Kingston Secondary School will have its automated heating, ventilation and air conditioning system inspected next week following the publication of a student-written article that found the concentration of carbon dioxide in the school exceeded safe levels.
Principal Darren Seymour sent a letter to students, staff and parents last week in response to the article that appeared in “The Bears Bulletin.”
Comments closedI’m coughing, looking at my plans for the day, cancelling each one.
As an elected official, this is not a good look. We wish to be out and about with people. We certainly don’t want to be coughing all over our constituents in this time of COVID.
But elected officials get sick too.
Like most parents in the community I represent, when I start to feel sick I think back to all the places my family and I have been, and also what plans we have coming up.
Comments closedThe 2024 school year is beginning amid one of the biggest COVID-19 waves of the pandemic.
One U.S doctor states, “This is a very significant surge. The levels are very high. They’re the highest we’ve ever seen during a summer wave.” It might be hard to think about, but we’re still in a pandemic and experts are warning against COVID-19 complacency in schools.
Dying with COVID-19 in the acute phase may have decreased, but complications from an infection exist — more than 2 million Canadians have “long COVID” (LC). In this context, societies that see themselves as equitable, inclusive and just need to consider if they’re doing the best job protecting their more vulnerable members, like children and many precarious workers. Research shows governments are not doing the best protecting the rights of children in a crisis, and reports from workers indicate some feel abandoned and left to deal with scary health situations, largely on their own. For school staff, students, their families and communities, this all seems quite cruel. It does not need to be this way.
Comments closedFlannery Dean is a writer and editor based in Hamilton.
Nearly five years into life with COVID-19, I find myself selfishly wondering how many more times I – by which I mean, all of us – need to get it before we acknowledge that allowing multiple reinfections poses a very large problem? I thought my second bout of it (or was it my third?) in February, 2023, was tough – that one set me back a few months. But this nasty little bug, which is again surging here, there and everywhere, has bitten me once again, and has been a beast to overcome.
My latest infection – which began in June and is mild by medical standards – surprised me. I’m an active, healthy woman in her 40s. In addition to having been infected previously, I’ve gratefully received every single vaccine offered, including the booster shot only about 18 per cent of Canadians got last fall. I’m not sure I blame those who didn’t rush out in droves to get it. There was little public push to do so, and a general sense that infection after vaccination was okay so long as you’re “healthy.” Continued protection against a virus that makes swift and powerful adaptations is a hard sell when you don’t invest in the power of prevention, too.
Even so, after the fever passed, I spent a month largely confined to my bed, unable to do more than shuffle to my doctor’s office and back. I felt weak and nauseated in a way that made pregnancy queasiness seem quaint. My muscles felt tired or tingling or cold, or all three at once. I was regularly overcome by a sensation that I can only describe as a full-body panic attack, marked by a racing heart and rapid breathing. For weeks, I felt like my internal circuitry was on the fritz. Even my vision was blurred.
It remains so.
Comments closedThe Ottawa Science Policy Network (OSPN) is concerned with the decision of the Ontario Government to cancel the Wastewater Surveillance Initiative (WSI) in Ontario. This cut of $15 million per year employs researchers, and offers significant returns for public health and safety.
The Wastewater Surveillance Initiative was adopted in January 2021 which led to a team of groundbreaking and internationally recognized work led by scientists at Ontario universities and research institutes. Ontario is a world leader in this field of wastewater research; tracking the impact of COVID-19 on communities through wastewater has helped shape public policy decisions and informed Ontarians of risks within the population. This funding not only provided the necessary means to track COVID-19 levels within the population but was further expanded to screen for Influenza, RSV, and M-Pox. Elizabeth Payne, a correspondent for Ottawa Citizen notes that wastewater surveillance at the start of seasonal RSV prevented 295 pediatric hospitalizations and 950 medically attended hospital visits, saving Ontario $3.5 million.
As of July 31st 2024 the Ontario government will no longer be investing in the Wastewater Surveillance Initiative, mentioning a key reason being that the Federal government will be expanding their program through the Public Health Agency of Canada. However, this leaves research groups and graduate students who rely on Ontario funding in a precarious position as the future of their funding remains uncertain.
