COVID-19 'Pandemic'

Danbones

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DR. FAUCI HAS SOME EXPLAINING TO DO AFTER FUNDING BANNED PROCEDURES​


Sen. Paul said,


“There’s a huge ethical question about the origins of the virus. The ethical question is should we be doing gain of function, should we be upgrading animal viruses in the lab to make them more susceptible to humans… We have to ask Dr. Fauci, why did he in overseeing these labs allowed gain of function? Why did he allow labs to get money to upgrade animal viruses so they can infect humans? We got worried about this around 2 or 3 years ago. We closed down about half of them but then Dr. Fauci and his committees opened them back up. We need to ask him why are we doing this in China but are we doing this in the US?”

Take a look: (fox news video at link)
 

spaminator

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More than 5,000 international air travellers positive for COVID-19 since February
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Mia Rabson
Publishing date:May 03, 2021 • 20 hours ago • 1 minute read • 34 Comments
Passengers arrive at Toronto's Pearson airport after mandatory coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing took effect for international arrivals February 1, 2021.
Passengers arrive at Toronto's Pearson airport after mandatory coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing took effect for international arrivals February 1, 2021. PHOTO BY CARLOS OSORIO/FILE PHOTO /REUTERS
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OTTAWA — More than 5,000 people tested positive for COVID-19 after flying back to Canada since mandatory quarantine hotels began in late February.

That includes 3,748 people who tested positive the day they returned despite having to show a negative COVID-19 test taken no more than three days before they boarded their plane.


Forty per cent of those people were infected with one of the three variants of concern Canada is tracking.

Another 1,411 people tested positive on the test required 10 days after they returned.


The data is now current as of last Thursday, and the number of confirmed variants among travellers is three times as high as the data reported from seven days earlier as more test results were submitted to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The data suggest about 1.5% of incoming travellers test positive on the day they land in Canada.
 

spaminator

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LILLEY: Thousands of COVID-infected travellers enter Canada
Author of the article:Brian Lilley
Publishing date:May 03, 2021 • 14 hours ago • 3 minute read • 107 Comments
The arrivals lineup in Terminal One at Pearson International Airport February 22, 2021.
The arrivals lineup in Terminal One at Pearson International Airport February 22, 2021. PHOTO BY JACK BOLAND /Toronto Sun
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More than a quarter of the people who have tested positive for COVID-19 after flying into Canada did so not at the airport but 10 days later at home.

Between Feb. 22, when the mandatory federal test started, and April 29, a total of 5,159 people tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving by air.

So much for travel not being an issue as the Trudeau government continues to claim.

There were 3,748 people who tested positive when they landed while another 1,411 tested positive when they conducted the home test. A full 40% of those who tested positive were carrying one of the variants of concern.

The number of cases arriving by air increased dramatically in April and not exclusively on flights from India. More than 240 flights had people who tested positive upon arrival but those COVID-positive flights continued even after flights from India and Pakistan were banned.

The number of COVID positive cases arriving by air jumped by 590 with 19 positive flights arriving in the week after the flight ban took effect. We’ve literally let in thousands of COVID passengers since Trudeau brought in his “tough” border measures, an average of about 500 cases per week, and about a quarter of them were quarantined at home when they test positive.

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None of this includes the people coming via the land border, who are not required to spend three days in a government-approved hotel.

Between April 12-18, there were 192,558 people who entered Canada at land border crossings. I’ve asked the Public Health Agency of Canada to provide details of how many have tested positive but so far, they can’t provide those figures.


If people crossing at the land border were showing the same positivity rate as air passengers, ranging 1.5% to 2.26%, then we would be seeing between 2,888 and 4,351 new cases a week come in via the land border. True, those people would be required to quarantine at home but that doesn’t mean what you think it means.

Federal government rules simply state you need to keep your distance from others in your home while under quarantine. I just heard from one man who indicated when he came across the land border, the government told him that his wife, an essential worker, can continue to leave the house to go to work while he quarantines.

This is a couple living together in a suburban home. If they wanted to stay apart, they could.

In other cases, people are spending quarantine in a full house, like the student I wrote about recently staying in a home with 12 others when she tested positive after entering Canada.

The issues at our border aren’t simply that we let in flights, or cars, with people who are carrying the virus. Our quarantine rules and entry rules are so lax.

At the beginning of December, there were no B.1.1.7 variants in Ontario, but now this variant from the U.K. accounts for 90% of cases.

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Those who can enter Canada include immediate and extended family members of Canadian citizens or permanent residents, international students, and athletes participating in high-level competitions.

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It’s against the rules for me to drive 45 minutes to see my mother, but she could bring her brother into Canada without any issues?

What Trudeau calls the most stringent border measures in the world are anything but — and the numbers back that up.

It’s time for him to get serious about who is allowed in and how those allowed in spend their quarantine period.
 

spaminator

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NACI advice on 'preferred vaccines' for COVID-19 sparks confusion, anger
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Publishing date:May 04, 2021 • 1 hour ago • 4 minute read • 32 Comments
Syringes with the AstraZeneca vaccine are pictured in Laakso hospital in Helsinki, Finland, March 11, 2021.
Syringes with the AstraZeneca vaccine are pictured in Laakso hospital in Helsinki, Finland, March 11, 2021. PHOTO BY ESSI LEHTO /REUTERS / FILES
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OTTAWA — The National Advisory Committee on Immunization is coming under fire after contradicting the advice Canadians have been receiving for weeks to take the first vaccine against COVID-19 that they’re offered.

NACI said Monday that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are “preferred” and that Canadians should weigh the risks of waiting for one of them before deciding whether to take a more immediate jab of either of the other two approved for use in Canada.


The Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines have been linked to a new and extremely rare blood-clotting syndrome.

