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When can my child get a COVID-19 shot? – CTV News

Published

3 years ago

November 26, 2021

NORTH BAY —
On Nov. 19, Health Canada announced the approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech two-dose COVID-19 vaccine for children between five and 11-years-old, allowing children in that age group to be vaccinated with a dosage that is one third the size that has been offered to those aged 12 and older.

To date, it is the only COVID-19 vaccine approved for that age group. Health Canada says clinical trials showed that lower doses provided good protection, with no safety issues detected.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommends that second doses be given at least eight weeks after the first. Children who turn 12 before their second dose, meanwhile, may receive an adult dose.

As a precaution, Health Canada advises that children not receive the vaccine within 14 days of other vaccines, such the flu vaccine, in order to monitor any side effects from either the COVID-19 or another vaccine.

ELIGIBILITY AND ROLL OUT PLANS BY PROVINCE AND TERRITORY

British Columbia: Parents are able to register their child for a COVID-19 vaccine using the province’s Get Vaccinated system. As of Nov. 19, officials said more than 75,000 children had been registered. The B.C. Centre for Disease Control says children who are four-years-old will only be able to get vaccinated after their fifth birthday. The vaccines are free and children do not need B.C. Care Cards to receive them. First and second doses for children aged five to 11 will be offered eight weeks apart, an FAQ from ImmunizeBC says. B.C. also has made material, including a comic, available to parents for talking to their child about getting vaccinated. Consent from one parent or guardian is required.

Alberta: COVID-19 vaccine appointments for children aged five to 11 in Alberta are available as of Nov. 24 following the receipt of more than 394,000 doses. Doses will be administered at more than 120 Alberta Health Services vaccination clinics and four pharmacies across the province, with more than 390,000 Albertans aged five to 11 able to get vaccinated as early as Nov. 26, a government press release said. Although a number of walk-in vaccine clinics are available, the province says walk-in appointments are not available for children aged five to 11. Parents and guardians are encouraged to talk to their pediatrician or family physician about getting their children immunized against COVID-19. The province also has created an online game where users can take down “COVID-zilla” while learning about COVID-19 immunization.

Saskatchewan: Childhood vaccination booking for Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) clinics became available on Nov. 23. Parent or guardian consent will be required, but only one parent is needed. The Saskatchewan government says more than 112,000 doses of the children’s COVID-19 vaccine are expected in the province, enough to provide every child in the five to 11 age group with a first dose. The SHA will offer the pediatric vaccine in 141 communities. Clinics also will be offered in more than 100 schools, along with specialized clinics for children with additional needs, such as autism and those in hospital, and vaccinations from Indigenous Services Canada, Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority and participating pharmacies. Although NACI has recommended an eight-week interval between doses, the province says Saskatchewan families may choose to receive the second dose as early as 21 days after the first.

Manitoba: Manitoba has allowed parents and caregivers to book appointments online or by phone for children aged five to 11 to receive the Pfizer vaccine as of Nov. 22. Children must be five-years-old at the time the appointment is booked. Manitoba’s Vaccine Implementation Task Force has said vaccines for kids aged five to 11 will be available at pharmacies, physician clinics, urban Indigenous clinics and vaccine clinics. Manitoba also is recommending individuals receive their second dose of vaccine eight weeks after the first. The province has created an interactive map, called the Vaccine Finder, showing where immunization sites in Manitoba are located.

Ontario: Ontario families were able to start booking appointments for their children as of Nov. 23. Appointments can be booked online, by phone, through local public health units, participating pharmacies and select primary care providers. Children must be turning five-years-old by the end of 2021 to be eligible and doses will be offered at least eight weeks apart. Ontario is expected to receive 1,076,000 doses of the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine from the federal government. About one million children are eligible to get the shot in the province. Those with an appointment are asked to bring their booking confirmation code or email, an Ontario health card or a letter from their school, medical provider or faith leader for those without a health card, an immunization record if available, an allergy form if needed, a mask and a support person if necessary. Anyone getting the COVID-19 vaccine in Ontario, including children and youth, must provide informed consent indicating they understand what the vaccine involves, why it is recommended, and the risks and benefits of getting it or not. Parents or “substitute decision makers” for children aged five to 11 will, for the most part, need to provide consent on behalf of the child at the time of the appointment before a vaccine is given, the province says.

