COVID-19 'Pandemic'

Serryah

Executive Branch Member
Dec 3, 2008
8,913
2,046
113
New Brunswick
Your right must be different from our right. Our right spends bigger'n the left.

But they make up for it by cutting revenues.

From what I know, your right is extreme right compared to Canadian stuff.

Your liberal is our old school conservationism.

And our liberal is, well... commie, LOL.

I think I'm at the point where if there was a blue-liberal or red-tory option, I'd vote for them. But since they don't exist anymore, spoiling my ballot seems the only option.
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

Satelitte Radio Addict
May 28, 2007
14,591
2,336
113
Toronto, ON
Big tax increases, service cuts needed in Toronto without help: Tory
City has accrued hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic-related costs

Author of the article:Antonella Artuso
Publishing date:Nov 10, 2022 • 1 day ago • 2 minute read • 187 Comments

Toronto needs a commitment for more funding from senior levels of government by the end of the month to avoid “an unprecedented and inflationary property tax increase” and extreme severe service and program cuts, Mayor John Tory says.


In a bluntly worded open letter to Ontario Premier Doug Ford and federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland released Thursday, Tory said the city has accrued hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic-related costs that it can’t cover on its own without significant impacts on Torontonians.


“I am writing today to reiterate our request for continued assistance from the Government of Canada and the Province of Ontario to address the continued impacts COVID-19 is having on our city’s finances, so that we do not have to make deep cuts to services our residents require, impose massive tax increases they cannot afford or implement reductions to our capital budget which will eliminate thousands of jobs and threaten our economic recovery,” Tory wrote.

“The entirety of the amounts requested are as a direct result of the pandemic and the necessary measures taken to deal with the consequences of the pandemic.”



Tory spelled out the shortfalls: An additional $123 million in lost TTC fares on top of a previously noted $483 million, $201 million in extra shelter costs and to care for hundreds of refugees arriving monthly, and $491 million in reduced hotel tax, user fees, parking fees and other revenue streams.

Weekly ridership on the TTC remains at 65-70% of pre-pandemic levels, he noted.

Tory had campaigned on a promise to keep property tax increases below the rate of inflation.

“As we look ahead to 2023, based on continuing COVID-19 financial impacts and other factors, including rising interest rates and cost of fuel, we are wrestling with an opening budget pressure of $1.489 billion prior to any property tax increase or intergovernmental funding commitments,” Tory said.

The mayor thanked both the provincial and federal levels of government for their financial support during the pandemic but said the related costs continue to mount.

Tory previously expressed disappointment that Freeland’s Fall Economic Statement contained no promise to help address the city’s funding gap.

His letter arrived four days before Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy is set to release the province’s Fall Economic Statement.

aartuso@postmedia.com
Perhaps you could save $6.3 billion by not renaming Dundas Street.

And how many fricking bike lanes have been added at a cost of how many million?

Stop your whining.
 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,667
3,004
113
Winter 'Freedom Convoy' blockades cost billions to Canada's economy, inquiry hears
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Laura Osman and David Fraser
Publishing date:Nov 16, 2022 • 17 hours ago • 3 minute read

OTTAWA — Transport Canada estimates as much as $3.9 billion in trade activity was halted because of border blockades across the country related to protests against COVID-19 restrictions last winter, a public inquiry heard Wednesday.


The Public Order Emergency Commission, which is probing the Liberal government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act, reviewed emails between staff for various federal ministers who were hearing from businesses frustrated with border blockades between Feb. 8 and 9.


Protesters rode big-rigs, pickup trucks and other vehicles decorated with Canadian flags to Ottawa and several border crossings to protest vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers, COVID-19 restrictions, and the Trudeau government.

At various points in early 2022, protesters blockaded border crossings in Windsor, Ont., the small town of Coutts, Alta., Emerson, Man., and the Pacific Highway in Surrey, B.C.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau referred to the economic impact of the blockades and the undermining of Canada’s economic and national security in the emergency declaration Feb. 14.