Because of that, Dr. Shelly Deeks, vice-chair of the committee, said someone working from home in a province where there is not much disease might want to wait for a shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.

But she said it would be a very different risk-benefit analysis for someone working in a manufacturing plant without personal protective equipment in a province where COVID-19 is spreading like wildfire.

NACI’s advice appears to contradict Health Canada’s long-standing recommendation that the best vaccine is the first one available.

Some doctors took to social media to denounce NACI’s latest advice, warning that the committee is sowing confusion and exacerbating vaccine hesitancy.

“It pains me to say this but it’s past time to take NACI’s recommendations with a grain of salt,” emergency physician Dr. Brian Goldman said on Twitter.

“For the good of your health, DO NOT be choosy when it comes to #covidvaccines. Take the first one you’re offered.”

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People who got innoculated with AstraZeneca also took to social media to express anger that they’d been hoodwinked into getting a second-rate vaccine while others questioned whether they should cancel planned first jabs of that vaccine or refuse a second dose of it.

One Twitter user noted acidly that NACI’s advice boils down to “people who are most at risk should settle for a vaccine with the most risk because they are most at risk.”

NACI chair, Dr. Caroline Quach-Thanh, only made matters worse in trying to explain the committee’s advice during an interview Monday on CTV’s Power and Politics.

“If for instance my sister got the AstraZeneca vaccine and died of a thrombosis when I know it could have been prevented and that she is not in a high risk area, I’m not sure I could live with it,” she said.


The risk of the new blood-clotting syndrome, known as vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia, or VITT, is estimated to be anywhere from one case in 100,000 doses given, to one in 250,000. But the syndrome is so new, there is still little known about what the real risk is, why it is happening and who might be most likely to develop clots.

Seven cases have been reported to date in Canada, all in people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine. Some 1.7 million doses of which had been given out as of April 24.

As of April 23, 17 cases of VITT had been confirmed out of more than eight-million doses of the J&J vaccine administered in the United States.

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Health Canada has approved J&J for use in Canada but no Canadian has yet received it as the first batch delivered last week is still being investigated following reports of safety and quality control violations at the American facility involved in its production.

NACI suggests that provinces and territories might want to prioritize J&J, the only single-shot vaccine approved in Canada so far, for people who have difficulty scheduling a second dose. It recommends that J&J, like AstraZeneca, be given only to people over the age of 30.

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner raised the confusion NACI’s latest advice has created in the House of Commons on Monday.

“This is a lot different than what we have been hearing. Does Health Canada advise taking the first vaccine offered or to wait, if one can, for an mRNA (Pfizer or Moderna) vaccine?” she asked.

Health Minister Patty Hajdu responded that Health Canada is responsible for approving vaccines for use while NACI provides independent advice on how best to administer them. She advised Canadians wondering which vaccine is right for them to ask their health-care provider.

Both AstraZeneca and J&J are viral-vector vaccines, a technology that takes a common cold virus, manipulates it so it can’t replicate and make someone sick, and then attaches the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. The vaccine helps the body mount an immune response that will recognize and fight off a real SARS-CoV-2 virus if it is ever exposed to one.

Pfizer and Moderna use mRNA technology, attaching the spike protein to a molecule that delivers messages to the body to carry out certain functions. In this case the message is to mount an immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

So far in Canada, 12.8 million people have received at least one dose of a vaccine. About two-thirds of them received Pfizer, one-fifth received Moderna and the rest AstraZeneca.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 4, 2021.
 

spaminator

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BAD NAME: Texas animal shelter faces backlash for naming dog 'Covid'
Author of the article:postmedia News
Publishing date:May 03, 2021 • 15 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
A Texas animal shelter named an up-for-adoption dog "Covid."
A Texas animal shelter named an up-for-adoption dog "Covid." PHOTO BY SCREEN GRAB /SCREEN GRAB
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Get your bark on!

A Texas animal shelter is on a short leash in the court of public opinion after naming a stray dog that’s up for adoption “Covid.”

Not surprisingly, the Amarillo Animal Management and Welfare pound in northwest Texas has angered animal advocates who say the name is “insulting” and would hinder the animal’s chances of getting adopted.

The pound where the American Staffordshire and Terrier mix is up for adoption regularly euthanizes 20-25% of its animals, according to data.

“These dogs need everything to help them get adopted,” Dana Fuchs, a New York-based animal advocate and opinion writer who tracks killings at the shelter, told the New York Post.

“The name to me is just so insulting to all the people that have died from this illness and from the brutal process of death that this dog is probably going to undergo … you’re mocking what that dog is going to go through and you’re mocking, metaphorically, all the people that have died (from the virus.)”


The black and white mutt has since been renamed Carl following the backlash.

The dog’s adoption page photo is also unflattering and Fuchs said it would have taken a “miracle” to get him adopted.

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The situation has infuriated animal activists.

“Anyone naming an animal “Covid,” especially in a shelter which is trying to adopt out the animals, has no business working there,” wrote Barbara Stiles.
1620140601264.png
 

B00Mer

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More than 5,000 international air travellers positive for COVID-19 since February

 

spaminator

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LILLEY: Our leaders need to clarify mixed messages about vaccines
Author of the article:Brian Lilley
Publishing date:May 04, 2021 • 19 hours ago • 3 minute read • 116 Comments
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is inoculated with AstraZeneca's vaccine against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a pharmacy in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada April 23, 2021.
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is inoculated with AstraZeneca's vaccine against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a pharmacy in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada April 23, 2021. PHOTO BY BLAIR GABLE /REUTERS
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What is the average person to do when it comes to deciding whether to get vaccinated or which vaccine to take?

I’m not talking about anti-vaxxers; I’m talking about average people who are rightly confused by competing messages from our government.


