Press "Enter" to skip to content

Tag: SARS-CoV-2

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.

Comments closed

Viral spread: Peter Hotez on the increase of anti-science aggression on social media

Last November, Twitter announced it will no longer enforce “the COVID-19 misleading information policy.” The platform also allowed previously banned users to rejoin the site. Since then, anti-vaccination messaging has gained renewed energy, distressing scientists and researchers who have been combatting misinformation and disinformation on social media.

Comments closed

Residents abandoned to a violent occupation during ‘Freedom Convoy’: Report

People who live and work in downtown Ottawa endured several weeks of widespread human rights abuse, amidst a climate of threats, fear, sexual harassment and intimidation marked by racism, misogyny, antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and other expressions of hate and intolerance.

While convoy organizers claimed there was diversity among the participants and supporters, and that was true to a limited extent, it is clear that the overwhelming majority of people involved in the protests were white males.

Comments closed

Anti-vaccine activism melded with US antisemitism – study

Because of rising anti-vaccine activism and some key global policy missteps, more than 70 years of global health gains are in danger of being eroded, according to a physician writing in the peer-reviewed Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal published by the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa.

Comments closed

Long COVID Has Never Been Taken Seriously. Here’s Where It Left Us

Long COVID turned my life upside down. Amidst all the loss I’ve experienced, there’s been the cognitive dissonance of watching most of the rest of the world try to return to normal, without me in it. And seemingly unaware of the reality that COVID-19 is still out there, resulting in long-term chronic illness for a significant share of people infected.

Comments closed

Antisemitism surges during pandemic

“International Holocaust Remembrance Day is important to recognize, because it commemorates arguably the worst-case scenario for a liberal democracy,” declared Daniel Panneton, director of allyship and community engagement at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies.

Comments closed

Covid increases risk of grave illness and death in pregnant women – study

Women are more likely to die in pregnancy if they catch Covid, according to researchers, who found the infection raised the risk of a swath of serious illnesses for mothers and their newborns.

Reports throughout the pandemic have highlighted how pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to the virus, with doctors urging women to take up the offer of Covid vaccination to reduce the risk to themselves and their children.

Comments closed

‘Gross negligence’: Judge gives go-ahead to COVID-deaths lawsuit against Ontario

Governments saw broad immunity against COVID civil suits, but the class-action suit for deaths in nursing homes could have an impact throughout the country.

Comments closed

Long COVID stemmed from mild cases of COVID-19 in most people

Even mild COVID-19 cases can have major and long-lasting effects on people’s health. That is one of the key findings from our recent multicountry study on long COVID-19—or long COVID—recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Comments closed

Age-Related Macular Degeneration a Risk Factor for COVID-19 Infection

Recent evidence has emerged to suggest that age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a clinical risk factor for increased risk for infection and mortality. AMD has been reported to confer higher risk of severe complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection, including respiratory failure and death (25 percent), a risk which is higher than Type 2 diabetes (21 percent) and obesity (13 percent).

Comments closed

Ten COVID Facts Health Officials Dangerously Downplay

Do not listen to powers that be who pretend that getting infected with COVID multiple times is now no big deal. They’re asking you to lower your guard for a nasty virus that can invade the brain, disregulate the immune system and damage the vascular system.

This strategy has led to predictable results — more direct deaths, more excess deaths, more disease and some 1.4 million Canadians reporting some form of long COVID over the last two years.

Comments closed

Immune systems seriously weakened by COVID

Emergency wards remain busy two years after the first COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Ontario in part because the virus depletes the body’s supply of T-cells, leaving young and old alike vulnerable to secondary infections, says a University of Waterloo immunologist.

T-cells are the front-line soldiers of the immune system, and the number of T-cells typically increases when the body is fighting off an infection, said Barb Katzenback, who studies viruses.

“Individuals who are infected with COVID have many fewer T-cells,” said Katzenback. “That’s a problem for us because T-cells are a really important part of our immune system that helps defend us against infection.”

Comments closed

Air filter hack: Sackville groups put together DIY solution

Several Sackville groups are turning to DIY solutions to keep their spaces as virus-free as possible.

They’re making Corsi–Rosenthal boxes, a homemade air purifier system, designed to filter out airborne droplets that could carry the flu or COVID-19.

Comments closed

“I don’t feel protected”: How a lack of COVID-19 protections is impacting mental health

People who are COVID-aware or at high risk discuss the mental health burden of staying safe.

Comments closed

Opinion: We don’t know what’s causing the tsunami of sick kids, but we’d better figure it out fast

Something concerning is happening to our children. Unlike previous autumns, this year there seem to be far more kids falling ill, and far too many…

Comments closed

Why China’s ‘zero COVID’ policy is finally faltering

For nearly three years now, China has had incredible success at keeping its number of COVID deaths relatively low. So far, the country has recorded only about 6,000 deaths among 1.4 billion people. By comparison, the U.S. has recorded more than a million deaths in a population of only 330 million.

China has accomplished this feat with what’s known as a “zero COVID” policy – using strict lockdowns and community-wide testing and other measures to keep case counts close to nil.

Comments closed