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Category: News

Long Covid Risk for Children Doubles After a Second Infection, Study Finds

Children and teenagers are twice as likely to develop long Covid after a second coronavirus infection as after an initial infection, a large new study has found.

The study, of nearly a half-million people under 21, published Tuesday in Lancet Infectious Diseases, provides evidence that Covid reinfections can increase the risk of long-term health consequences and contradicts the idea that being infected a second time might lead to a milder outcome, medical experts said.

Dr. Laura Malone, director of the Pediatric Post-Covid-19 Rehabilitation Clinic at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, who was not involved in the study, said the findings echo the experience of patients in her clinic.

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COVID-19 vaccine campaigns launch across Canada for 2025-26

Provinces and territories are starting to roll out updated vaccines to protect people from COVID-19.

The Public Health Agency of Canada’s immunization guide says COVID vaccines have been shown to be effective at preventing severe disease, including hospitalization and death and can decrease the risk of post-COVID-19 condition, or long COVID.

The vaccination campaign comes as COVID-19 cases in people going to emergency or urgent care for respiratory symptoms have increased. About 10 per cent of tests were positive for the week ending Sept. 20, up from 9.6 per cent the previous week, according to the federal respiratory virus snapshot.

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COVID vaccine still free in Ontario as chief medical officer calls for action to combat skepticism, mistrust

When Ontario rolls out its fall vaccination campaign at pharmacies, doctor’s offices and clinics across the province in the coming weeks, it will be bucking a trend.

At a time when both Alberta and Quebec have stopped funding COVID vaccines for the general public, limiting them to higher risk populations, and access to COVID vaccines is becoming limited in the United States, Ontario is moving in another direction.

The fall vaccination campaign, beginning in October, includes free access to an updated COVID-19 vaccine for the general public as well as expanded access to a vaccine to prevent RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) for older adults, and the flu vaccine.

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No evidence that Tylenol causes autism, say Health Canada, World Health Organization

ORONTO – Health Canada, the World Health Organization and Canadian autism experts say there is no evidence that taking Tylenol during pregnancy causes autism.

Health Canada and the WHO issued statements last night and this morning in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s unproven claim linking the drug — whose generic name is acetaminophen — to the disorder.

Health Canada says acetaminophen is a “recommended treatment of pain or fever in pregnancy” and “has been used safely by millions of Canadians for decades, including during pregnancy and while breastfeeding.”

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Trump makes unfounded claims about Tylenol and repeats discredited link between vaccines and autism

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday used the platform of the presidency to promote unproven and in some cases discredited ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism as his administration announced a wide-ranging effort to study the causes of the complex brain disorder.

“Don’t take Tylenol,” Trump instructed pregnant women around a dozen times during the unwieldy White House news conference, also urging mothers not to give their infants the drug, known by the generic name acetaminophen. He also fueled long-debunked claims that ingredients in vaccines or timing shots close together could contribute to rising rates of autism in the U.S., without providing any medical evidence.

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Manitoba offers COVID-19 shots for free as some provinces begin charging residents

Manitoba will continue covering the cost of COVID-19 shots as some other provinces begin charging residents.

The vaccinations are free for anyone six months and up and will remain that way in Manitoba, according to the province.

“There are no plans to change Manitoba’s policy at this time,” reads a statement from a Manitoba government spokesperson.

The news comes as Alberta and Quebec recently announced they would stop offering COVID-19 shots for free to the general public.

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The Moderna plant in Laval delivers its first COVID-19 vaccines

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.”

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Looking for your next COVID-19 or flu shot? Here’s when you can get it in Ontario

The 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.

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La CAQ veut interdire les manifestations « masquées » et les campements

(Quebec) François Legault’s new priority, the theme of “law and order”, will be on the agenda at his party’s convention next week. The CAQ wants, for example, to ban “masked” demonstrations and encampments in public or private places.

This is one of the proposals that will be debated during this party meeting in Gatineau, on September 27 and 28.

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COVID-19 vaccines will no longer be free for everyone in Quebec

Starting this fall, the COVID-19 vaccine will no longer be offered free of charge to the entire Quebec population, confirmed the National Director of Public Health, Luc Boileau, on Wednesday.

Speaking on Midi info on ICI Première on Wednesday, Dr. Boileau clarified that the vaccine will be free for those deemed at risk.

This includes people aged 65 and over, the immunocompromised or those suffering from chronic illnesses, residents of CHSLDs, private seniors’ residences (RPAs) or other vulnerable settings, healthcare workers, adults living in remote areas, as well as pregnant women.

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The COVID-19 vaccine will no longer be free for everyone this fall

This fall, the COVID-19 vaccine will no longer be offered free of charge to the entire population, unlike in previous years. Quebec, now responsible for purchasing doses, will offer them free of charge only to those deemed at higher risk, Le Devoir has learned.