“The right vaccine for you to take is the very first vaccine that you are offered,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said time and again during the past two months or more.

He reiterated that sentiment on Tuesday amid the furor over mixed messages from government.

“Make sure you get your shot when it’s your turn. We are continuing to recommend to everyone to get vaccinated as quickly as possible, so we can get through this,” Trudeau said.

For the most part, I agree with him. I’ve found the scare over AstraZeneca’s vaccine and concerns about blood clots to be overblown and without context, and now we’re seeing the same thing with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

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It’s not that I don’t understand that there are risks associated with blood clots and these vaccines, but the relative risk is lower than catching COVID and dealing with complications of that. The risk is also lower than many common prescription drugs Canadians take every day.

This kind of context has been missing from many of the statements not only in the media but from top medical officials in Canada. Now, hesitancy on these vaccines is being driven by statements from those medical officials.

“What we’re saying, and what we’ve been saying all along, is that the mRNA vaccines are the preferred vaccines,” said Dr. Shelley Deeks.

Deeks is a communicable disease and vaccine safety expert, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s school of public health, and vice-chair of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI).


While she didn’t say that vector vaccines such as AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson aren’t safe, she explained there are risks and mRNA vaccines are preferred. If that doesn’t make anyone who is still awaiting a vaccine sit up and take notice, I don’t know what will.

The chair of NACI, Dr. Caroline Quach-Thanh, went further in scaring people away from these vaccines during an appearance on CTV’s Power and Politics on Monday.

“If for instance my sister got the AstraZeneca vaccine and died of a thrombosis when I know it could have been prevented and that she is not in a high-risk area, I’m not sure I could live with it,” she said.

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What Quach-Thanh has said is the vaccine Trudeau and his wife took on live television less than two weeks ago, isn’t one she, as head of NACI, would recommend to her own family. That has to leave Trudeau, and millions of Canadians, wondering if they did the right thing.

There have been more than 2.3 million doses of AstraZeneca delivered in Canada, most of them have been used up already. More than 300,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson have arrived but are being evaluated over safety concerns.

Now they may not be used because many in the public won’t want them.

Conservative health critic Michelle Rempel Garner has been asking for clarity from Health Minister Patty Hajdu for two days now and gotten nowhere.

Rempel Garner has asked what the advice from Health Canada is and whether Canadians who have received an AstraZeneca shot will need one or more shots of Pfizer and Moderna to be fully vaccinated.

Hajdu has responded to legitimate questions for the government by claiming Rempel Garner doesn’t understand the issue and claiming she is instilling fear by asking the question. No, the fear is being driven by statements from the doctors at NACI and competing advice from elsewhere.

Canadians need clarity on this, and they are not getting it from their leaders.
 

spaminator

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Canada needs more help with COVID-19, prominent U.S. vaccine expert urges White House
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
James McCarten
Publishing date:May 04, 2021 • 17 hours ago • 5 minute read • 17 Comments
Nurse Brenda Lotakoun draws a dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine as nurses from Humber River Hospital staff administer vaccines to residents, staff, and volunteers at one of B'nai Brith Canada's affordable housing buildings in Toronto, March 23, 2021.
Nurse Brenda Lotakoun draws a dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine as nurses from Humber River Hospital staff administer vaccines to residents, staff, and volunteers at one of B'nai Brith Canada's affordable housing buildings in Toronto, March 23, 2021. PHOTO BY COLE BURSTON /Getty Images
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WASHINGTON — The United States can and should do more to help Canadians get vaccinated against COVID-19, says a prominent Texas doctor, adding to the pressure on the White House to do more beyond America’s borders to end the pandemic.

Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert and a familiar face to cable news viewers in both countries, says the U.S. has more than enough capacity to expand its largely successful vaccination efforts into neighbouring countries, including Canada.


In an interview Monday with The Canadian Press, Hotez said he had assumed — like a lot of Americans — that Canada had essentially been keeping pace with the U.S. in terms of getting its citizens the protection they need.

Then he looked at the numbers.

“I was really astonished — only about a third of the country has received a single dose, and essentially no one’s gotten fully vaccinated,” said Hotez, who is dean of the school of tropical medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

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“I can’t believe the U.S. is not out there helping, given that the amount of doses we would have to provide is relatively modest ⦠(and is) oblivious to the fact that it’s in our own enlightened self-interest to do it.”

Hotez called it “ridiculous” to think that transmission of the virus would be stopped by vaccinating Detroit without vaccinating Windsor, Ont., which is just across the Ambassador Bridge on the other side of the Detroit River.

And Canada’s roughly 38 million people represent a fraction of the 332 million people in the U.S., a “rounding error” in terms of the number of vaccine doses it would require, he added.


“The point is, there are emotional reasons to do it and pragmatic reasons to do it.”

Canada, however, is not the only country that needs help.

Mexico, which also shares a U.S. border, is doing significantly worse than Canada at vaccinating its 130 million residents. And the searing tragedy of a fresh wave in India, along with mounting worry about Brazil, is putting the White House under intense pressure to step up.

Canada and Mexico are both eyeing a growing American surplus of Oxford-AstraZeneca doses, approved for use in those countries but not in the U.S. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said a decision on how best to share those doses is in the works.

“There are a range of requests we’ve had from around the world, and we’re evaluating those needs now, but I can’t get ahead of that process,” Psaki said.

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Hotez said those doses would have only a marginal impact in India, a country of 1.4 billion people where the virus has spiralled out of control in recent weeks, overwhelming hospitals and exhausting supplies of basic needs like oxygen.

“The India one is a more complicated issue — yes, we should be providing doses, but the real priority for India is a bit different because of the scope,” he said.

