This fall marks the return of student life on campus, but not everything will snap back to pre-COVID times. Hybrid models offer the option of online learning, and backup plans are in place in case numbers shoot up again. Things are looking up at college campuses across Canada. As many areas ease COVID-19 restrictions and…
Category: Community News
COVID-19’s impact on the charity sector
Bearing the brunt of instability are children—particularly girls. Last November, Imagine Canada—the national charitable organization that oversees Canadian charities—surveyed a thousand registered charities about how they’re coping and managing during COVID-19. Not surprisingly, the findings were bleak: Need was up, jobs were down and revenue fell 43 per cent short. Just when they needed support…
Why giving COVID-19 booster shots to everyone in Canada is hard to justify
Conflicting data from around the world creates divide over who should get boosters This is an excerpt from Second Opinion, a weekly roundup of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers every Saturday morning. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here. Emerging research from around the world has sparked new fears…
Unvaccinated? Here are some of the things that are off-limits to you in Canada
TORONTO — As the divide between those who are vaccinated for COVID-19 and those who aren’t continues to grow, so does the list of things those who refuse to get the shot can’t do. While there isn’t yet a nationally mandated vaccine passport or other proof of vaccination, a number of restrictions have already been…
Immunocompromised Canadians anxiously await third COVID-19 vaccine dose
A third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine could be a significant step toward normal life for Blythe McKay. The Ottawa resident took a leave from work and stopped travelling with her husband in June, when a Crohn’s disease flareup forced her to increase her medication and enlist for bowel surgery. The drugs weaken her immune…
Federal Election: Request for Support from CCNC-SJ
For Immediate ReleaseAugust 19, 2021 Anti-Asian Racism is not the Flavour of the Month As we enter this federal election, it is important for Asian Canadian communities to be informed about each political party’s positions and strategies to combat anti-Asian racism. The rise of anti-Asian racism in Canada during the pandemic reveals deep-seated systemic racism…
A message to the vaccine hesitant: Time’s up
There was little fuss when Mayor John Tory announced on Thursday that Toronto would make vaccinations mandatory for city employees. Nor should there have been. Governments and organizations across the country are resorting to vaccine mandates as the Delta variant of COVID-19 spreads and experts describe a fourth wave taking hold. The Toronto Public Library and the…
My ‘vaccine passport’ from the 1970s tells the story of disease in our time
A. Gavin Clark is a retired microbiologist from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine. When I was travelling in Asia in the 1970s, I had to carry a little yellow booklet called the International Certificate of Vaccination (ICV). It was issued by Quarantine Services, from the Department of National Health and Welfare Canada. It…
Typical ‘vaccine hesitant’ person is a 42-year-old Ontario woman who votes Liberal: Abacus polling
Bruce Anderson: Compared to the vaccinated, the vaccine hesitant don’t have a lot of trust in government. They also try to avoid prescriptions, dislike putting anything unnatural in their bodies and say they are reluctant to take any vaccines. Most worry that COVID-19 vaccines haven’t really been tested for a long time. If science is…
We broke down the hospitalization risk of going unvaccinated in Ontario. Here’s what the numbers say
Unvaccinated Ontarians are ending up in hospital with COVID-19 nearly 20 times as often as fully vaccinated individuals and in the last week have been about 70 times more likely to end up in intensive care, a Star analysis of provincial data has found. While the data analyzed by the Star looks at just one week of…