Comments closedA panel of Alberta appeals court judges has dismissed an appeal by parents of five immunocompromised Alberta kids.
Lawyers for the families, known only by initials, had argued the children’s Charter rights were violated in 2022 when the province stopped masking requirements and barred school boards from enforcing their own masking mandates.
Comments closedQuebec appears to be winning its battle against the rising tide of measles after 45 cases were confirmed province-wide this year.
“We’ve had no locally transmitted measles cases since March 25, so that’s good news,” said Dr. Paul Le Guerrier, responsible for immunization for Montreal Public Health.
There are 17 patients with measles in Quebec currently, and the most recent case is somebody who was infected while abroad, he said.
Comments closedThe proportion of children infected with COVID-19 while riding a bus to a school in Germany was about four times higher than in peers who didn’t ride the bus, illustrating efficient transmission during multiple short rides on public transport, finds a study published this week in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
A team led by researchers from the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin and public health officials used surveillance data, lab analyses, case-patient and household interviews, a cohort study of all students in grades 1 to 4, and a cohort study of bus riders to investigate a 2021 COVID-19 outbreak that involved an infected bus driver and his passengers. The rides lasted 9 to 18 minutes, and multiple schools in a single district were involved.
Comments closedAn open letter calling for UW to implement more robust COVID-19 measures has picked up traction, receiving an endorsement from the World Health Network as well as a response from the university.
The letter was addressed to UW senior administration by the COVID Action, Response, and Equity (CARE) Coalition, a group made up of students, faculty, staff and alumni. It has garnered about 150 signatures so far, including UW Climate Justice Ecosystem, the UW QTPOC KW, and the School of Public Health Sciences Graduate Students’ Association.
Comments closedA group of students at the University of Waterloo (UW) have penned an open letter to administration demanding the institution meet certain standards of care due to its ‘silence and inaction about the ongoing health crisis.’
Their group, called the Covid Action, Response and Equity (CARE) Coalition UW, is made up of about 10 students attending the university.
Comments closedAir sampling in Dane County schools is helping health officials track flu and COVID-19, similar to how wastewater is increasingly monitored around the country for the coronavirus to gauge activity as fewer people get tested for COVID-19.
Since the beginning of the school year, flu and COVID-19 data from 16 air monitors at 15 schools in or near the county has been reported on Public Health Madison and Dane County’s respiratory illness dashboard. The devices, roughly the size of microwave ovens, are placed in communal spaces such as cafeterias. They suck air, including airborne viruses, into spongy material that is analyzed for viral genetic material.
Comments closedAir sampling was as effective in monitoring COVID-19 and influenza A (IAV) activity as three other methods in a Wisconsin school district from September 2022 to January 2023, according to a study published today in JAMA Network Open.
Comments closedUse of air purifiers at two daycare centres in Helsinki led to a reduction in illnesses and absences among children and staff, according to preliminary findings of a new study led by E3 Pandemic Response.
Air purifiers of various sizes and types were placed in two of the city’s daycare centres during cold and flu seasons.
The initial results from the first year of research are promising, according to researcher Enni Sanmark, from HUS Helsinki University Hospital.
“Children were clearly less sick in daycare centres where air purification devices were used — down by around 30 percent,” Sanmark explained.
Comments closedOn September 27, BC provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, and health minister, Adrian Dix, announced mandatory masking would be re-established in healthcare environments as COVID-19 cases are rising at a rapid rate. Starting October 3, masks became mandatory once again in healthcare settings.
Comments closedMore than two weeks into the school year, New Brunswick has released the school air quality test results from 2022-23.
Twenty-nine of the 35 public schools tested last winter had peak carbon dioxide levels above the Department of Education’s threshold of 1,500 parts per million (ppm), shown in results posted online and included at the end of this story.
A group of parents with kids in Ontario classrooms is calling on the province to take further action to improve air ventilation, filtration, and purification in its schools.
Comments closed