Government’s strategy, which included closing the border, meant death rate was 80% lower than in the US, according to the New Zealand Medical Journal.
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Topic: pandemic responseView all posts for the topic: pandemic response
Why we desperately need a royal commission on COVID‑19
COVID killed more than 53,000 Canadians. So why is the federal government still refusing to call an inquiry into lessons learned?
Comments closedTopic: pro-virus policiesView all posts for the topic: pro-virus policies
Manitoba’s two major political parties say they would not repeat COVID-19 lockdowns
The leaders of Manitoba’s two largest political parties said Wednesday they would not impose the kind of restrictions on people and businesses seen during the…
Comments closedTopic: QuebecView all posts for the topic: Quebec
Action collective pour la COVID-19: le gouvernement du Québec accusé de « gestion négligente »
The Government of Quebec’s inability to roll out its pandemic response plan, when the novel coronavirus began circulating around the world in early 2020, has resulted in preventable deaths in long-term care facilities, supported a Montreal lawyer on Monday.
Comments closedTopic: Nova ScotiaView all posts for the topic: Nova Scotia
Restrictions likely helped curb spread of COVID-19 in N.S., Dalhousie researchers find
A new report from six Dalhousie University researchers has found government restrictions that limited movement during the first two years of the pandemic likely helped curb the spread of COVID-19.
It also found infection, hospitalizations and deaths increased when restrictions eased and the highly infectious Omicron variant arrived.
Comments closedTopic: pandemic responseView all posts for the topic: pandemic response
Where Have All The Masks Gone? And Why Is The CDC Missing In Action?
Comments closedThe Biden administration has made a political choice—not a scientific or public health one—to downgrade the national response to COVID-19. Included in this is the reticence or outright avoidance of mentioning masking even as cases rise in the US. The CDC director, in talking about this late increase in COVID cases, bends over backward to mention hand-washing, but not N95s. Without question, N95s offer individuals protection against infection and leaving out that fact is a disservice and an abdication of duty.
Topic: OntarioView all posts for the topic: Ontario
Ontario government oversight of long-term care homes ‘largely collapsed’ during pandemic, ombudsman finds
Comments closedWhat we uncovered was an oversight system that was strained before the pandemic, and proved to be wholly incapable and unprepared to handle the additional stresses posed by COVID-19.
Topic: New BrunswickView all posts for the topic: New Brunswick
N.B. nursing homes lacked infection-control measures during COVID: auditor general
New Brunswick nursing homes that reported high COVID-19 infection rates lacked infection prevention and control practices, and were not properly inspected, says a report by the auditor general.
Comments closedTopic: New BrunswickView all posts for the topic: New Brunswick
N.B.’s top doctor at bottom of COVID-19 decision-making hierarchy, auditor general finds
The Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health was at the bottom of New Brunswick’s COVID-19 pandemic decision-making hierarchy, a new report by the auditor general shows, while third from the top, after cabinet and the cabinet committee on COVID-19, was a group that several MLAs say they knew nothing about.
Comments closedTopic: United StatesView all posts for the topic: United States
Welcome to the “You Do You” Pandemic
“While too many people who should know better are downplaying the ongoing public health risk from Covid, others are trying to signal the peril of our current moment. The New York Times recently reported on new estimates from researchers that Covid might lead to at least 45,000 deaths between September and April—and that’s the best-case scenario.”
Comments closedTopic: pandemic responseView all posts for the topic: pandemic response
COVID response confounds SARS expert
Comments closedWe don’t understand all the implications of long COVID. Basically, this virus gets into your body and it doesn’t leave. […] And it invades the lining of the blood vessels and every organ of your body.
Topic: universal maskingView all posts for the topic: universal masking
Everyone Has The Right to Mask
Dozens of studies have shown that not only do N95 masks work on an individual level, but they lower transmission when people actually follow guidelines. Even the strongest critics of mask policies are forced to admit that masks themselves are effective.
Comments closedTopic: pandemic responseView all posts for the topic: pandemic response
Public health reset urgently required
“A hard public health reset is urgently required in Canada to protect the vulnerable and prevent the healthcare system from being overwhelmed by long COVID patients. Policymakers should immediately implement a pandemic action plan to save lives in the coming weeks and months.”
Comments closedTopic: European UnionView all posts for the topic: European Union
EU Parliament adopts report on lessons to be learned from COVID‑19
EU lawmakers approved a report on lessons to take from COVID-19 on Wednesday (12 July). The text analysed the impact of the pandemic, evaluated EU and national health systems’ responses and set a roadmap for future health emergencies.
The European Parliament adopted the report “COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learned and recommendations for the future” by 385 votes in favour, 193 against and 63 abstentions.
Comments closedTopic: ChinaView all posts for the topic: China
What can the world learn from China’s “zero-Covid” lockdown?
For the first time in three years, millions traveled within China earlier this month to reunite with loved ones for the country’s most important holiday, the Lunar New Year. Unfortunately, these celebrations coincided with — and are sure to exacerbate — a Covid-19 outbreak currently spreading throughout the country.
Comments closedTopic: pandemic responseView all posts for the topic: pandemic response
We Now Face an Army of COVID Viruses
As leaders have shifted to the position that masks and tests are matter of personal choice rather than collective self-preservation, they have implicitly silenced a vital message to the citizenry about how pandemics actually come to an end. It is this: less transmission means fewer mutations; fewer mutations means less variation, the fuel of evolution. Reducing infections, then, puts the brakes on viral evolution.
The combined actions of “letting the virus rip” in a population with varying degrees of protective and waning immunity created by vaccines or previous infections “has led to unprecedented increase in viral diversification in 2022,” as one group of researchers explained in a recent paper published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
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