Disinformation / misinformation
The pandemic is not over.
Topic: Newfoundland and LabradorView all posts for the topic: Newfoundland and Labrador
Category: News
Topic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines
Judge Strikes Down Kennedy’s Vaccine Policies
Ruling on a lawsuit brought by several prominent medical organizations, a district court said the federal government had not based its decisions on science in limiting Covid shots and revising the childhood immunization schedule.
In a severe blow to the Trump administration’s health agenda, a federal judge in Massachusetts on Monday blocked the government from implementing a series of decisions on vaccines made over the last year by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The ruling also reversed, at least for the time being, all decisions made by the panelists that Mr. Kennedy appointed to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, which makes recommendations on which vaccines Americans should take. The court decision will prevent the committee from meeting later this week, as it was scheduled to do.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Video | Doctors, patients raise awareness on Long COVID Awareness Day
Sunday marks International Long Covid Awareness Day, held annually on March 15. Six years after a global pandemic was declared, the affliction continues to be a battle for some long after their initial COVID-19 infection. The CBC’s Baneet Braich has more on the efforts to raise awareness about the illness.
Comments closedTopic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines
F.D.A. Reverses Decision and Agrees to Review Moderna’s Flu Vaccine
Moderna held further discussions with regulators and announced that the agency would accept the company’s application for approval of its flu vaccine that uses mRNA technology.
The Food and Drug Administration reversed its decision on Moderna’s flu vaccine and has agreed to review it for possible approval.
Just last week, Moderna announced that the agency had rejected its application for review of a new flu vaccine. The F.D.A. said the company’s research design had been flawed.
Comments closedTopic: airborne transmissionView all posts for the topic: airborne transmission
Study: SARS-CoV-2 RNA found in 39% of hospital air samples during outbreaks, despite good ventilation
COVID-19 genetic material was frequently detected in hospital air during community outbreaks, even in well-ventilated settings, according to a new study published in Respiratory Medicine.
A team led by Kirby Institute researchers conducted air and surface sampling in the emergency department (ED) and intensive care unit (ICU) of a large metropolitan hospital in Sydney, Australia, during two COVID-19 waves between November 2023 and July 2024. Their testing found that 39% (20 of 51) of aerosol samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA.
Detection was significantly more common in the ED than in the ICU. Of the positive samples, 80% were collected in the ED and 20% in the ICU.
Comments closedTopic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia
Health group calls on B.C. to bring back mask mandates in medical settings
In March 2025, the Province dropped its health-care mask requirement. DoNoHarm BC, an organization advocating for it to be reinstated, had been hoping that they would do so once respiratory illness season started last fall.
“We watched other provinces reenact these seasonal mask mandates, and waited and waited,” Beth Campbell Duke, a science educator, told Daily Hive. “We had a letter-writing campaign, and still there was no response.”
While people who are immunocompromised or immunosuppressed are most at risk, she said that it poses a risk to everyone because no one knows how COVID-19 infection could impact them.
Comments closedTopic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines
FDA declines to review Moderna application for new flu vaccine
Moderna requests meeting to discuss refusal as decision could have implications for all new and updated vaccines
US regulators will not review Moderna’s request to license a new, potentially more effective flu shot – even though the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) previously gave the green light to the project – in a decision that could have implications for all new and updated vaccines in the US.
It’s the latest move by the Trump administration against vaccines. Officials in January decided to stop fully recommending one-third of routine childhood vaccines, including flu vaccines.
“This is likely to discourage industry from investing in future influenza vaccines, and makes working with the US FDA uncertain and problematic,” said Dorit Reiss, professor of law at UC Law San Francisco.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Snapshots of the unseen: How we focused Long COVID in a recent photo exhibition
“Are you sick?” the Uber driver asked. “Is that why you’re wearing a mask?”
I launched into my usual monologue, delivered to strangers weekly at this point, explaining how COVID-19 transmission is still high and that I don’t want to be reinfected to worsen my existing Long COVID.
He looked at me, puzzled, through the rearview mirror. “I haven’t heard of that before,” he said, “but you look really good!”
I awkwardly stammered that I can no longer exercise, and a few years ago I could barely leave the house, almost dropping out of my graduate school program. I listed statistics of Long COVID prevalence and the compounding risks of infections.