“It’s not that we shouldn’t do it. It’s that it’s got to go far beyond that.”


The U.S. is already helping India with raw materials and parts for vaccine-making equipment, and is still deciding on how to distribute its surplus AstraZeneca doses, President Joe Biden said Tuesday.

“We are going to, by the 4th of July, have sent about 10 per cent of what we have to other nations,” Biden said, without mentioning specific countries beyond the 4 million AstraZeneca doses already shared with Mexico and Canada.

The U.S. will soon begin sharing doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines beyond its borders as well, he promised.

“As long as there’s a problem anywhere in the world, even if we solve it here, we’re going to move as quickly as we can to get as many doses of Moderna and Pfizer as possibly can be produced, and export those around the world.”

A growing chorus of international voices, including progressive lawmakers in the U.S., is calling on Biden to agree to a proposal before the World Trade Organization that would ease patent and intellectual property protections, allowing developing countries to accelerate their own vaccine-manufacturing efforts.

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The powerful American pharmaceutical industry is opposed to such a move, fearing an existential threat to a profitable business model.

“We are at war with the virus, and yet what we are seeing is war profiteering; we’re seeing that profits are being put over people,” U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, told a panel discussion Tuesday.

“The World Health Organization has said that there’s been a billion vaccine doses distributed, but just 0.3 per cent of those doses have gone to poor and developing countries. And that is just totally unacceptable.”

Schakowsky and others are backing a bid by India and South Africa for a waiver to a 27-year-old WTO agreement that essentially protects pharmaceutical trade secrets, a movement that has been gradually gaining steam in recent weeks.

Brajendra Navnit, India’s ambassador to the WTO, made an impassioned plea Tuesday for the so-called TRIPS waiver, insisting that the financial cost of sharing the information would be recovered tenfold in the resulting economic recovery.

“Anyone thinking India’s example has shown that ⦠we are saved by vaccinating their own population, it is not going to happen,” Navnit said.

“We have seen that in measles, we have seen that in smallpox, we have seen recently in polio that only when you do global immunization, only then can you get rid of the virus.”

Amnesty International released a poll Tuesday that found a majority of respondents in G7 countries supported the idea of requiring drug companies to share their vaccine formulas and technology in exchange for government compensation.

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That included about three-quarters of the 1,526 people who took part in the Canadian portion of the poll, conducted in early March by Leger.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged the no-one-is-safe-until-everyone-is-safe argument Tuesday but stopped short of saying whether Canada would vote to support the waiver proposal.

“We understand how important it is to get vaccines to the most vulnerable around the world, and we will keep working for that,” he said.

Biden, who promised during the election campaign that the U.S. would share its vaccine know-how with the world, also demurred: “We’re going to decide that as we go along.”
 

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New Brunswick reports blood clot death after AstraZeneca vaccine
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Publishing date:May 05, 2021 • 1 hour ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
In this file photo a medical worker prepares a dose of the Covishield, AstraZeneca-Oxford's Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine, at a vaccination center in Srinagar on April 9, 2021 as India surged past 13 million coronavirus cases.
In this file photo a medical worker prepares a dose of the Covishield, AstraZeneca-Oxford's Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine, at a vaccination center in Srinagar on April 9, 2021 as India surged past 13 million coronavirus cases. PHOTO BY TAUSEEF MUSTAFA /AFP via Getty Images
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FREDERICTON — New Brunswick health officials are reporting the province’s first death of someone who developed a blood clot after receiving the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Jennifer Russell says the individual in their 60s received the vaccine in mid-April and developed symptoms a week later.


She says the person was admitted to hospital and died two days later.

Russell told a news conference today the risk of complications from the vaccine remains very low, between one in 100,000 and one in 250,000 doses.

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She says hundreds of thousands of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered across Canada, the vast majority of them without incident.

The province has had two confirmed cases of the rare blood-clotting syndrome known as vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia, or VITT.

More coming.
 

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Canada may find it challenging to reach herd immunity from COVID-19, experts say
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Hina Alam
Publishing date:May 06, 2021 • 18 hours ago • 3 minute read • 105 Comments
A health-care worker administers the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Woodbine Racetrack pop-up vaccine clinic in Toronto, May 5, 2021.
A health-care worker administers the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Woodbine Racetrack pop-up vaccine clinic in Toronto, May 5, 2021. PHOTO BY CARLOS OSORIO /REUTERS
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Herd immunity may not be reached in Canada but a return to life similar to that before COVID-19 is possible through immunization, experts say.

Such immunity is achieved when enough people are immune to a virus, either through vaccinations or natural infections or a combination of both.


Prof. Paul Tupper of Simon Fraser University’s mathematics department said herd immunity is unlikely to happen with COVID-19 for a few reasons.

The virus is being transmitted worldwide, which means it is reintroduced in different places across borders and immunity through vaccination and infection doesn’t last permanently. The vaccines don’t seem to be completely effective against some of the new variants, he said.

“So, I think what is more likely to happen is that we end up in a situation like we have with seasonal flu,” Tupper said.

“We have to live with the flu, and I think something similar is going to happen with COVID.”

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The level of immunity among the population also changes with the variants, especially the more transmissible strains, he said.

Sarah Otto, a University of British Columbia professor, said the disease’s reproductive rate is hard to pinpoint, which makes it difficult to establish a herd immunity target. Otto is an expert on the mathematical models of pandemic growth and control in the university’s zoology department.

The reproductive rate is the number of additional people infected by a single person with COVID-19, which has also changed because of the variants, she said.

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Canada might also fall short of herd immunity because people can still get infected after vaccination, even if they are less likely to develop symptoms, she said.

“We don’t yet know how effective vaccines are at reducing transmission from person to person and that matters a lot,” Otto said.