The emails show that in the lead-up to the decision, motor companies expressed concerns to Transport Minister Omar Alghabra’s office about having to shut down their manufacturing plants because of the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor.

Metro, the grocery store chain, told Alghabra’s office that “if this goes on for longer it will have a more profound impact.”

Several motor companies shut down or reported they were close to doing so because parts and staff could not get over the border at the Ambassador Bridge, Canada’s busiest crossing.

Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, told Alghabra’s office that plants would have to shut down “if things get critical” and “there are concerns about items backing up on the U.S. side.”


The six-day blockade of the bridge halted an estimated $2.3 billion in trade, the analysis by Transport Canada shows.

At one point, General Motors was planning to rent an icebreaker and ship vehicles and parts across the Great Lakes, at least according to a second-hand account in a Feb. 11 email from Julie Turcotte, a senior official with the Department of Finance.

Businesses were “very, very concerned about not having predictability about when they can move their products and where,” Transport Canada’s chief economist Christian Dea told the commission in his testimony Wednesday afternoon.

Dea crunched the numbers on the economic impact of the blockades throughout the protest. The impacts to Canada’s GDP “seemed large” based on his analysis, Turcotte said in her Feb. 11 email.


Brendan Miller, a lawyer who represents the organizers of the “Freedom Convoy” protest in Ottawa, presented another, far rosier analysis released by Statistics Canada in April.

“Overall, the blocked border crossings appear to have had little impact on the aggregate values of Canadian imports and exports in February,” the Statistics Canada report concluded.

The analysis showed that cross-border traffic fell in places where protests took place, but were offset by busier traffic at nearby crossings, as trucks took different routes to the United States to avoid the blockades.

Michael Keenan, the deputy minister of Transport Canada, told the commission that some of the costs to Canada’s economy could not be measured.


Keenan said the blockades could not have come at a worse time, as several U.S. companies were deliberating over new investments in automotive plans in Ontario.

When Ford Canada shut down production at an Oakville plant during the Windsor border blockade, Alghabra’s chief of staff noted the situation was being seen by U.S. parent companies as “just another reason not to invest in Canada.”

“We were seeing a growing question as to whether Canada was a reliable trade partner and whether these trade corridors will stay open,” Keenan told the commission Wednesday. “That’s really important because that affects investment decisions.”

In the end, many of those major investment in new plants in Canada came through, but he called it a “near miss.”

He told the commission the government should consider a national legislative regime to protect trade corridors, and better emergency plans that include all three levels of government.

Hearings in the public inquiry began in mid-October and are expected to conclude at the end of next week, with a final report due to Parliament in February.
 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,667
3,004
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Ontario wasted 3.4M COVID vax doses, paid docs more than nurses to give shots
Author of the article:Antonella Artuso
Publishing date:Nov 30, 2022 • 19 hours ago • 3 minute read

Ontario wasted at least 3.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine — or 9% of all doses it received — in part because demand was lower than the government anticipated at certain times, the annual report of the provincial auditor general revealed.


Pharmacies had to trash 22% of the vaccines delivered to them, almost one-third unopened vials, hospitals 1% and public health units 4%.


Four private-sector vaccination sites wasted 24% of their allotted vaccines including Switch Health which didn’t use 57% of its doses.

“There was a pandemic and money had to be spent,” Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk said Wednesday. “And could money have been spent better, at a lower cost, potentially.”

Health Minister Sylvia Jones said Ontario ran a highly successful COVID-19 vaccination program with targeted clinics for specific populations.

“It absolutely wasn’t a waste of money because those particular clinics were for focused individual sectors that we were very concerned about,” Jones said. “In the case of Switch Health they were situated at the Pearson Airport and they were specifically for agricultural workers who were coming in and going to work in various communities across Ontario.”


The auditors disclosed that physicians were paid $170 to $220 per hour for doing vaccinations at mass clinics, compared to $13 per dose in their own offices.

About 3,000 doctors billed OHIP for providing a COVID-19 shot in their offices while more than 6,000 billed for COVID-19-related work in mass clinics.

