New poll indicates that “vaccine refusers are much more sympathetic to Russia.” Unvaccinated Canadians are about 12 times more likely than those who received three doses to believe Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was justified, according to a new survey by national polling firm EKOS. The poll found 26 per cent of those who identified…
Category: Community News
The link between severe COVID-19 and long-term mental health problems
Researchers find that serious COVID-19 illness is linked to an increase in the risk of long-term mental health problems. The study is the first to look at the long-term prevalence of mental health problems for patients who were bedridden for over seven days following a diagnosis of COVID-19, based on a range of data from six countries….
With public restrictions all but gone, we’re left to fight COVID-19 on our own
A do-it-yourself approach is no way to fight a pandemic. Yet, we’re all on our own now. Masks are coming off. Vaccine passports are disappearing. Vaccine mandates are lifting. Crowd limits are gone. Testing and contact tracing are all but abandoned. “Getting back to normal” has become the rallying cry. At all costs, it seems….
FREE VIRTUAL EVENT：Justice system gaps and strengths
Justice system gaps and strengths FREE VIRTUAL EVENT Tuesday, March 22, 2022 1:00 P.M. – 4:40 P.M. ET Register here now. Hate crimes are considered message crimes and minority communities are often the targets. During the first year of the pandemic, the number of police-reported hate crimes in Canada increased by 37 percent over 2019, according…
COVID-19 and Racialized Communities: Impacts on Mental Health
COVID-19 has magnified stressors like housing and food insecurity, poverty, and job loss. As inequities have gotten worse, the need to understand how health systems and communities might prepare for the pandemic’s long-term mental health impacts have become clear. New research, developed through our partnership with Wellesley Institute, has looked at the impacts of COVID-19…
COVID-19, Structural Racism, and Mental Health Inequities: Policy Implications for an Emerging Syndemic
Introduction Syndemics, or synergistic epidemics, were first described in the literature in the early 1990s, specifically highlighting the convergence of substance use disorders, violence, and AIDS (1). Syndemic theory helps to provide a framework for how diseases and social conditions form, interact, and cluster to produce worse outcomes for certain populations (2, 3). The 2019…
Why Omicron Is So Deadly in Hong Kong
HONG KONG — For most of the Covid pandemic, life in Hong Kong remained a simulacrum of normal. The city maintained one of the world’s strictest border control measures, requiring inbound travelers to undergo quarantine in hotels for up to three weeks. Small waves of cases were quickly stopped with exhaustive contact tracing, strict hospital-based…
Ontario’s COVID-19 mask mandate lifts in most public spaces on Monday
Masks will no longer be required in most Ontario public spaces come Monday, as the government turns the public-health measure into an individual choice. Weeks after the province lifted proof-of-vaccination rules and capacity limits, face coverings won’t be mandatory in schools, retail settings and other spaces. Hospitals, long-term care homes and public transit and some…
AstraZeneca’s Evusheld Covid-prevention drug gets UK approval
Treatment aimed at people who cannot be vaccinated is boost to firm’s coronavirus portfolio AstraZeneca has received UK regulatory approval for its long-acting Covid-19 antibody treatment Evusheld in a boost to its coronavirus portfolio, as the British-Swedish drugmaker targets greater drug development success at its new £1bn research lab in Cambridge. Aimed at preventing Covid infections in people…
Racialized students twice as likely to report poor health than white students, new U of T survey finds
“I truly believe the findings that we found at the University of Toronto can likely be extended across all universities in Canada,” said lead author Ananya Tina Banerjee. A new report found that racialized students are more than twice as likely to think of their overall health as poor, in comparison to white students. Researchers…