Vaccinated people are getting fewer infections but those who do can still suffer severe symptoms, she said

“Before the pandemic, we didn’t have working vaccines for coronaviruses, so we don’t know exactly what the outcomes are going to be. It’s very unusual to have a disease with such wildly differing outcomes, with asymptomatic individuals and severely affected long haulers. How are vaccines going to change that mix? We don’t really know why the severe cases are so severe.”

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Tupper said public health guidelines will change as more people get vaccinated.

“But the goal of eradicating COVID just does not appear to be realistic.”


Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto, said vaccines can significantly reduce transmission rates, regardless of whether Canada reaches herd immunity.

“Some communities might have no transmission while other communities, even within the same province, might have some low levels of transmission and it’s all based on vaccine status,” he said.

“But regardless, we will achieve very, very low rates of transmission in our communities because of vaccination.”

Community level immunity is when a virus is not completely eliminated, he said.

“There may be some transmission of COVID-19 but sporadically with small outbreaks or with low levels of transmission, while most people are largely unaffected due to widespread vaccination.”

It had been suggested that herd immunity could be reached when about 70 per cent of the population is vaccinated, but now researchers don’t know what level of protection is required because of the variants.

Otto said there are more questions than answers at this point.

“With every partial answer we get two or three more questions. These are hard and tricky issues and I wish we were less uncertain, but that is the truth of the matter.”
 

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BONOKOSKI: Pfizer’s COVID vax should have Viagra standing at attention
Author of the article:Mark Bonokoski
Publishing date:May 06, 2021 • 11 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
Lirie Palamind an RPN loads up syringes of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to be administered to 1,500 people on Wednesday at the Humber River Hospital Vaccination Clinic held at Downsview Arena on Wednesday, April 21, 2021.
Lirie Palamind an RPN loads up syringes of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to be administered to 1,500 people on Wednesday at the Humber River Hospital Vaccination Clinic held at Downsview Arena on Wednesday, April 21, 2021. PHOTO BY JACK BOLAND /Jack Boland/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network
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Following my first installment of the COVID-19 vaccine, I got an 8″ by 10″ document that I was told to keep close by.

For lack of a better description, it could have been called an “Ontario Ministry of Health Vaccination Passport.”


And why not? It has my name, date of birth, healthcard verification, the date and time of the injection, the fact that it was “intramuscular” (the left deltoid), and that it was a “valid” 0.5 ml dose of Moderna COVID-19 mRNA-1273 from Lot No. 3001530.

The only thing lacking was my mugshot.

My wife, who received her injection a week earlier, got a similar receipt, same gist but much smaller in size. Hers could be easily slipped in her wallet; mine, not so much.

She received the much-preferred Pfizer vaccination. I know, I know. Whatever vaccine comes your way first is the best vaccine, which would be a tough sell if its AstraZeneca.

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is inoculated with AstraZeneca's vaccine against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a pharmacy in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on Friday, April 23, 2021.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is inoculated with AstraZeneca’s vaccine against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a pharmacy in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on Friday, April 23, 2021. PHOTO BY BLAIR GABLE /REUTERS
On Tuesday, to the surprise of none, Pfizer raised its forecast for 2021 COVID-19 vaccine sales by more than 70% to US$26 billion and said demand from governments around the world fighting the pandemic could contribute to its growth for years to come.

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Revenue from the vaccine — developed with German partner BioNTech SE — is expected to account for more than one third of Pfizer’s full-year sales this year.

This should have Pfizer’s Viagra standing up and taking notice.

Pfizer and BioNTech aim to produce up to 2.5 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses this year — 900 million of which are not yet included in the New York-based drug-maker’s sales forecast.

“Based on what we’ve seen, we believe that a durable demand for our COVID-19 vaccine — similar to that of the flu vaccines — is a likely outcome,” said Albert Bourla, the firm’s CEO.

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Moderna has forecast US$18.4 billion in 2021 sales of its similar COVID-19 vaccine.

No one said this was all about altruism.

The disconcerting thing occurred when, document in hand, I was told to return to Ottawa City Hall on July 25 at 3:03 p.m., at which time I will receive my second injection.

“So I’ll be getting a second Moderna shot then?” I said, more or less talking to myself rather than seeking an answer.

To which I heard the nurse say, “Let’s hope so.”

She was joking, right? Surely she was joking.


This note from Health Ontario: “Individuals who have received one dose of Moderna or Pfizer vaccine should complete the vaccine series with the same vaccine. There is no data available regarding safety nor immune protection when people switch between vaccines, and this is not recommended.”

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But maybe not. We live in a country where our prime minister, two bucks shy of a full paycheque, thinks he is smarter than all the doctors and that we can put off our second COVID-19 vaccine for four months rather than the recommended 21 days.

He’s a strange bird, our prime minister. After taking out a clause in Bill C-10 that would have had the government ruling over our stupid YouTube videos of our drunken Uncle Bob, or stuff that really matters, the Trudeau Liberals threw up their hands and said, “Oops, sorry about that. Me bad. We’ll put the clause back.”

All the while they were greasing the slippery slope towards socialism or, worse, communist China’s stifling of free speech, and got caught.

Cartoonists need to start drawing Justin Trudeau wearing a Mao jacket and apologize for wasting it on the late Jack Layton.

It’s just a thought.

markbonokoski@gmail.com
 

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Bees in the Netherlands trained to detect COVID-19 infections
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Bart Biesemans
Publishing date:May 06, 2021 • 17 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation
This file picture taken on April 20, 2021 shows bees on a honeycomb at an apiary in the New South Wales town of Somersby.
This file picture taken on April 20, 2021 shows bees on a honeycomb at an apiary in the New South Wales town of Somersby. PHOTO BY GREGORY PLESSE /AFP via Getty Images
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AMSTERDAM — Dutch researchers have trained bees, which have an unusually keen sense of smell, to identify samples infected with COVID-19, a finding they said could cut waiting times for test results to just seconds.