Quebec: Vaccine appointments for children aged five to 11 are open, with residents able to book online on the Clic-Santé website. The first vaccine appointments started Nov. 24 and vaccinations at schools are slated to begin Nov. 29. Anyone between five and 17 years of age can be vaccinated at a clinic with or without an appointment. Vaccinations for children and youth are being done in vaccination centres or at school, but not in pharmacies. Children 13-years-old and younger need consent from a parent or legal guardian in order to be vaccinated, while adolescents 14-years-old and older can give their own consent.

New Brunswick: Vaccination appointments for children aged five to 11, offered through the Vitalité and Horizon health networks, can be made online as of Nov. 23. Anyone aged five, turning five this year, or older is eligible to get the vaccine. About 54,500 children are eligible to receive it, according to the province. Under the New Brunswick Medical Consent of Minors Act, children can give consent as a mature minor to receive health care, like the vaccine. While they do not require parental consent under certain conditions, the province says it is “preferred” that parents or legal guardians consent to immunizations for minors younger than 16.

Nova Scotia: Nova Scotia announced Nov. 24 it expects vaccines for children aged five and 11 to arrive this week, with parents and guardians expected to be able to start booking appointments soon. Pharmacies and the IWK Health Centre in Halifax will be the province’s main vaccinators. Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Robert Strang, says they will be ready to start giving children vaccines by Dec. 2. Children will need two doses of vaccine, administered at least eight weeks apart. A child who turns 12 during that eight-week period may receive an adolescent or adult dose for their second. The province has a map available showing where vaccination clinics are located.

Prince Edward Island: Vaccinations will initially be offered at immunization clinics on dedicated dates and times. Starting in January 2022, in-school vaccinations will be offered to students in grades four, five and six. Eligible students in other grades will need to be vaccinated at a COVID-19 immunization clinic. An eight-week interval between doses is recommended. The province says, as with all immunizations, a parent or guardian must provide signed consent before their child can be vaccinated. Children who are 11-years-old can receive the adult version of their second dose if they turn 12 within the recommended eight-week interval.

Newfoundland and Labrador: The province expects to have vaccines arrive by Nov. 26, with the immunization campaign for children beginning “within days.” Appointments can be booked on the province’s Get the Shot webpage. Vaccines also are expected to be offered in schools. It is recommended that the second dose be booked at least eight weeks after the first. Children who receive a pediatric dose will receive the adult dose for their second vaccine if they turn 12-years-old during the eight-week period. Signed consent from a parent or guardian will be required.

Yukon: Yukon Premier Sandy Silver said on Wednesday that vaccines for children between the ages of five and 11 will begin in early December, with the vaccine supply expected to arrive in the territory within the coming days. Children will wait eight weeks between doses.

Northwest Territories: The Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority says while the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for children aged five to 11, clinics are not yet scheduled and residents are asked not to book appointments until then. The territory expects to receive its vaccine allotment before the end of November. Eligibility for the five to 11 age group will be based on age at the time of appointment and not the year the individual was born.

Nunavut: Nunavut has no readily available information on their government websites on vaccinations for children aged five to 11.

VACCINES AND CHILDREN

Although children and youth are less likely to get seriously ill from COVID-19, Health Canada says they can still spread it to others, experience long-term effects from infection or develop a rare but serious complication called multisystem inflammatory syndrome.

Common side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine include redness, soreness and swelling at the injection site, along with more general symptoms such as chills, fatigue, joint pain, headache, mild fever and muscle aches.

Myocarditis and pericarditis — inflammation of the heart muscle and lining around the heart respectively — have been reported following vaccination with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines but appear to occur more often in adolescents and young adults, males, following a second dose and, while mild, typically shortly after vaccination, Health Canada says.

A statement in October from the Council of Chief Medical Officers of Health also noted that the risk of cardiac complications, including myocarditis, substantially increases following COVID-19 infection compared to after vaccination.

With files from CTVNews.ca Writer Ben Cousins

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Business

The #1 Skill I Look For When Hiring

Published

1 day ago

September 17, 2024

Nick Kossovan

File this column under “for what it’s worth.”

“Communication is one of the most important skills you require for a successful life.” — Catherine Pulsifer, author.

I’m one hundred percent in agreement with Pulsifer, which is why my evaluation of candidates begins with their writing skills. If a candidate’s writing skills and verbal communication skills, which I’ll assess when interviewing, aren’t well above average, I’ll pass on them regardless of their skills and experience.

Why?

Because business is fundamentally about getting other people to do things—getting employees to be productive, getting customers to buy your products or services, and getting vendors to agree to a counteroffer price. In business, as in life in general, you can’t make anything happen without effective communication; this is especially true when job searching when your writing is often an employer’s first impression of you.

