CDC is providing this advance notice for clinical laboratories to have adequate time to select and implement one of the many FDA-authorized alternatives. Such assays can facilitate continued testing for both influenza and SARS-CoV-2 and can save both time and resources as we head into influenza season. Laboratories and testing sites should validate and verify their selected assay within their facility before beginning clinical testing.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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Some of us are trying to wave the maple leaf flag sensibly, but it is a lonely and rather thankless vocation.
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Image Credit: Frankie Fouganthin, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
France’s approach is unique, but it’s just one of many countries around the world imposing new restrictions as fears grow over a new variant of COVID-19. One country not making much news is Sweden. Sweden, of course, was maligned in 2020 for foregoing a strict lockdown. The Guardian called its approach «a catastrophe» in the making, while CBS News said Sweden had become «an example of how not to handle COVID-19».
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There has been no substantial evidence that lockdowns prevented coronavirus deaths amid the pandemic, compared to the avanclance of science proving otherwise. Christopher Sadowski
They misled the public about the origins of the virus and the true risk it posed. Ignoring their own carefully prepared plans for a pandemic, they claimed unprecedented powers to impose untested strategies, with terrible collateral damage. We still have no convincing evidence that the lockdowns saved lives, but lots of evidence that they have already cost lives and will prove deadlier in the long run than the virus itself. A few scientists and public-health experts objected, noting that an extended lockdown was a novel strategy of unknown effectiveness.
The total amount of excess mortality will also depend on the age structure of a population. Countries with age structures weighted towards an older population will experience higher mortality than a country with an age structure weighted towards a younger population. We calculated the expected mortality for each country by taking the average of the past 5 years . We calculated sex-specific age-adjusted excess mortality rates by standardising to the European Standard Population using age-groups of .
Over the same time period, 1380 Canadians in the same age group died because of COVID-19 itself. «Beyond deaths attributed to the disease itself, the pandemic could also have indirect consequences leading to an increase or decrease in the number of deaths due to various factors, including delayed medical procedures, increased substance use, or a decline in deaths attributable to other causes, such as influenza,» the report says.
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Almost all Canadians who have given it any thought have serious regrets that the country’s policy towards native people over the whole history of Canada since the arrival of the Europeans as settlers more than 400 years ago has failed. The reason for this is not «systemic racism.» Canada was underpopulated and if New France had not passed into the hands of the British just before the American colonies seceded from the British Empire, it would have been assimilated into the United States. In either scenario, the Indigenous Peoples of Canada would have had a much more difficult time with the American government than they have had with Canada. Many natives on American soil sought refuge in Canada including the great Chief Sitting Bull, who defeated the Seventh Cavalry and killed General George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876 .
Gairdner, The Trouble with Canada . Yes, they could, and in 1966, Canadian politicians took that power unto themselves, then promptly reneged on their promise to provide universally accessible healthcare for everyone.
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| Canada's overheated housing market is fuelled by the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation, Sabrina Maddeaux argues. PHOTO BY ERNEST DOROSZUK /Postmedia |
The country’s total housing debt now tops $2 trillion, having recorded its fastest-ever monthly increase in April at a pace of $18 billion. Instead, it’s created a Caligula’s palace of moral hazard, fuelling the housing crisis via a mix of bad policy, bad data and the dangerous notion that taxpayers should underwrite private debts. It should be privatized or abolished before it craters the entire Canadian economy. The CMHC was created in 1946 to help Second World War soldiers access affordable mortgages.
Another conundrum is whether many more lives could have been saved by the early adoption of ivermectin, a repurposed drug, with a long track record of safety for use in parasitic diseases but also shown to have antiviral properties. Numerous articles summarised by the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance have reported successful use both in treatment and prevention of COVID-19 but have been criticised for lack of peer reviewed RCT data. Last week Dr Tess Lawrie from the Evidence-Based Medicine Consultancy and colleagues published a peer reviewed systematic review and meta-analysis in the American Journal of Therapeutics that showed moderate-certainty evidence of large reductions in COVID-19 deaths. With mild to moderate disease, ivermectin reaches the threshold for ‘high certainty’ of efficacy meaning it appears to be of immense benefit in both the treatment and prevention of COVID-19.
Scientists don’t often speak directly for themselves but are quoted by politicians, civil servants and media commentators. PHOTO BY DOUGLAS MAGNO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES FILES
One of the most important questions raised by governmental responses to the COVID crisis is «Who should speak for science in the public arena?»
