SARS‑CoV‑2 (COVID-19)

spaminator

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Feds issue new COVID vaccine guidance, says provinces now responsible for buying them
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Nicole Ireland
Published Jan 10, 2025 • Last updated 23 hours ago • 1 minute read

Federal funding for COVID-19 vaccines will stop this year and the provinces and territories will be responsible for buying them, as well as determining the timing of the vaccinations, the Public Health Agency of Canada says.


The agency published the information online on Friday, along with the National Advisory Committee on Immunization’s COVID-19 vaccine guidance for 2025 through to the summer of 2026.

NACI recommended that seniors who are 80 years and older, residents of long-term care homes, and adults and children six months and older who are moderately to severely immunocompromised should get two doses of COVID-19 vaccine per year.

It also recommended that all adults 65 years and older, health-care workers and people at higher risk of severe COVID-19 illness should get one shot a year if they’ve previously been vaccinated.

People considered at higher risk include those with underlying medical conditions; pregnant women; people from First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities; and members of racialized communities, NACI said.


In all cases, the most up-to-date COVID-19 vaccine should be used, it said.

Those who have never received a COVID-19 vaccine can get their first two-dose series any time because the virus that causes the disease — SARS-CoV-2 — is around throughout the year, NACI said.

“Unlike influenza, SARS-CoV-2 has been circulating year-round, without a clear pattern in disease activity,” the advisory committee said.

“However, since 2022, COVID-19 activity has consistently been higher from late summer to early January, coinciding with the fall/winter respiratory season.”

If significant new strains are identified in 2025, health authorities may authorize updates to the COVID-19 vaccine to match, NACI said.

The most recent mRNA vaccines, manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, target the KP.2 Omicron subvariant.

Novavax’s updated protein-based vaccine targets the JN.1 subvariant of Omicron, but the federal government did not buy any doses, saying the minimum order required was much higher than the Canadian uptake of the Novavax vaccine the previous year.
 

spaminator

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Pat King, organizer of the ’Freedom Convoy,’ to be sentenced Feb. 7
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Catherine Morrison
Published Jan 17, 2025 • < 1 minute read

OTTAWA — Pat King, an organizer of the 2022 “Freedom Convoy” protest, is set to be sentenced Feb. 7.


Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland found King guilty on five counts In November, including mischief and disobeying a court order.

He was found not guilty on three counts of intimidation and one count of obstructing police.

King could be facing up to 10 years in prison, but his defence wants the sentence limited to time served and probation.

King spent five months in jail before being granted bail.

He spent more than another week behind bars after the Crown alleged that he breached his bail conditions.
 
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petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
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Low Earth Orbit
Pat King, organizer of the ’Freedom Convoy,’ to be sentenced Feb. 7
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Catherine Morrison
Published Jan 17, 2025 • < 1 minute read

OTTAWA — Pat King, an organizer of the 2022 “Freedom Convoy” protest, is set to be sentenced Feb. 7.


Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland found King guilty on five counts In November, including mischief and disobeying a court order.

He was found not guilty on three counts of intimidation and one count of obstructing police.

King could be facing up to 10 years in prison, but his defence wants the sentence limited to time served and probation.

King spent five months in jail before being granted bail.

He spent more than another week behind bars after the Crown alleged that he breached his bail conditions.
Pffffb. If 10 years was possible he'd be at Court of Kings Bench not Provincial.
 

Taxslave2

House Member
Aug 13, 2022
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Pat King, organizer of the ’Freedom Convoy,’ to be sentenced Feb. 7
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Catherine Morrison
Published Jan 17, 2025 • < 1 minute read

OTTAWA — Pat King, an organizer of the 2022 “Freedom Convoy” protest, is set to be sentenced Feb. 7.


Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland found King guilty on five counts In November, including mischief and disobeying a court order.

He was found not guilty on three counts of intimidation and one count of obstructing police.

King could be facing up to 10 years in prison, but his defence wants the sentence limited to time served and probation.

King spent five months in jail before being granted bail.

He spent more than another week behind bars after the Crown alleged that he breached his bail conditions.
He should get a medal. WE need a change in government.
 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
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CIA believes COVID likely originated from lab, but has low confidence in finding
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
David Klepper
Published Jan 25, 2025 • Last updated 16 hours ago • 3 minute read

WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory, according to an assessment that points the finger at China even while acknowledging that the spy agency has “low confidence” in its own conclusion.


The finding is not the result of any new intelligence, and the report released Saturday was completed at the behest of the Biden administration and former CIA Director William Burns. It was declassified and released Saturday on the orders of President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency, John Ratcliffe, who was sworn in Thursday as director.

The nuanced finding suggests the agency believes the totality of evidence makes a lab origin more likely than a natural origin. But the agency’s assessment assigns a low degree of confidence to this conclusion, suggesting the evidence is deficient, inconclusive or contradictory.

“I had the opportunity on my first day to make public an assessment that actually took place in the Biden administration. So it can’t be accused of being political,” Ratcliffe told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” He said the CIA “has assessed that the most likely cause of this pandemic that has wrought so much devastation around the world was because of a lab-related incident in Wuhan. And so we will continue to investigate that moving forward.”


Earlier reports on the origins of COVID-19 have split over whether the coronavirus emerged from a Chinese lab, potentially by mistake, or whether it arose naturally. The new assessment is not likely to settle the debate. In fact, intelligence officials say it may never be resolved, due to a lack of cooperation from Chinese authorities.

