because they wanted it to be true.
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Did the protesters mean harm? That’s at the heart of bid to toss convoy class-action
A $300-million proposed class-action lawsuit filed against convoy protesters, donors and organizers on behalf of people who live or work in Ottawa is facing another challenge, with lawyers arguing the case seeks to unfairly limit fundamental freedoms.
Continue readingDid the protesters mean harm? That’s at the heart of bid to toss convoy class-action
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Randy Hillier’s Charter case against charges from COVID-19 lockdown protests in Cornwall, Kemptville dismissed
A judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has dismissed former MPP Randy Hillier’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms challenge against Reopening Ontario Act charges laid against him in the spring of 2021.
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Conspiracy theories are popular in Canada, especially among conservatives: poll
The Earth is flat. We have been secretly contacted by intelligent beings from other planets. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did not land on the moon in 1969. They may sound like bizarre statements, but a new poll suggests a sizable number of Canadians believe in these and other conspiracy theories.
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Fact Check: Iceland has not banned COVID vaccines
A headline shared online falsely claims that Iceland has banned COVID-19 vaccines and cites sudden deaths for which there is no evidence, according to the Icelandic national health authority.
Iceland has not banned COVID vaccines and “there are no soaring sudden deaths,” Guðrún Aspelund, chief epidemiologist at the Icelandic Directorate of Health, told Reuters in a Nov. 29 email.
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The 10 Chilling Laws of Pandemics
The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, an institutional offshoot of the dysfunctional World Health Organization and its equally wonky partner the World Bank, recently declared the obvious: the world is not ready for the next pandemic.
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How lawmakers in Texas and Florida undermine Covid vaccination efforts
Katherine Wells wants to urge her Lubbock, Texas, community to get vaccinated against Covid-19. “That could really save people from severe illness,” said Wells, the city’s public health director.
But she can’t.
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She used to call herself an antivaxxer. Now, she’s a student nurse — who just gave her first vaccine
When COVID-19 put vaccine safety into the spotlight, Lydia Greene re-examined her past beliefs — and now hopes she can help others do the same.
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Debunking COVID-19 myths and misinformation
“The COVID-19 pandemic is over and we are ‘post-pandemic’”
There have been multiple declarations that the pandemic is “over” — perhaps the most well-known was President Joe Biden’s declaration in 2022. When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 to no longer be a global emergency, many misconstrued this to mean the pandemic is “over.” However, what was largely ignored was WHO then explaining COVID-19 continues to be a global threat, continues to kill and disable millions, and variants are still emerging.
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La richesse des groupes antivaccins
The pandemic has been lucrative for anti-vaccine groups. The two most influential in the United States saw their revenues more than double between 2020 and 2021. Although they are officially non-profit organizations, one of them was able to pay its director a salary of half a million dollars a year.
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‘I can’t believe we’re talking about polio in 2023’
The Covid-19 pandemic eroded trust in science. The 2024 election, public health officials fear, may make it worse.
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The anti-vaccine movement is on the rise. The White House is at a loss over what to do about it.
A Biden administration that vowed to restore Americans’ faith in public health has grown increasingly paralyzed over how to combat the resurgence in vaccine skepticism.
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This pediatrician has a stark warning about the risks of ‘anti-science’
A pediatrician, author and co-inventor of a low-cost COVID-19 vaccine warns that the anti-vaccine movement has morphed into a political force that threatens the world’s gains against deadly childhood infections like measles.
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