The Ontario government says it will allow some medical procedures to resume and will loosen some restrictions on businesses as it eases public health restrictions next week. The province previously said that it would move to reopen indoor dining, gyms and movie theatres on Jan. 31 following several weeks with modified Step 2 restrictions put in place…
Category: Community News
“We’re the idiots, now”: a California doctor on his unvaccinated colleagues
Covid has revealed deep tensions within the medical community An emergency-room (er) consultant in his late 40s enters a treatment room. He’s wiry and watchful, like a pit boss in a casino. “Hi Ma’am. So, what’s going on?” he says, using the friendly, open voice he’s honed over the years. We’ll call him Dr Croc…
Why would the unvaccinated reject a COVID-19 vaccine, but accept a new antiviral pill?
In theory, not a single person who has so far refused a COVID-19 vaccine should be open to taking Paxlovid, the at-home oral prescription medication recently approved by Health Canada to treat COVID-19. The medication is made by Pfizer, the same supposedly callous and greedy pharmaceutical company that has been pushing its vaccine on the…
Vaccines are a tool, not a silver bullet. If we’d allowed more scientific debate, we would have realized this earlier
More than two years since COVID-19 emerged, our kit of solutions – and the mindset needed to use them – is too small. It’s time to listen to the science in a broader way Norman Doidge, MD, is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and author of The Brain That Changes Itself. He is executive director of Health and…
Canada has detected BA.2 cases. What we know about this Omicron subvariant
With signs of the COVID-19 Omicron wave having peaked in parts of the world, including Canada, scientists are keeping a close eye on a subvariant that is rapidly spreading in some countries. The BA.2 sub-lineage of Omicron, which was first detected in November last year, was designated as a variant under investigation by the U.K. Health Security Agency…
10 strategies to protect essential workers from Omicron
As case counts of the highly transmissible COVID-19 variant continue to break records, keeping employees healthy and safe is a greater challenge than ever. For essential businesses that remain open, meeting this challenge means understanding Omicron’s unique characteristics and enhancing your control strategies, says Sara Lovell, WSPS Occupational Hygienist. “We know that Omicron spreads through…
‘Booster hesitancy’: Poll shows growing rifts between double vaxxed and boosted Canadians
A new survey suggests a widening gap between the pandemic views of people who have opted to get a COVID-19 vaccine booster and those who are holding steady with only two shots. A web panel survey carried out by Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies shows 67 per cent of people with a booster dose who…
Seniors in Vancouver’s Chinatown are battling poverty and racism to put food on the table
How a community program is knocking down barriers and feeding seniors On a hazy Friday morning, Gui Rong Ni, 72, is in her element at the neighbourhood garden in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. As Ni scatters carrot seeds across the bare sections of soil, Ya Qin Wan, 79, showers Brussels sprouts and bitter melon crops with…
Some Ontario teachers refuse work over school COVID concerns
TORONTO – Mary Fraser-Hamilton spent part of last week sitting in her car instead of teaching in her classroom. The Brampton, Ont., drama teacher was one of 11 education workers in Ontario who initiated work refusals over COVID-19 safety concerns as students and staff members returned to in-person learning with less transparency about the virus…
We’ve endured two long years of COVID-19. But exhaustion could be dangerous
It’s easy to overlook how much solidarity there has been in Canada. Still, governments everywhere are starting to flag. It’s been two years stolen, endured, gone. The first identified case of COVID-19 in Ontario was Jan. 25, 2020; it was in a man who had travelled from Wuhan, China. The risk, we were told, was low. Since…