The CIA “continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible,” the agency wrote in a statement about its new assessment.

Instead of new evidence, the conclusion was based on fresh analyses of intelligence about the spread of the virus, its scientific properties and the work and conditions of China’s virology labs.


Lawmakers have pressured America’s spy agencies for more information about the origins of the virus, which led to lockdowns, economic upheaval and millions of deaths. It’s a question with significant domestic and geopolitical implications as the world continues to grapple with the pandemic’s legacy.


Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told “Fox News Sunday” it was important now “to make China pay for unleashing this plague on the world.” He mentioned imposing tariffs or passing legislation that would repeal China’s permanent most favored nation status.

Chinese authorities have dismissed speculation about COVID’s origins as unhelpful and motivated by politics. On Saturday, a spokesperson for China’s U.S. embassy said the CIA report has no credibility.


“We firmly oppose the politicization and stigmatization of the source of the virus, and once again call on everyone to respect science and stay away from conspiracy theories,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press.

While the origin of the virus remains unknown, scientists think the most likely hypothesis is that it circulated in bats, like many coronaviruses, before infecting another species, probably racoon dogs, civet cats or bamboo rats. In turn, the infection spread to humans handling or butchering those animals at a market in Wuhan, where the first human cases appeared in late November 2019.

Some official investigations, however, have raised the the question of whether the virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan. Two years ago a report by the Energy Department concluded a lab leak was the most likely origin, though that report also expressed low confidence in the finding.

The same year then-FBI Director Christopher Wray said his agency believed the virus “most likely” spread after escaping from a lab.

Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, has said he favors the lab leak scenario, too.

“The lab leak is the only theory supported by science, intelligence, and common sense,” Ratcliffe said in 2023.

The CIA said it will continue to evaluate any new information that could change its assessment.
 

spaminator

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Fredericton MP Jenica Atwin says online hate helped push her out of federal politics
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Hina Alam
Published Jan 30, 2025 • 3 minute read
Online hate and toxicity encountered by Atwin played a part in her decision to not seek re-election.
Online hate and toxicity encountered by Atwin played a part in her decision to not seek re-election.
FREDERICTON — Jenica Atwin is leaving federal politics for the “time being” in part because of the online hate she receives, saying the level of toxicity she’s had to face has been surprising.


The Fredericton member of Parliament was first elected in 2019 with the Green Party before crossing the aisle to join the Liberals in 2021. It was around the time she joined the party of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that she decided to close her X account “because it was actually harming my mental health.”

“Just the constant barrage, the vitriol, the threats, and I think women, in particular my female colleagues, we’ve got it on a different level than a lot of our male colleagues,” she said in a recent interview.

She knew that going into politics would make her a target of negative online comments, but the amount of vitriol she received took her by surprise. The hate-filled messages on social media and in emails increased in 2022, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when thousands of truckers and other people occupied Parliament Hill during the convoy protests against vaccine mandates and other restrictions imposed by government.


During the protests, Atwin’s office regularly received “hate calls” from people in Canada and the United States. She said that “any time” she would speak in the House of Commons, “it would follow with a flood of these hateful messages and voice mails being left or things my team had to sift through, sometimes, again, actual threats that we had to follow up on with police.”

The hate she received included bomb threats, threats of sexual violence, and other verbal abuse. “It’s very bizarre stuff that people are feeling somehow emboldened enough to type and send.”

Such constant hate and insults “chip away” at people’s resiliency and take a toll on mental health, she said, adding that her parents, siblings and husband would get upset seeing vitriol about her online.


But it isn’t just her and other female colleagues who face such toxicity. She said she also worries about the effect the hate has had on the prime minister and his family. “My goodness, the prime minister — he bore the brunt of it all,” she said.

“I worry for his children. Anyone associated with him. He’s made the comment to us before, those “F— Trudeau” flags — Trudeau, that’s the name of his children, too. His kids have really picked up on that.”

In Quebec, following a wave of resignations of elected officials, the provincial government introduced legislation last year that includes fines up to $1,500 for people who threaten or intimidate politicians.

Chris Tenove, assistant director at University of British Columbia’s centre for the study of democratic institutions, said online hate speech has increased over the past decade, influenced by U.S. politics.


“I think the COVID-19 pandemic and some of the political and cultural clashes over it exacerbated polarization in politics, and that has played out as having more online abuse of politicians,” he said.

While there isn’t rigorous research on whether women face more online hate than men, or whether certain political parties are targeted more than others, there are patterns, Tenove said. People who are in the public eye, politicians, people with large followings on social media are all at risk of getting more hatred than those who are less visible, he said.

Online abuse toward women politicians takes a “gendered form,” he noted. “They’re either being dismissive of women because of their gender, or if they’re being threatening, it’s more likely to be sexually threatening.”


Tenove said some politicians can manage high levels of abuse and hostility, while others are more sensitive.

“They find that over time, the continual hostile and negative messaging that they’re getting undermines their mental, their emotional resilience and their interest in continuing to serve in this public-facing role, it also makes it harder for people to do their jobs, and including to run for office or to engage (with) their constituents.”

For the time being, Atwin said she will spend more time with her family, especially with her two sons, ages seven and 12.

She hopes that online hate begins to fade soon, and people start to understand that disagreements should be aired respectfully.

“It’s not like we can just put an algorithm on these sites and eliminate any of the hate speech or vitriol. That’s not the answer, right? So it’s not really clear-cut. It’s got to be a societal shift,” she said. “There’s no real silver bullet to how to do that.”