Thanks to widespread vaccination, measles had been considered “eliminated” as a continually transmitting illness in the United States since 2000 – but not anymore.
An independent commission of experts that reports to the director of the Pan American Health Organization determined that the US no longer qualified as having eliminated measles, a source close to the process told CNN on Friday.
The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Comments closedPeople with type 2 diabetes who were taking the drug metformin when they contracted COVID-19 had a 39% lower risk of dying over the following year than peers who were taking a different diabetes medication, according to a study published last week in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.
The study also found that those who were taking metformin, a medication that helps lower blood sugar and improve insulin sensitivity, had a slightly reduced but non-statistically significant risk of long COVID.
Comments closedThe light at the end of the pandemic tunnel was marred by a worrying shadow. As the COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out, headlines fuelled anxiety: some people were developing life-threatening blood clots after receiving either the Johnson & Johnson vaccine (made by one of its subsidiaries, Janssen Vaccines) or the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot. This serious complication was almost only seen with these two vaccines, although one person who received the Moderna vaccine and one who was vaccinated with the Pfizer shot also received the same diagnosis.
The anti-vaccine movement took this real observation and stretched it out of proportion, accusing all COVID vaccines of killing large swaths of the population through deadly coagulation.
The actual issue was very rare and quite narrow, though still distressing. Based on a survey of what was reported in the scientific literature, 137 people worldwide are known to have died from blood clots following COVID vaccine injection, six of whom died in Canada. Shortly after the problem was identified, health authorities revised their vaccine recommendations. Johnson & Johnson halted production of its vaccine in February 2022; AstraZeneca withdrew its vaccine worldwide in May 2024.
Comments closedDurham region’s health department is warning residents of a confirmed measles case in an unimmunized child with a history of recent international travel.
Comments closedA string of measles deaths in the United States this week – two in states that haven’t reported deaths of this kind in more than three decades – is underscoring the divergent responses to the highly contagious virus in the U.S. and Canada and the resulting outcomes.
Both countries have faced widespread and deadly measles cases that have sickened thousands, fuelled by growing pockets of unvaccinated individuals, particularly in Mennonite communities. But Canada has managed to do what the U.S. hasn’t: Put an end to the outbreak.
Down south the situation is growing worse, with three deaths announced this week. On Thursday, health officials in Wisconsin reported an infant death, the first measles-related fatality in the state since 1990. It followed the deaths of a seven-month-old in New York – another first in 30 years – and a Pennsylvania resident.
Comments closedHealth Canada has authorized Moderna’s mRNA vaccine for influenza, as well as its combination mRNA vaccine for flu and COVID-19.
Both are approved for adults 50 years of age and older.
Moderna told The Canadian Press they will not hit pharmacies in time for this respiratory virus season.
Comments closedCanadian medicare is under attack. Nefarious legislation, insufficient funding and weak leadership are causing this country’s once-cherished public health-care system increasingly to buckle. This week, U.S. dark money-funded think tanks are holding a conference on how to break it permanently.
Jointly organized by SecondStreet.org, the Canadian Constitution Foundation and the Montreal Economic Institute, the two-day event set to begin today at the exclusive Albany Club in Toronto is rather innocuously titled “The Future of Health-Care Reform.”
In reality, the event is both a showcase for privatization and a strategy discussion for importing U.S.-style, two-tier health care into Canada. For these special interests the intent is clear: “reform” means ruin.
Comments closedOn Sept. 24, two days after the provincial election was called, the Medical Services Commission signed off on changes that restrict virtual “group medical visits” to 30 patients, down from 50, effective Nov. 1. Patient advocates have noted that this change will reduce access to care for people with many chronic health conditions. It also directly contradicts the recommendations from our research with people with long COVID.
With a new provincial government set to take its seat in the legislature, an immediate task of the new minister of health should be to review and revise the proposed changes to ensure they do not restrict patient care.
Over the past four years, we have engaged with people with long COVID to better understand barriers to health care. An estimated 36 per cent of people worldwide develop long COVID after a COVID infection, and B.C. Centre for Disease Control data from 2022 identified over 327,000 people with long COVID in B.C. Our survey, conducted in 2025 with 621 people with long COVID across Canada, found that 60 per cent of B.C.-based respondents accessed group medical visits, with many noting this was the only form of care available to them.
Comments closedMasks will soon be mandatory at Newfoundland and Labrador health-care facilities again.
The province’s health authority says the mask mandate, effective at 8 A.M. Nov. 4, is necessary due to “an increase in respiratory illnesses and outbreaks across Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services (NLHS) facilities.”
NLHS says the decision is based on “current epidemiology, vaccination rates, and the health authority’s capacity to provide care during increased respiratory illness.”
Comments closedMasks are now mandatory at all Nova Scotia Health facilities as influenza cases start to climb earlier than normal, the health authority announced Tuesday.
This includes all hospitals, emergency rooms, Nova Scotia Health clinics, long-term care facilities and health homes.
The mandate comes a month earlier than last year.
Comments closedOTTAWA – The European Union is working more closely with Canada on creating, stockpiling and researching vaccines as the United States pulls back, says a senior official from Brussels.
“Our production, research and development capabilities, and how we communicate about our existing (vaccine) stock, are extremely sensitive matters,” European Crisis Management Commissioner Hadja Lahbib said in a French-language interview Monday in Ottawa.
“Canada is the only country outside the European Union with which we do this.”
Comments closedIn response to increased respiratory illness activity across the province, Health P.E.I. is implementing a masking policy in its facilities starting Friday.
Members of the public will be asked to wear a mask when within two metres of a patient. Masking will also be encouraged in hallways of acute care settings.
Health P.E.I. said in a release that the move is for continued patient safety.
Comments closedWhere are B.C.’s vaccines?
Influenza A and COVID are already spreading. Another flu season in B.C., another round of vaccination arriving too late.
Last week, the Provincial Health Officer finally announced that flu vaccination for the higher risk population will start on Oct. 13. Thereafter the general public will be receiving vaccination notifications until early November.
Of course, Dr. Bonnie Henry is well aware that it takes another two weeks after vaccination for full antibody protection to develop.
Vaccination will then happen after many families will have gathered for Thanksgiving dinner with perhaps one or more uninvited guests floating in the air such as influenza A and COVID.
Comments closedThe flu has already returned to Quebec, where the season is expected to be early. Again this year, Quebecers will be able to get a flu vaccine in pharmacies, in clinics, and in certain RPAs (private residences for seniors).
Appointments can be booked starting today (October 13) on the Clic Santé platform (new window) or via the websites of private pharmacies. Vaccinations will begin on October 20.
This year, the vaccine will only be offered free of charge to those who are the most vulnerable to the flu (see the table below).
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