Other health care professionals working at the same mass clinics were paid far less per hour to vaccinate people — $30 for a pharmacist, $33 to $49 for a registered nurse, $25 to $37 for a registered practical nurse and $30 to $49 for a paramedic.

“It was a surprise to see the difference in the rates,” Lysyk said. “When we asked why there were differences in the rates, the answer was it was associating the person with their profession versus the execution of the work.”


NDP MPP France Gelinas said the province should have compensated according to the health care service provided, not the profession of the provider.

“Why did the government decide that we would pay other health professionals five times what we’ve paid those nurses to do the exact same work,” Gelinas said. “That was not respectful of health care workers.”

The government was in a rush to address COVID-19 procurement needs — “generally justified by the urgent need during the pandemic” — but could have used better co-ordination to get more value for their testing buck, Lysyk said.

Over $18 million was paid for mobile testing capacity that could have been better used elsewhere with some walk-in clinics testing only between 2-7% of the people that could have been handled in the facility.


Lysyk said the province’s central booking system for COVID-19 vaccinations took three months to get up and running and even then was decentralized and uncoordinated.

Ontarians often booked multiple appointments which resulted in many no-shows, the audit found.



The province didn’t have a central registry to track residents’ complete vaccination records despite having promised after a 2014 audit under the previous Liberal government to expand the existing one for school-aged children to include older Ontarians.

That expanded registry was not in place when COVID struck and the government spent over $144 million on a brand new system, the auditors report.

aartuso@postmedia.com
 

The_Foxer

House Member
Aug 9, 2022
3,084
1,837
113
Ontario wasted at least 3.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine — or 9% of all doses it received — in part because demand was lower than the government anticipated at certain times, the annual report of the provincial auditor general revealed
And here again we see the bias and stupidity of the media.

IF they ordered them but people decided they didn't want them, that's not 'wasting' them. That's just demand being lower than hoped or anticipated.

And note for "approved' groups they switch to 'trashed', and then when it goes back to 'private' sites it's 'waste' again.

Sure be nice to have an honest media
 
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pgs

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 29, 2008
26,543
6,923
113
B.C.
And here again we see the bias and stupidity of the media.

IF they ordered them but people decided they didn't want them, that's not 'wasting' them. That's just demand being lower than hoped or anticipated.

And note for "approved' groups they switch to 'trashed', and then when it goes back to 'private' sites it's 'waste' again.

Sure be nice to have an honest media
They are honestly reporting what the government tells them to .
 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,667
3,004
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Long COVID 'brain fog' an increasing concern
Author of the article:Liz Braun
Publishing date:Dec 04, 2022 • 1 day ago • 2 minute read
Brain fog, a typical symptom of long COVID, is now a major concern to scientists and sufferers alike.

Brain fog, a typical symptom of long COVID, is now a major concern to scientists and sufferers alike.


A form of cognitive dysfunction, “brain fog” is the phrase used to describe the fuzzy-headed lingering effects of COVID-19 (and specifically, long COVID) — a disconcerting loss of focus, attention and memory.


COVID-19 is not the only ailment that can trigger brain fog. Some cancer and Lyme disease patients and those who have suffered concussion and chronic fatigue syndrome complain of similar cognitive issues.

A recent Washington Post article delves into what it’s like to live with brain fog.

Some people experience the condition so intensely that they can no longer go to work, read a book, or get through the day without detailed to-do lists, lists that include such basics as “eat breakfast” or “feed the dogs.”


It is incapacitating.

Jeffrey Wefel, a professor and chief of neuropsychology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, told the Post that brain fog symptoms can have, “an adverse effect on occupational, familial and social lives and can result in diminished quality of life.”

In a recent paper, Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at Yale University and Michelle Monje, a professor of neurology at Stanford University, outlined six possible causes for COVID-related “brain fog;” one possible common cause, they write, is inflammation in the brain and neural cell dysfunction.

The researchers list acute and chronic neurological and neuropsychiatric symptoms that include loss of smell and taste, cognitive impairments, depression, and anxiety.