You can be the smartest person in the room but if you can’t connect and empower others you’ll fail as a leader. Shout Praise, Whisper Criticism — This phrase comes from the original Olympic Dream Team and Detroit Pistons coaches Chuck Daily and Brendan Suhr. They gained the trust of their players and built winning teams by praising in public and constructively criticizing in private. Shouting praise means you recognize someone in front of their peers and whispering criticism means you coach them to get better.
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International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva makes remarks at an opening news conference during the IMF and World Bank’s 2019 Annual Fall Meetings of finance ministers and bank governors, in Washington, U.S., October 17, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Theiler/File Photo
Georgieva said an accelerated recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, where growth is seen reaching 7% in 2021, would benefit many countries through increased trade, but rising inflation could be more sustained than expected. Market expectations suggested commodity prices would remain contained over the next few years, but inflation developments varied within advanced economies and were picking up more rapidly in Britain, the United States and the euro area, while remaining subdued in others, like Japan.
nterest rates, in turn, could lead to a sharp tightening of global financial conditions and significant capital outflows from emerging and developing economies, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a blog published Wednesday with the IMF’s surveillance note for G20 countries. inflation risks comes amid sharp criticism by Republican lawmakers of President Joe Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar plans to boost spending on infrastructure, child care, community college tuition and expanded coverage of home care for the elderly and disabled.
Wars, politics, economic collapse. They had running water, sewers, flush toilets, concrete, roads, bridges, dams, an international highway system, mechanical reapers, water-powered mills, public baths, soap, banking, commerce, free trade, a legal code, a court system, science, literature, and a republican system of government. And a strong army to enforce stability and peace .
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Supporters tear down a fence surrounding a homeless encampment at Trinity Bellwoods Park in Toronto, on June 22. PHOTO BY ERNEST DOROSZUK/TORONTO SUN/POSTMEDIA |
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| Plastic protects our food, reduces food waste and helps produce a lot more food a lot more efficiently — and therefore more cheaply — than was possible a few decades ago. PHOTO BY GAVIN YOUNG/POSTMEDIA FILES |
Plastics aren’t perfect, but if handled properly they are better and greener than substitute products made of plants and animals
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| A sign promotes COVID-19 vaccination Wednesday, May 12, 2021 north of Shannonville, Ont. PHOTO BY LUKE HENDRY /Luke Hendry |
Did you know that the average age of Canada’s COVID-19 deaths in 2020 was almost 84 years, while the average age at death in Canada in 2019 was only 76. You would think that these Statistics Canada data published on June 1 would give politicians, public health officials, and the media reason to re-examine the threat of SARS-CoV-2 and consider age-specific response measures. We are a group of academics with PhDs spanning the natural and social sciences as well as the humanities. What we know about COVID-19 has changed over the last 15 months.
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An Israeli receives a coronavirus vaccine in Tel Aviv on January 6. Sebastian Scheiner/AP
As Israel faces a surge in cases driven by the Delta variant, its health officials suggested that as many as half of new cases were among people who’d been vaccinated. Fully vaccinated people who’ve come into contact with the Delta variant will have to quarantine, Chezy Levy, the director-general of Israel’s health ministry, said on Wednesday, Haaretz reported. Though they are preliminary, the figures underline the worry that the Delta variant could mean the virus continues to spread even in places like Israel where large portions of the population have been vaccinated. New daily cases reported in Israel have jumped to over 100, the highest level there since May.
A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, and Trial Sequential Analysis to Inform Clinical Guidelines
Dr. Robert Malone, inventor of the mRNA vaccine, sits down with Del to give his honest concerns about why this is the wrong technology to use against #Covid19 and, in particular, the extreme danger it poses to young people.
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«I would not recommend a two-dose vaccine regimen for a healthy child ages 0 to 12 years until we have more data,» Makary said. He said there is a «extremely low chance of any benefit for healthy children.» He said that vaccines should instead be sent to poorer countries to use to vaccinate their vulnerable populations first. Furthermore, the possible side effects of vaccinating children outweighs the minimal benefit.
Cancer is the leading cause of deaths globally. Reduction in modifiable risk factors such as stopping smoking and early identification through screening can considerably reduce the burden of cancer. Specific symptoms such as persistent cough, change in bowel habit, unexplained weight loss suggests cancer. The results of our review of the impact of restrictions on cancer services highlight that global access to care was substantially reduced for various cancers.
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It’s a lack of supply, not investors, that has resulted in Canada’s housing crisis, writes Ginny Roth. Municipal politicians are exacerbating the situation by opposing densification, she says. PHOTO BY BEN NELMS/BLOOMBERG