To train the bees, scientists in the bio-veterinary research laboratory at Wageningen University gave them sugary water as a reward after showing them samples infected with COVID-19. They would get no reward after being shown a non-infected sample.


Having got used to the system, the bees were able to spontaneously extend their tongues to receive a reward when presented with an infected sample, said Wim van der Poel, a professor of virology who took part in the project.

“We collect normal honeybees from a beekeeper and we put the bees in harnesses,” he said. “Right after presenting a positive sample we also present them with sugar water. And what the bees do is they extend their proboscis to take the sugar water.”

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The extending of the bees’ straw-like tongues to drink is confirmation of a positive coronavirus test result, according to the researchers.

It can take hours or days to get a COVID-19 test result, but the response from the bees is immediate. The method is also cheap, potentially making it useful for countries where tests are scarce, they said.

But Dirk de Graaf, a professor who studies bees, insects and animal immunology at Ghent University in Belgium, said he did not see the technique replacing more conventional forms of COVID-19 testing in the near future.

“It is a good idea, but I would prefer to carry out tests using the classic diagnostic tools rather than using honeybees for this. I am a huge bee lover, but I would use the bees for other purposes than detecting COVID-19,” he said.


The technique of “insect sniffing” was effectively tested by the U.S. Dept. of Defence to detect explosives and toxins in the 1990s, De Graaf said.

Moths, bees and wasps were used “for safety purposes to detect explosives as well as for medical diagnosis,” he said.

But too little is known about the Wageningen testing to determine its true effectiveness, he said, although he was open to the idea of bee testing providing an indication of illness when PCR tests were unavailable.
 

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With Olympics looming, Tokyo seeks COVID-19 state of emergency extension
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Rocky Swift and Chang-Ran Kim
Publishing date:May 06, 2021 • 16 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation
A couple pose for pictures before the lit Olympic rings at the Odaiba waterfront in Tokyo on May 6, 2021.
A couple pose for pictures before the lit Olympic rings at the Odaiba waterfront in Tokyo on May 6, 2021. PHOTO BY PHILIP FONG /AFP via Getty Images
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TOKYO — Japan’s capital on Thursday asked the government to extend until May 31 its state of emergency aimed at curbing coronavirus infections, a move that could spark more questions about its ability to host the Olympics.

Japan had hoped a “short and powerful” emergency would contain a fourth wave of infections just under three months before Tokyo is set to host the Olympic Games from July 23.


While the measure, now running from April 25 until Tuesday, has not curbed the spread of infections, continuing it until May 31 leaves a margin of less than two months before the Games, already postponed by a year over the pandemic.

“Based on the analyzes from various angles, my thinking is that we need an extension of the state of emergency,” said Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga later told reporters the government would discuss the extension on Friday. The state of emergency – Japan’s third since the epidemic began – covers Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures, encompassing nearly a quarter of Japan’s population. Local media reported that two more prefectures would be added to the emergency state.

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Tokyo’s neighbouring prefectures of Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama, which are under a “quasi-emergency” state of targeted restrictions, also sought an extension until the end of May, while local media said a few others would join the list.

As mutant strains spread, more younger people are falling victim to the virus, fueling concerns the current fourth surge could surpass the third wave in January, Koike said. She urged people to curtail movement as a way to limit the spread.

Japan has not suffered as badly from the virus as other nations, but its vaccination campaign has been slow, with many elderly people still waiting for inoculations.

Still, Japan and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have insisted the Olympics will go on.


In positive news for Olympic organizers and athletes, Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE said on Thursday they had agreed with Olympic organizers to donate their COVID-19 vaccine to help inoculate athletes and their delegations for the Summer Games.

“This donation of the vaccine is another tool in our toolbox of measures to help make the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 safe and secure for all participants and to show solidarity with our gracious Japanese hosts,” International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said in a statement.

The IOC reiterated that vaccination would not be mandatory for athletes to participate.

“The Tokyo 2020 Games are a highly significant event that serves as a beacon of hope for the world,” Koike told an earlier online conference.

Tokyo added 591 new coronavirus cases and Osaka recorded 747 on Thursday. About 10,500 people have died nationwide since the pandemic began.
 

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EU regulator reviews reports of rare nerve disorder after AstraZeneca shot
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:May 07, 2021 • 1 day ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation
A pharmacist holds a vial of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in a pharmacy in Roubaix as part of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination campaign in France, March 15, 2021.
A pharmacist holds a vial of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in a pharmacy in Roubaix as part of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination campaign in France, March 15, 2021. PHOTO BY PASCAL ROSSIGNOL /REUTERS
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Europe’s medicines regulator is reviewing reports of a rare nerve-degenerating disorder in people who received AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shots, raising fresh questions about potential side-effects of the vaccine.

As part of a regular review of safety reports for the vaccine, Vaxzevria, the safety committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), is analyzing data provided by AstraZeneca on cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), it said on Friday, without specifying the number of cases.


The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The move comes after the EMA found last month that COVID-19 vaccines from both AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson may have caused very rare blood clotting cases.

While the regulator has said the benefits of AstraZeneca’s cheap and easily transportable vaccine in fighting the deadly pandemic outweigh any risks, several European countries have limited use to older age groups or suspended use altogether.

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The EMA has also backed J&J’s vaccine, which is based on a similar technology to AstraZeneca’s.

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The regulator said GBS was identified as a possible adverse event that needed to be specifically monitored during the vaccine’s conditional approval process, adding it had requested more detailed data on the cases from AstraZeneca.