Prominent among these lasting neurological conditions is brain fog, they write, “a syndrome of persistent cognitive impairment characterized by impaired attention, concentration, memory, speed of information processing, and executive function.”

Long COVID was reported early on in the pandemic. Brain fog (usually with fatigue) was flagged as its hallmark.

Neither the medical profession nor the government was quick to acknowledge “long-haul” COVID or the virus’ lingering effects.

Infectious disease epidemiologist Zahid Butt, an assistant professor at the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo, said it’s difficult to quantify brain fog.

“But a recent study on mice showed some sort of inflammation of the brain that results from a COVID-19 infection,” he said.


While initial reports suggested 30% of the population might get long COVID, current estimates put it closer to 50%, said Butt.

“We are just discovering the burden and extent of long COVID. There are many symptoms and brain fog is just one. We need more human studies to better understand the pathology,” he added.

“Certainly, it is not psychological.”

For now, managing the symptoms is all that can be done.

“We don’t have a lot of treatments,” cautioned Butt.

A list of some medications and therapies that are being tried out on the treatment front was published in psychiatric times.com recently.

Medications include methylphenidate, donepezil, modafinil, luteolin, nicotinamide riboside, vitamin C or probiotic supplementation, monoclonal antibodies, or adaptogens.

Cognitive behavioral therapy, graded exercise therapy, pacing, and rehabilitation are also potentially helpful.

Doctors who have been close to long COVID through research or patient care offers the same advice:

Avoid re-infection at all costs.

Every time you get COVID is another chance to get long COVID — and the brain fog that comes with it.
 

Serryah

Executive Branch Member
Dec 3, 2008
8,913
2,046
113
New Brunswick
Long COVID 'brain fog' an increasing concern
Author of the article:Liz Braun
Publishing date:Dec 04, 2022 • 1 day ago • 2 minute read
Brain fog, a typical symptom of long COVID, is now a major concern to scientists and sufferers alike.

Brain fog, a typical symptom of long COVID, is now a major concern to scientists and sufferers alike.


A form of cognitive dysfunction, “brain fog” is the phrase used to describe the fuzzy-headed lingering effects of COVID-19 (and specifically, long COVID) — a disconcerting loss of focus, attention and memory.


COVID-19 is not the only ailment that can trigger brain fog. Some cancer and Lyme disease patients and those who have suffered concussion and chronic fatigue syndrome complain of similar cognitive issues.

A recent Washington Post article delves into what it’s like to live with brain fog.

Some people experience the condition so intensely that they can no longer go to work, read a book, or get through the day without detailed to-do lists, lists that include such basics as “eat breakfast” or “feed the dogs.”


It is incapacitating.

Jeffrey Wefel, a professor and chief of neuropsychology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, told the Post that brain fog symptoms can have, “an adverse effect on occupational, familial and social lives and can result in diminished quality of life.”

In a recent paper, Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at Yale University and Michelle Monje, a professor of neurology at Stanford University, outlined six possible causes for COVID-related “brain fog;” one possible common cause, they write, is inflammation in the brain and neural cell dysfunction.

The researchers list acute and chronic neurological and neuropsychiatric symptoms that include loss of smell and taste, cognitive impairments, depression, and anxiety.


Prominent among these lasting neurological conditions is brain fog, they write, “a syndrome of persistent cognitive impairment characterized by impaired attention, concentration, memory, speed of information processing, and executive function.”

Long COVID was reported early on in the pandemic. Brain fog (usually with fatigue) was flagged as its hallmark.

Neither the medical profession nor the government was quick to acknowledge “long-haul” COVID or the virus’ lingering effects.

Infectious disease epidemiologist Zahid Butt, an assistant professor at the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo, said it’s difficult to quantify brain fog.

“But a recent study on mice showed some sort of inflammation of the brain that results from a COVID-19 infection,” he said.


While initial reports suggested 30% of the population might get long COVID, current estimates put it closer to 50%, said Butt.

“We are just discovering the burden and extent of long COVID. There are many symptoms and brain fog is just one. We need more human studies to better understand the pathology,” he added.

“Certainly, it is not psychological.”

For now, managing the symptoms is all that can be done.