Comments closedTopic: wastewater monitoringView all posts for the topic: wastewater monitoring
The Secret Weapon in Canada’s Sewers
As America takes an axe to its health data, expanding wastewater surveillance could save lives
As a virologist, I spend my days thinking about how to detect outbreaks of coronaviruses, mpox, West Nile and other pathogens early enough to stop them. Right now, I’m concerned about Canada’s awful flu season and the fact that we recently lost our measles-elimination status. But mostly, I’m terrified of what’s unfolding south of the border.
The consequences of the Trump administration’s cuts to the CDC and NIH will extend far beyond America. Those agencies form the backbone of North America’s infectious-disease surveillance. They track variants, monitor cross-border spread and feed data into global systems coordinated by the World Health Organization, helping everyone on Earth prepare. When those programs are dismantled, Canada loses key warning signs of influenza, RSV, measles and whatever diseases are coming next.
Comments closedTopic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines
This year’s Pfizer COVID vaccine estimated to be 57% effective against emergency, urgent care
The 2025-26 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is about 57% effective against emergency department/urgent care (ED/UC) visits and 54% effective against outpatient visits among adults roughly 4 weeks after vaccination, with considerable uncertainty, according to preliminary estimates published on the preprint server medRxiv.
A team that included researchers from the Providence Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System and Pfizer used a test-negative case-control design to estimate the early vaccine effectiveness (VE) of Pfizer’s BNT162b2 LP.8.1 vaccine against ED/UC and outpatient visits.
Participants were VA patients who had an acute respiratory infection (ARI) and underwent COVID-19 testing from September 10 to November 30, 2025.
Comments closedTopic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines
Could the shingles vaccine prevent or delay new-onset dementia? Ontario-based study suggests so
A new Ontario-based study is suggesting the shingles vaccine may help prevent and/or delay the onset of dementia more effectively than any existing treatment.
The study was published in Lancet Neurology and led by researchers at McMaster University and Stanford University. It analyzed health data from more than 250,000 seniors in Ontario and found the herpes zoster vaccination, also known as the shingles vaccine, helped significantly prevent dementia.
“There’s no pharmacological tool that has been shown to have such a large preventative effect,” Pascal Geldsetzer, lead researcher and Stanford University professor, told CTV News Toronto.
Comments closedTopic: measlesView all posts for the topic: measles
European countries including U.K. lose measles elimination status
LONDON – Britain and several other European countries have lost their measles elimination status, the World Health Organization said on Monday, after a jump in infections across the continent.
Spain, Austria, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan also lost their status, and the WHO urged countries to boost vaccination rates, particularly among under-protected populations, to prevent the viral disease infecting more children.
Measles is entirely preventable by vaccination, but is very contagious, and so is among the first illnesses to rebound when vaccination rates decline. It commonly causes symptoms including high fever and a rash, but can also lead to serious long-term complications and even death.
Comments closedTopic: budget cutsView all posts for the topic: budget cuts
Health Canada the latest federal department to issue layoff notices
More than 3,000 employees at Health Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada have been notified their jobs may be affected as federal departments continue to issue notices about possible layoffs in the public service.
Health Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada are the latest departments to notify employees of possible job cuts in January, as the federal government looks to cut 28,000 jobs over the next four years.
Comments closedTopic: pro-virus policiesView all posts for the topic: pro-virus policies
US formally withdraws from World Health Organization, leaving debt
Today the United States officially withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO), one year after the Trump administration shared its intention to leave the global agency.
At that time, the United States was said to provide about 20% of the WHO’s operational budget, but this week WHO officials said the United States has failed to pay membership dues for both 2024 and 2025, leaving the global alliance with a $278 million debt.
The WHO says withdrawal is not complete until the United States pays its debts.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Post-COVID Brain Fog Linked to Elevated pTau-181
NEW evidence from a prospective cohort study suggests that elevated plasma phosphorylated tau (pTau-181) may be a critical biomarker in patients experiencing neurological post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (N-PASC), particularly among essential workers.
Comments closedTopic: N95 respiratorsView all posts for the topic: N95 respirators
Experts Call For N95s To Replace Surgical Masks As Flu, Covid Viruses Spread
Nationally, we are seeing very high levels of influenza and, again, a growing wave of COVID-19 infections. A new variant of influenza A H3N2 called subclade K is driving some of this epidemic. Subclade K has already appeared in Japan and Europe and is more severe, especially in the elderly and very young.
Last week, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reported 39,945 hospital admissions, up from 33,301 admissions the week before. While numbers have varied some week to week, they have been relatively high. There have been 19 pediatric deaths so far this season. The CDC estimates that there have been at least 15,000,000 illnesses, 180,000 hospitalizations, and 7,400 deaths from flu so far this season.
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