Nova Scotia residents can now book appointments for the COVID-19 and influenza vaccines.
The Nova Scotia government says the free vaccines are recommended for everyone aged six months and older.
Nova Scotians can book an appointment with their family doctor, nurse practitioner or family practice nurse, or at their local pharmacy, public health office or mobile unit.
Comments closedQuebecers can now book their appointments as the province’s fall vaccination campaign is underway but unlike previous years the COVID-19 shot is no longer free for all.
Unless an individual is part of a high-risk group, the Association québécoise des pharmaciens propriétaires (AQPP) had said that the cost for a vaccine dose will range between $150 and $180.
The COVID-19 vaccine remains free of charge to:
Moderna’s Laval plant has delivered its first doses of messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccines. The federal government hopes that the plant, which was built at a cost of $180 million with a $25 million investment from Quebec, will enable Canada to achieve pharmaceutical self-sufficiency.
“We will never find ourselves in this situation again,” said Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Mélanie Joly at a press conference on Friday, recalling that Canada had to rely on the United States, the European Union, and India for its vaccine supply during the pandemic.
“We are building a strong industrial capacity, a sovereign industrial capacity, which will ensure that we are not dependent on other countries for our vaccine production.”
Comments closedThe Ontario government has released its schedule for fall immunization programs as it encourages residents to get flu and COVID-19 vaccinations.
In a media release on Thursday, the province said free flu and COVID-19 shots will be available to Ontarians as of Oct. 27 at participating pharmacies, some public health units and doctor’s offices.
Health Minister Sylvia Jones said in the release that Ontario is working with health-care partners to ensure immunizations are available and accessible to all.
Comments closedThe bird flu virus that has beset dairy farms since early last year may be spreading through the air in so-called milking parlors and through contaminated wastewater, as well as from milking equipment, scientists have found.
The Department of Agriculture has said that the virus spreads primarily from milking equipment or is carried by dairy workers and vehicles traveling between farms.
But in the new study, scientists found live virus in the air of milking facilities, suggesting that cows and farmworkers might have become infected by inhaling the pathogen. The virus may also spread by water used to clean cattle barns or contaminated with discarded milk.
Comments closedHidden in the lungs of some breast cancer survivors are tumour cells that can remain dormant for decades — until they one day trigger a relapse. Now, experiments in mice show that these rogue cells can be roused from their slumber by common respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19 or the flu.
The findings, published in Nature on 30 July1, seem to extend to humans too: data from thousands of people show that infection with the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is linked with a nearly twofold increase in cancer-related death, possibly helping to explain why cancer death rates increased early during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Comments closedThe authors are the presidents of American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
Let us introduce ourselves. We are the doctors you trust with your health and the health of your family across every stage of life, from the first checkups in infancy and childhood, to health care during pregnancy and adulthood, through management of chronic illness and aging. We are family physicians, pediatricians, internal medicine physicians, OB-GYNs, and infectious disease experts. Our commitment is not to politics, but to the absolute well-being of our patients and populations, and to providing them with best evidence-based health care.
We have an urgent, united message: Immunizations work, they are very effective and safe, and they save lives. Vaccines are among the most rigorously studied and effective tools in public health. Through widespread immunization, we have eradicated debilitating and fatal diseases that once caused serious illness, hospitalization, and death for millions of people.
But today, that legacy is at serious risk.
Comments closed✉️ Send letters to municipal councillors in Ottawa to voice your support for wastewater monitoring. Use our online tool to send emails.
Why take action? The funding for Ottawa’s wastewater monitoring program is currently set to expire in September 2025. Wastewater monitoring is an essential public health tool that provides insights into the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses in Ottawa. We need an early warning system to inform everyone about the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 subvariants, influenza, avian flu, RSV, mpox, and other viruses.
Comments closedA panel of scientific experts that advises the Food and Drug Administration on vaccine policy — and that has been the target of criticism from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — learned on Wednesday that its upcoming meeting to discuss next year’s flu vaccines had been canceled.
The F.D.A. sent an email to members of the panel, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, on Monday afternoon informing them of the cancellation, according to a senior official familiar with the decision. There was no reason given. The panel was to meet on March 13.