“We don’t have a lot of treatments,” cautioned Butt.

A list of some medications and therapies that are being tried out on the treatment front was published in psychiatric times.com recently.

Medications include methylphenidate, donepezil, modafinil, luteolin, nicotinamide riboside, vitamin C or probiotic supplementation, monoclonal antibodies, or adaptogens.

Cognitive behavioral therapy, graded exercise therapy, pacing, and rehabilitation are also potentially helpful.

Doctors who have been close to long COVID through research or patient care offers the same advice:

Avoid re-infection at all costs.

Every time you get COVID is another chance to get long COVID — and the brain fog that comes with it.

I know a few people who have this issue, and others, all connected to Long Covid.

Health care wise, this entire situation is going to be a 'thing' for years.
 

pgs

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 29, 2008
26,543
6,923
113
B.C.
I know a few people who have this issue, and others, all connected to Long Covid.

Health care wise, this entire situation is going to be a 'thing' for years.
I must have caught Covid in 1973 I’ve lived in the fog since those magic mushrooms , man . But that orange sunshine and purple blotter leaves no chance of recovery . Some of those peyote buttons can make one wonder if you can see god . But for the best brain fog just visit the local pharmacy .
 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,667
3,004
113
Millions of unused COVID-19 vaccines will expire at end of year: Auditor general
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Laura Osman
Publishing date:Dec 06, 2022 • 1 day ago • 3 minute read

OTTAWA — Tens of millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines are likely about to expire and go to waste because of a failure to manage an oversupply, Canada’s auditor general reported Tuesday — a failure with an estimated price tag of about $1 billion.


Karen Hogan has released the results of her office’s investigation into the government’s efforts to get ahold of COVID-19 vaccine doses in the early days of the pandemic, and track how many people got them.


The auditor gave the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Procurement Department a thumbs up when it came to quickly getting enough doses into the country to meet vaccination goals, but said the government did a much poorer job of managing all that supply.

“We found that the Public Health Agency of Canada was unsuccessful in its efforts to minimize vaccine wastage,” Hogan wrote in the report.

The government knew that by signing advanced purchase agreements with a number of pharmaceutical companies there was a risk of buying up more COVID-19 vaccines than Canadians needed.


PHAC and the federal government signed deals with seven companies that were developing vaccines in 2020 and 2021, in case only a few them were approved by Health Canada.

So far six of those have been authorized by the drug review agency.

“In my view, it was a prudent approach given all the uncertainty back in 2020,” she said at a press conference Tuesday.

The auditor found that about half of the 169 million doses the government paid for have made it into the arms of Canadians between December 2020 and May 2022.

The federal government announced plans to donate some 50 million surplus doses to other countries, but as of May 31 only about 15 million had been given away and another 13.6 million expired before they could be donated.


Canada has offered the remaining 21.7 million doses to other countries but so many countries are now offering donations that the market is saturated, Hogan said, and those vaccines will be wasted if they are not distributed soon.

There were also 32.5 million doses in federal and provincial inventories by the end of the audit period in May, worth about $1 billion, based on the auditor’s estimate.

Hogan said in her report that the majority of those doses will expire by the end of 2022.

Hogan said the public health agency informed her that another 10 million have expired since the end of the audit and another 11 million were donated.

Part of the problem, she said, was that provinces and territories did not communicate and share data with PHAC.


“Although some provinces and territories consistently reported to the agency, the agency was unable to obtain complete data from most. This meant that the status of these doses was unknown and reduced the agency’s ability to predict supply needs and plan for donations,” the report said.

The auditor general’s office and the public health agency itself warned for a decade before the COVID-19 pandemic that there were serious gaps in the federal and provincial health data sharing plans.

In January 2021, Deloitte Inc. was awarded a $59.1 million contract to come up with a national vaccine management system called VaccineConnect to share timely information about vaccine distribution, coverage and safety.

Some elements of that program were up and running on time, but others were delayed and the auditor found that PHAC was instead using spreadsheets to manually track expiration dates and waste as of June 2021.