GBS is a rare neurological condition in which the body’s immune system attacks the protective coating on nerve fibres. Most cases follow a bacterial or viral infection.

The condition has been linked in the past to vaccinations – most notably to a vaccination campaign during a swine flu outbreak in the United States in 1976, and decades later to the vaccine used during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic.

However, researchers have found the chances of developing GBS after vaccination are extremely small.

On Friday, the EMA also said it was looking into reports of heart inflammation with Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine and Moderna’s shot. It said there was no indication at present that these cases were due to the vaccines.

Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines use new mRNA technology to build immunity.

Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had not found a link between heart inflammation and COVID-19 vaccines.

Pfizer and BioNTech said in a joint statement they would support the EMA’s review and that they also saw no indication of a causal link after more than 450 million doses had been administered globally.

Myocarditis was not observed at a higher rate than would be expected in the general population, they added.

Moderna did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
 

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Canada posts hefty job losses in April as third wave bites
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:May 07, 2021 • 1 day ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation

OTTAWA — Canada lost more jobs than expected in April as fresh restrictions to contain a variant-driven third wave of COVID-19 weighed on employers, Statistics Canada data showed on Friday.

Some 207,100 jobs were lost in April, more than the average analyst prediction for a loss of 175,000. The unemployment rate climbed to 8.1%, missing analyst expectations of 7.8%. Employment is now 2.6% below pre-pandemic levels.


“This episode seemed to be a little more impactful in that it led to a big decline in full-time jobs and specifically in private-sector employment,” said Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.

“There were some heavy hits in education and culture and recreation. So it seems like the third wave bit into other sectors a little bit more deeply than the second wave.”

Full-time employment was down by 129,400 while part-time employment fell by 77,800 positions.

With many retailers shuttered in April and the restrictions also hitting hotels, food services and entertainment, service sector employment plunged by 195,400 jobs. Employment in the goods sector fell by 11,800.


As COVID-19 infections surged in April, a number of Canadian provinces imposed fresh restrictions, including shuttering or limiting non-essential businesses and closing schools. Cases are beginning to decline, but reopening is still weeks away and economists expect further job losses in May.


Canada has so far fully vaccinated just over 3% of its nearly 38 million residents, while more than 36% have received a first dose. By the end of June, Canada expects to have received 40 million doses.

Long-term unemployment increased by 4.6% to 486,000 people, which suggests some labour market scarring is beginning to show, said Leah Nord, a senior director at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

“The job prospects for displaced workers grow slimmer with every month in lockdown as more businesses throw in the towel,” she said in a statement.

Total hours worked fell 2.7% in April, while the number of people working less than half their usual hours jumped 27.2% to 288,000.

“The hours worked numbers were I think weaker than had been expected,” said Andrew Kelvin, chief Canada strategists at TD Securities. “I think it suggests a weaker April than the Bank of Canada would have had penciled in.”


The Bank of Canada in April sharply boosted its outlook for the Canadian economy and signaled interest rates could start to rise in 2022.

The Canadian dollar was trading 0.3% lower at 1.2187 to the greenback, or 82.05 U.S. cents, after touching on Thursday its strongest level in 3-1/2 years at 1.2141.
 

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VLAD THE VACCINATOR: Dracula's castle lures visitors with COVID-19 jabs
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Luiza Ilie
Publishing date:May 08, 2021 • 2 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
Bran Castle towers above Bran commune, in Brasov county, Romania, May 8, 2021.
Bran Castle towers above Bran commune, in Brasov county, Romania, May 8, 2021. PHOTO BY INQUAM PHOTOS/GEORGE CALIN /REUTERS
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BUCHAREST — Visitors to Dracula’s castle are more likely to find puncture marks in their arms than their necks this month, after medics set up a COVID-19 vaccination center at the Transylvanian attraction.

Doctors and nurses with fang stickers on their scrubs are offering free Pfizer shots to all-comers at 14th century Bran Castle, which is purported to be an inspiration for the vampire’s towering home in Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula.”

Case study: Woman had 27 contact lenses in one eye

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Castle staff hope the service will bring more people to the site in Romania’s Carpathian mountains, where tourist numbers have plummeted since the start of the pandemic.


Anyone can turn up without an appointment every weekend in May. They also get free entry to the castle’s exhibit of 52 medieval torture instruments.

“The idea … was to show how people got jabbed 500-600 years ago in Europe,” the castle’s marketing director, Alexandru Priscu, said.

One of the visitors on Saturday was Fernando Orozco, a 37-year-old renewable energy market developer usually based in Berlin who has been working remotely out of Romania.


“I was already planning to come to the castle and I just thought it was the two-for-one special,” he said.

The government has said it wants to vaccinate 10 million of its people by September, but a survey released in April by Bratislava-based think tank Globsec showed Romanians were the least inclined to get vaccinated among the EU’s eastern members.
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KINSELLA: Trust in government has 'collapsed' during the pandemic
And without that trust, we are in big trouble

Author of the article:Warren Kinsella
Publishing date:May 08, 2021 • 1 hour ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
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Trust.

When you get right down to it, trust is what institutions sell to people.


When you go into a restaurant, you are trusting the people who work there to prepare food that you like, and that isn’t going to kill you.

When you use a mechanic, you are trusting him or her to fix your car so that it doesn’t break down — or so that you don’t get into an accident.

When you open an account at a bank, you are trusting the people there to protect your money and your investments.

Trust is essential in all of those relationships. None of those things — the restaurant, the mechanic, the bank — would survive without trust. In a way, trust is what they sell.

Same with government. In order to be legitimate, in order to be effective, governments need to be trusted by the citizens they serve.


In war time, and particularly when they are under attack, citizens have a tendency to come together. To coalesce.