Think of all the writing you engage in during a job search (resumes, cover letters, emails, texts) and all your other writing (LinkedIn profile, as well as posts and comments, blogs, articles, tweets, etc.) employers will read when they Google you to determine if you’re interview-worthy.

With so much of our communication today taking place via writing (email, text, collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, ClickUp, WhatsApp and Rocket.Chat), the importance of proficient writing skills can’t be overstated.

When assessing a candidate’s writing skills, you probably think I’m looking for grammar and spelling errors. Although error-free writing is important—it shows professionalism and attention to detail—it’s not the primary reason I look at a candidate’s writing skills.

The way someone writes reveals how they think.

Clear writing = Clear thinking
Structured paragraphs = Structured mind
Impactful sentences = Impactful ideas

Effective writing isn’t about using sophisticated vocabulary. Hemingway demonstrated that deceptively simple, stripped-down prose can captivate readers. Effective writing takes intricate thoughts and presents them in a way that makes the reader think, “Damn! Why didn’t I see it that way?” A good writer is a dead giveaway for a good thinker. More than ever, the business world needs “good thinkers.”

Therefore, when I come across a candidate who’s a good writer, hence a good thinker, I know they’re likely to be able to write:

Emails that don’t get deleted immediately and are responded to
Simple, concise, and unambiguous instructions
Pitches that are likely to get read
Social media content that stops thumbs
Human-sounding website copy
Persuasively, while attuned to the reader’s possible sensitivities

Now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: AI, which job seekers are using en masse. Earlier this year, I wrote that AI’s ability to hyper-increase an employee’s productivity—AI is still in its infancy; we’ve seen nothing yet—in certain professions, such as writing, sales and marketing, computer programming, office and admin, and customer service, makes it a “fewer employees needed” tool, which understandably greatly appeals to employers. In my opinion, the recent layoffs aren’t related to the economy; they’re due to employers adopting AI. Additionally, companies are trying to balance investing in AI with cost-cutting measures. CEOs who’ve previously said, “Our people are everything,” have arguably created today’s job market by obsessively focusing on AI to gain competitive advantages and reduce their largest expense, their payroll.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that most AI usage involves generating written content, content that’s obvious to me, and likely to you as well, to have been written by AI. However, here’s the twist: I don’t particularly care.

Why?

Because the fundamental skill I’m looking for is the ability to organize thoughts and communicate effectively. What I care about is whether the candidate can take AI-generated content and transform it into something uniquely valuable. If they can, they’re demonstrating the skills of being a good thinker and communicator. It’s like being a great DJ; anyone can push play, but it takes skill to read a room and mix music that gets people pumped.

Using AI requires prompting effectively, which requires good writing skills to write clear and precise instructions that guide the AI to produce desired outcomes. Prompting AI effectively requires understanding structure, flow and impact. You need to know how to shape raw information, such as milestones throughout your career when you achieved quantitative results, into a compelling narrative.

So, what’s the best way to gain and enhance your writing skills? As with any skill, you’ve got to work at it.

Two rules guide my writing:

Use strong verbs and nouns instead of relying on adverbs, such as “She dashed to the store.” instead of “She ran quickly to the store.” or “He whispered to the child.” instead of “He spoke softly to the child.”
Avoid using long words when a shorter one will do, such as “use” instead of “utilize” or “ask” instead of “inquire.” As attention spans get shorter, I aim for clarity, simplicity and, most importantly, brevity in my writing.

Don’t just string words together; learn to organize your thoughts, think critically, and communicate clearly. Solid writing skills will significantly set you apart from your competition, giving you an advantage in your job search and career.

_____________________________________________________________________

Nick Kossovan, a well-seasoned veteran of the corporate landscape, offers “unsweetened” job search advice. You can send Nick your questions to artoffindingwork@gmail.com.

Business

Politics likely pushed Air Canada toward deal with ‘unheard of’ gains for pilots

Published

2 days ago

September 16, 2024

Anne Joseph

MONTREAL – Politics, public opinion and salary hikes south of the border helped push Air Canada toward a deal that secures major pay gains for pilots, experts say.

Hammered out over the weekend, the would-be agreement includes a cumulative wage hike of nearly 42 per cent over four years — an enormous bump by historical standards — according to one source who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The previous 10-year contract granted increases of just two per cent annually.

The federal government’s stated unwillingness to step in paved the way for a deal, noted John Gradek, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made it plain the two sides should hash one out themselves.

“Public opinion basically pressed the federal cabinet, including the prime minister, to keep their hands clear of negotiations and looking at imposing a settlement,” said Gradek, who teaches aviation management at McGill University.