The information silos made it difficult for vaccine companies to monitor national safety indicators of their products, as they’ve been ordered to by Health Canada.

“Companies cannot entirely fulfil this requirement when they do not have access to the necessary data on adverse events,” the report said.

Hogan found two incidents in 2021 where companies learned of adverse effects to their vaccines from the media and urgently requested the data from the government, but couldn’t get access to it for three months.

Canada is also the only G7 country that does not follow World Health Organization guidance to share case-level information about patients who have adverse effects after immunization, and instead sends only summary data.
 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,667
3,004
113
COVID man-made, former Wuhan-based scientist says
Author of the article:Kevin Connor
Publishing date:Dec 06, 2022 • 1 day ago • 2 minute read

COVID is a man-made virus, a scientist who worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China says.


Scientist Andrew Huff, who worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, blamed authorities for the “biggest U.S. intelligence failure since 9/11,” Britain’s the Sun is reporting.


The lab has been involved in debates about the origins of COVID.

Huff, an epidemiologist, said in his recent book, The Truth About Wuhan, that the pandemic was the result of the U.S. government’s funding of coronaviruses in China.

He said China’s gain-of-function experiments were carried out with lax security.

“Foreign laboratories did not have the adequate control measures in place for ensuring proper biosafety, biosecurity, and risk management, ultimately resulting in the lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Huff said in his book.



There are experts who believe that the virus could have escaped through an infected scientist or the improper disposal of waste at the lab.

Huff is a former vice-president of EcoHealth Alliance, a New York-based nonprofit that studies infectious diseases.

The group has been studying different coronaviruses in bats for more than a decade.

Huff, who worked at EcoHealth Alliance, said the nonprofit helped the Wuhan lab put together the “best existing methods to engineer bat coronaviruses to attack other species” for many years.



“Foreign laboratories did not have the adequate control measures in place for ensuring proper biosafety, biosecurity, and risk management,” Huff wrote in his book.


“China knew from day one that this was a genetically engineered agent. The U.S. government is to blame for the transfer of dangerous biotechnology to the Chinese. I was terrified by what I saw. We were just handing them bioweapon technology.”

EcoHealth Alliance issued a statement regarding Huff’s book, saying “The actual “truth about Wuhan” is:

“1) Mr. Huff was employed by the EcoHealth Alliance from 2014 to 2016. However, reports that he worked at or with the Wuhan Institute of Virology during that time are untrue. He was assigned to a completely different project working on computer-based algorithms to assess emerging disease threats.

2) Mr. Huff alleges that EcoHealth Alliance was engaged in gain of function research to create SARS-CoV-2. This is not true.

3) Mr. Huff makes a number of other speculations and allegations about the nature of the collaboration between EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Given that he never worked at or with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, his assertions along these lines cannot be trusted.

4) Mr. Huff claims that SARS-CoV-2 emerged as a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology based on research conducted there on bat coronaviruses and, further, that this research was related to U.S. intelligence gathering efforts. This is not true.”
 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,667
3,004
113
Novavax to make COVID-19 vaccine shots in Canada
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:Dec 07, 2022 • 1 day ago • 1 minute read

Novavax Inc said on Wednesday it will manufacture its COVID-19 vaccine in Canada after the country’s health regulator allowed its use in children aged between 12 and 17 years as a primary series of shots.


Production of test batches of the protein-based vaccine, Nuvaxovid, will begin at the Montreal manufacturing centre by early 2023, the company said.


The agency’s approval was based on a late-stage study which showed the vaccine was effective against COVID-19 in children aged between 12 and 17 years.

Earlier this year, the Canadian health regulator had allowed the use of Novavax’s vaccine for primary series and as a booster in adults above 18 years of age.

Hurt by a global supply glut in COVID-19 vaccine and waning demand, Novavax cut its full-year revenue forecast last month to a range of $2 billion and $2.3 billion. Shots from rivals Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna were approved last year for initial vaccination of adolescents in Canada, hurting the vaccine maker further.

Shares of the Maryland-based company rose 5% to $17.64 in early trade.