This information, which was communicated to pharmacies, was later confirmed to Le Devoir by the office of Health Minister Christian Dubé.

Quebec will therefore reserve the free doses during the vaccination campaign for people aged 65 and over, residents of CHSLDs, private seniors’ residences (RPAs), and other congregate settings with many vulnerable seniors, those who are immunocompromised or suffering from chronic illnesses, as well as pregnant women.

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Pushing for a national N95 masking standard

On June 20, the Canadian Standards Association, also known as the CSA Group, released a new draft version of CSA standard Z94.4, which was open to public consultation until August 19. It sets to regulate workplace standards around “the selection, use, and care of respirators.” The CSA Group is a non-profit organization which creates non-legally binding but precedent-setting regulations for professional workplace standards. As reported by DoNoHarm BC, the rule changes would see new nationwide respirator requirements that mandate the use of respirators like N95 masks instead of surgical masks by workers, patients, and visitors in healthcare settings.

The CSA Group’s new draft has received praise from healthcare advocates and workers alike. DoNoHarm BC was one of the leading organizations pushing the public to support and contribute to the CSA Group’s consultation process.

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Viewpoint: Four tips for understanding this week’s ACIP meeting

The last meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in June abandoned the use of its rigorous evidence-to-recommendation framework for making vaccine policy decisions, which structures decisions around key factors, including the balance of benefits and harms, the type or quality of evidence and health economic analyses, among other elements. The meeting also included new members making inaccurate statements about both vaccine safety and efficacy and included a presentation by a well-known anti-vaccine advocate that was filled with errors.

Now, the committee is set to include even more vaccine skeptics when it meets later this week, according to published reports, including multiple anti–COVID mRNA vaccine activists. (On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed five new ACIP members.)

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Video | How Trump’s cuts to the CDC could threaten Canadians’ public health

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has long been a global leader in disease tracking and evidence-based medical guidelines, but recent funding cuts and firings have caused many to wonder whether the institution is still a trusted source. CBC’s Nisha Patel breaks down how some of those changes could put Canadians at risk.

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Kids with COVID had a 50% to 60% higher risk of depression, anxiety in 2021, researchers say

Relative to uninfected children, COVID-19 patients aged 8 to 17 years were at a 49% higher risk for new-onset depression or anxiety in 2021, rising to 59% in those with severe illness, according to a University of Utah study published this week in PLOS One.

The researchers mined the Utah All Payers Claims Database to explore the link between COVID-19 infection, illness severity, and risk of depression and anxiety among 154,565 school-aged youth who had private insurance or Medicaid coverage. The average participant age was 10.8 years in 2019, when the study period began, and 48% were girls.

Key contributors to mental illness among children include the pandemic’s direct impacts on daily life, such as school closures, isolation from peers, and disrupted family routines, the authors noted.

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Smoke from Canada’s wildfires killed nine-year-old Carter Vigh – and 82,000 others around the world

Amber Vigh had taken the usual precautions when bringing her nine-year-old son, Carter, to summer camp in July 2023. There were no fires near their home in British Columbia, Canada. Her air quality app showed low levels of pollution. She could not smell any smoke.

Carter, a music-loving Lego enthusiast who had asthma, brought along his smiling shark tooth-patterned emergency kit that held an inhaler, allergy pill and EpiPen. When smoke did roll in from the north, Vigh took him indoors.

But at home that evening, Carter began to cough uncontrollably. Vigh and her husband, James, followed the doctors’ checklist – emergency inhaler, drink of water, steroid inhaler – and gave him a bath to cool down. Then, “all of a sudden, he started coughing again like crazy”, said Vigh.

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Six Nobel laureates speak out against Trump: ‘The closest analogy is with the Hitler regime’

In recent weeks, EL PAÍS contacted most of the Nobel Prize winners in Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine from the United States over the past 20 years with a questionnaire about Donald Trump’s policies on science, research, and health. The vast majority are established researchers — some even retired — who should not fear retaliation; but only a handful of them agreed to respond.

“Why am I sad?” writes Roald Hoffmann, winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. “We came to the U.S. when I was 11. Even as my parents could not work making full use of their training and talents, the country gave their child, me (and my sister, born here), a chance to get an education and to do wonderful research with talented coworkers from all over the world. If the Trump policies are carried through, the full flow of what I experienced will be very unlikely in the generation of my scientific grandchildren.”

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Environment Canada expands air alerts as wildfire smoke spreads over B.C.

VANCOUVER — Environment Canada’s special air-quality statements for wildfire smoke have now expanded to cover most of British Columbia, with air quality at its worst possible level in parts of the Fraser Valley.

The alerts advise people to limit or avoid outdoor activity and are now in place for all of B.C. outside of Vancouver Island, the Central and North Coast, Haida Gwaii and about a quarter of the province on its northern edge.

An air-quality warning continues to be in effect in Metro Vancouver, covered by orange smoke haze for a third day.

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