Antiwar movements can and do happen, of course. Vietnam was a prime example. But that rarely happens right away. During wars, at the start, most people are onside with government.

Not so this pandemic. Not anymore.

With a few notable exceptions — New Zealand comes to mind — governments, democratic and otherwise, are increasingly disbelieved by their citizens. Cynicism and frustration and anger abound. Everywhere.

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The Edelman Trust Barometer has found that trust in government has “collapsed,” quote unquote, during the pandemic. America’s Pew Research, Britain’s Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Canada’s Ipsos all had similar findings.

Said Ipsos: “Confidence in the government’s ability to deal effectively with the coronavirus has decreased.”

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Canada's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia FreelandCanada's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, wearing a protective face mask, attends a news conference, as efforts continue to help slow the spread of COVID-19, in Ottawa, March 5, 2021.
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Why is this happening? Why are governments and political institutions losing the very people they need to remain legitimate?

For starters, confusion and contradiction. Governments and political leaders and well-meaning experts have been contradicting each other in public. Sometimes, our political leaders are even contradicting themselves — as Canada’s federal Health Minister did when she urged people not to use masks and then completely reversed herself a few weeks later.

Those contradictions cause confusion. And confusion causes cynicism. And cynicism leads to things like the growing number of people declining to get vaccinated.

Another reason for the breakdown in trust: exhaustion. This pandemic has gone on for months. It seems interminable. People — on all sides of the ideological spectrum — are fed up and frustrated.

They are therefore tuning out governments and politicians and experts. And, on the increasingly rare occasions when they are still listening, they are not believing. They thought it would be over by now.

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Another reason for the collapse in trust is this: conflict. Conflict between experts and non-experts.

Health experts are preoccupied with science. Politicians are preoccupied with political science. Experts want to find the truth. Politicians want to find a way to be reelected.

Politicians and health experts do not always have the same interests. As a result, they are contradicting and critiquing each other in public. That leads to the public becoming cynical and confused and frustrated.

Distrust in government, and leaders in government, is at a crisis level. Donald Trump probably had a shot at reelection until he started to lie (saying the virus would go away when the temperature got warmer) — and when he started to say crazy things (saying people should inject themselves with bleach).

For democracy to work, for nations to stay unified, we need trust. Without it, we are in big trouble.

And that is a truth you can trust.

— Kinsella was Chief of Staff to a federal Liberal Minister of Health
 

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Tam warns that full vaccination does not equal immunity from COVID-19
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Christopher Reynolds
Publishing date:May 08, 2021 • 30 minutes ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam speaks at a news conference on the coronavirus outbreak on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, March 19, 2020.
Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam speaks at a news conference on the coronavirus outbreak on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, March 19, 2020. PHOTO BY BLAIR GABLE /Reuters / Files
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Canada’s chief public health officer reminded Canadians on Saturday that even those who are fully vaccinated remain susceptible to COVID-19.

Speaking at a virtual townhall for Yukoners, Dr. Theresa Tam said the risk of asymptomatic infection and transmission is far lower for anyone who receives two shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines.


“But it’s not absolute. So there’s reduction in your risk of transmission, but it doesn’t necessarily eliminate your risk of transmission,” Tam said, adding that the danger dials down especially after the second dose.

“Some studies have shown that it reduces the amount of virus in the back of your nose. If you sample people, there’s less virus, which means less risk of transmission.”

Young people, who often work in essential services and sit at the bottom of vaccination priority queues, now have some of the highest case rates and can transmit the virus despite showing no symptoms, Tam added.

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“The groups that transmit the virus the most are actually younger adults, many of whom have to work. They can’t stay at home,” she said.

“It’s important that we protect them, as well as the fact that if they’re protected, we reduce transmission of the virus in the community.”

Alberta and other parts of Canada remain mired in the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as hospitalization rates have started to tick downward in provinces such as Ontario and Quebec.

Many parts of the country remain under tight restrictions, with schools closed across Ontario and Alberta and patios shut down in Montreal, Toronto and — as of this Monday — Calgary.


Mass vaccination efforts continue to broaden across swaths of the country.

In Ontario, nearly 150 pharmacies started offering COVID-19 vaccines to all adults in some virus hot spots this weekend, a shift made to align with provincial efforts to protect the most vulnerable amid a third wave of infections.

The province quietly announced the expanded eligibility — for anyone aged 18 and older — on a provincial pharmacy vaccine booking webpage on Friday afternoon, with slightly more than half of the locations in Toronto and Peel Region.

On Thursday, Quebec said it vaccinated 102,762 people, the highest single-day number since the start of its vaccine rollout. The province set another record that day, when vaccinations opened to everyone 35 and over, with 272,000 people booking vaccinations, Health Minister Christian Dube said Friday.

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Quebec’s health situation remains relatively stable, with the number of new COVID-19 cases falling short of 1,000 for the sixth day in a row on Saturday and hospitalizations also on the decline.


Dispiriting numbers kicked off the weekend in Nova Scotia, however.

The province continues to log high case counts of COVID-19, reporting 163 new infections Saturday, mostly in the Halifax region.

New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador saw new case numbers in the single digits.

On the other side of the country, communities along the Alberta-British Columbia boundary said they’re worried continuing COVID-19 restrictions could hit their economies hard this summer.

The B.C. government is discouraging Alberta tourists from visiting. In Fernie, in southeastern B.C., the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce said about 80 per cent of tourism business comes from Alberta and Saskatchewan — and he’s encouraging travellers to keep coming.

A spokeswoman for the RCMP in B.C. clarified that Albertans are not prohibited from visiting British Columbia, but, once there, they aren’t allowed to travel to other areas within the province unless it’s deemed essential.

— With files from Hina Alam in Vancouver