After late-night talks at a hotel near Toronto’s Pearson airport, the country’s biggest airline and the union representing 5,200-plus aviators announced early Sunday morning they had reached a tentative agreement, averting a strike that would have grounded flights and affected some 110,000 passengers daily.

The relative precariousness of the Liberal minority government as well as a push to appear more pro-labour underlay the prime minister’s hands-off approach to the negotiations.

Trudeau said Friday the government would not step in to fix the impasse — unlike during a massive railway work stoppage last month and a strike by WestJet mechanics over the Canada Day long weekend that workers claimed road roughshod over their constitutional right to collective bargaining. Trudeau said the government respects the right to strike and would only intervene if it became apparent no negotiated deal was possible.

“They felt that they really didn’t want to try for a third attempt at intervention and basically said, ‘Let’s let the airline decide how they want to deal with this one,'” said Gradek.

“Air Canada ran out of support as the week wore on, and by the time they got to Friday night, Saturday morning, there was nothing left for them to do but to basically try to get a deal set up and accepted by ALPA (Air Line Pilots Association).”

Trudeau’s government was also unlikely to consider back-to-work legislation after the NDP tore up its agreement to support the Liberal minority in Parliament, Gradek said. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, whose party has traditionally toed a more pro-business line, also said last week that Tories “stand with the pilots” and swore off “pre-empting” the negotiations.

Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau had asked Ottawa on Thursday to impose binding arbitration pre-emptively — “before any travel disruption starts” — if talks failed. Backed by business leaders, he’d hoped for an effective repeat of the Conservatives’ move to head off a strike in 2012 by legislating Air Canada pilots and ground crew to stick to their posts before any work stoppage could start.

The request may have fallen flat, however. Gradek said he believes there was less anxiety over the fallout from an airline strike than from the countrywide railway shutdown.

He also speculated that public frustration over thousands of cancelled flights would have flowed toward Air Canada rather than Ottawa, prompting the carrier to concede to a deal yielding “unheard of” gains for employees.

“It really was a total collapse of the Air Canada bargaining position,” he said.

Pilots are slated to vote in the coming weeks on the four-year contract.

Last year, pilots at Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines secured agreements that included four-year pay boosts ranging from 34 per cent to 40 per cent, ramping up pressure on other carriers to raise wages.

After more than a year of bargaining, Air Canada put forward an offer in August centred around a 30 per cent wage hike over four years.

But the final deal, should union members approve it, grants a 26 per cent increase in the first year alone, retroactive to September 2023, according to the source. Three wage bumps of four per cent would follow in 2024 through 2026.

Passengers may wind up shouldering some of that financial load, one expert noted.

“At the end of the day, it’s all us consumers who are paying,” said Barry Prentice, who heads the University of Manitoba’s transport institute.

Higher fares may be mitigated by the persistence of budget carrier Flair Airlines and the rapid expansion of Porter Airlines — a growing Air Canada rival — as well as waning demand for leisure trips. Corporate travel also remains below pre-COVID-19 levels.

Air Canada said Sunday the tentative contract “recognizes the contributions and professionalism of Air Canada’s pilot group, while providing a framework for the future growth of the airline.”

The union issued a statement saying that, if ratified, the agreement will generate about $1.9 billion of additional value for Air Canada pilots over the course of the deal.

Meanwhile, labour tension with cabin crew looms on the horizon. Air Canada is poised to kick off negotiations with the union representing more than 10,000 flight attendants this year before the contract expires on March 31.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

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Business

Federal $500M bailout for Muskrat Falls power delays to keep N.S. rate hikes in check

Published

2 days ago

September 16, 2024

Anne Joseph

HALIFAX – Ottawa is negotiating a $500-million bailout for Nova Scotia’s privately owned electric utility, saying the money will be used to prevent a big spike in electricity rates.

Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson made the announcement today in Halifax, saying Nova Scotia Power Inc. needs the money to cover higher costs resulting from the delayed delivery of electricity from the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric plant in Labrador.

Wilkinson says that without the money, the subsidiary of Emera Inc. would have had to increase rates by 19 per cent over “the short term.”

Nova Scotia Power CEO Peter Gregg says the deal, once approved by the province’s energy regulator, will keep rate increases limited “to be around the rate of inflation,” as costs are spread over a number of years.

The utility helped pay for construction of an underwater transmission link between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, but the Muskrat Falls project has not been consistent in delivering electricity over the past five years.

Those delays forced Nova Scotia Power to spend more on generating its own electricity.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

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