Comments closedThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is stopping a successful flu vaccination campaign that juxtaposed images of wild animals, such as a lion, with cute counterparts, like a kitten, as an analogy for how immunization can help tame the flu.
The news was shared with staff during a meeting on Wednesday, according to two CDC staffers who spoke with NPR on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, and a recording reviewed by NPR.
Comments closedSeasonal flu vaccines need to be updated each year because the virus changes so frequently. But the U.S. hasn’t contributed its information on what’s spreading there since January, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said.
For seasonal influenza, which forced schools to shut down in some American states earlier this month, the data isn’t being shared, Dr. Wenqing Zhang, head of the WHO’s global influenza program, told journalists in a webinar on Wednesday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) normally participate in global discussions hosted by WHO on influenza vaccinations twice a year.
Comments closedSonya Stokes, an emergency room physician in the San Francisco Bay Area, braces herself for a daily deluge of patients sick with coughs, soreness, fevers,…
Comments closedIn early February 2020, China locked down more than 50 million people, hoping to hinder the spread of a new coronavirus. No one knew at the time exactly how it was spreading, but Lidia Morawska, an expert on air quality at Queensland University of Technology in Australia, did not like the clues she managed to find.
It looked to her as if the coronavirus was spreading through the air, ferried by wafting droplets exhaled by the infected. If that were true, then standard measures such as disinfecting surfaces and staying a few feet away from people with symptoms would not be enough to avoid infection.
Dr. Morawska and her colleague, Junji Cao at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, drafted a dire warning. Ignoring the airborne spread of the virus, they wrote, would lead to many more infections. But when the scientists sent their commentary to medical journals, they were rejected over and over again.
Comments closedVANCOUVER – New data shared by British Columbia’s Centre for Disease Control shows the province has one of the worst flu rates in Canada, as a holiday-season spike in respiratory illnesses continues.
But the data also shows the province has one of the lowest COVID-19 test positivity rates in the country, at about half the national rate.
Dr. Jennifer Vines, interim medical director for public health response at the B.C. CDC, says respiratory illness has been “steadily climbing” over the past several weeks, with RSV and influenza “driving the increase right now.”
Comments closedComments closed“(COVID) isn’t just respiratory. We know that it affects other organs – not just the lungs, but the heart, the brain and other (organs). So there needs to be a much greater focus on prevention, and what does that look like based on what’s been learned about the circumstances and risk factors leading up to those deaths?”
“Related to that is there needs to be a greater effort at awareness and outreach to the general population on COVID – that this is not just the flu. And we know that science continues to progress here. It’s now well understood that the more (times) people get COVID, the greater their chance of long COVID.”
VICTORIA – Medical masks are again required in British Columbia health-care facilities as provincial authorities say cases of respiratory illness are rising.
A statement from B.C.’s Health Ministry says workers, volunteers and visitors in facilities operated by provincial health authorities must wear masks in areas where patients are receiving care in order to prevent the spread of the flu, RSV and COVID-19.
The requirement spans hospitals, long-term care and assisted living facilities, outpatient clinics and ambulatory care settings, and it’s expected to remain in effect until the risk of illness decreases, likely in the spring.
Comments closedMasks must again be worn in health-care facilities across B.C., according to the province’s Health Ministry.
In an email to CBC News, the Ministry of Health said the requirement came into effect on Jan. 6, and everyone in health-care facilities, including staff, patients, visitors and volunteers, must wear medical masks “in areas where patients are actively seeking care.”
The move is in response to what the ministry says is a rise in influenza and RSV infections in B.C. COVID-19, it said, is “stable but showing early signs of an increase.”
Comments closedA new study published in BMC Cardiovascular Disorders shows that pediatric and young adult COVID-19 patients are more at risk for cardiac complications than flu or RSV patients of the same age.
The study was based on hospitalized US patients from 2020 through 2021 tracked through the National Inpatient Sample. In total 212,655 respiratory virus admissions were recorded, including 85,055 from COVID-19, 103,185 from RSV, and 24,415 from influenza.
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