Policy-makers lack an understanding of how to assess research and the quality of that research. We need to do better during the COVID-19 pandemic and during future health crises. (Louis Reed/Unsplash) Some political leaders — the Jair Bolsonaros and Donald Trumps of the world — have given the public the impression that they’re at war with the scientific…
Category: Community News
Mexico went all in on ivermectin — a disproven COVID cure. Now there’s a fight over ‘false and misleading science’ and claims of ‘colonialist’ politics
Paper claiming good results for disproven medication draws a lot of controversy — after it drew a big audience online. Philip Cohen says he wasn’t looking for controversy, just compiling an annual report. He runs a pre-print server — an open archive where social-science researchers share preliminary versions of manuscripts. He thought he’d see what…
Full list of where to get free COVID-19 rapid antigen tests in Ontario
Starting today, Feb. 9, a select number of Ontario pharmacies and grocery stores are distributing COVID-19 rapid antigen tests. The Ontario government said 5.5 million tests will be distributed each week at more than 2,300 retailers across the province. Some stores will offer take-home testing kits for in-store pickup, while others will provide tests through an…
Transmissibility of Omicron led to much higher death totals than past wave, research shows
People infected with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 are less likely to die or experience severe outcomes compared with those infected with the Delta variant, emerging research shows. However, the variant’s hypertransmissibility has led to daily death numbers that have eclipsedthose of the previous wave, and a record number of hospitalizations, with Canada’s older population…
The Liberals should listen to their backbencher’s plea to unwind COVID-19 pandemic measures
“I can’t help but notice with regret,” Quebec MP Joël Lightbound said Tuesday, as he punctured the image of magnanimous governance that the Liberals have tried to promote throughout this pandemic, “that both the tone and the policy of my government changed drastically on the eve and during the last election campaign.” “From a positive…
We’ll lift our anti-COVID restrictions when elected governments decide, not street mobs
For all the mistakes our governments have made in dealing with the COVID pandemic, Canada has one of the developed world’s lowest death rates from the disease: roughly a third of the United States’, per capita; less than 40 per cent of the United Kingdom’s; half of France’s; two-thirds of Germany’s. By the more comprehensive “excess deaths” measure (comparing…
Most Black nurses in Ontario deal with racism. This task force of nurses has a way forward
“The whiteness of our profession is blinding,” RNAO president Doris Grinspun said, noting the lack of diversity is especially pronounced in leadership. Nurse practitioner Corsita Garraway still thinks about a patient she had years ago who lost her foot. She was an older, Black woman who had been in the hospital due to complications with…
Long COVID and children: expert panel agrees on definition, study says
Scientists and medical experts from around the world have agreed on a research definition for “long COVID” in children, according to a U.K.-based study, the first such consensus for young people. The peer-reviewed paper, published in BMJ’s Archives of Disease in Childhood journal, defines long COVID, or post-COVID-19 condition, as an illness that “occurs in…
Whose freedom is the ‘freedom convoy’ fighting for? Not everyone’s
The so-called “freedom convoy” has captured worldwide attention as a minority of truckers and their supporters have asserted their right to assemble and oppose COVID-19 protocols imposed by the federal, provincial and territorial governments. No problem there. The problem lies in what’s not being said or acknowledged. The one-word rallying cry — freedom — is the activist mantra. Who…
What is Canada’s legal system saying about workplace vaccine mandates?
Legal challenges of employer vaccine mandates and health measures are being tossed out as arbitrators in Canada largely side with the need to maintain safe workplaces during a pandemic, legal experts say. Most of the cases with rulings so far involve employee grievances in unionized workplaces, which have an expedited decision-making process compared with the…