Canada’s top doctor said today the country needs to find a more “sustainable” way to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and future variants of the virus.
Speaking to reporters at the weekly public health briefing, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said all existing public health policies, including provincial vaccine passports, need to be “re-examined” in the coming weeks — because it’s clear now that Canada and the rest of the world will be grappling with this virus for months or years to come.
“What we need to do going forward, as we emerge out of this Omicron wave, is recognize this virus is not going to disappear. We need to be able to address the ongoing presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a more sustainable way,” Tam said.
“Further waves will occur. Some will be quite severe and disruptive and we need to be ready for them. But we do need to have longer-term, sustained approaches and capacity-building so we’re not in a crisis mode all the time as we fight this virus.”
Tam said the Public Health Agency of Canada is talking to its provincial and territorial counterparts to chart a path forward for a country exhausted after two years of enduring some of the most restrictive measures in the developed world.
Together, she said, these agencies will review the current “suite of measures,” including severe border restrictions and travel limitations.
“I think the whole concept is, we do need to get back to some normalcy,” Tam said.
She said Canada’s efforts should be focused on preventing severe cases of COVID through vaccinations rather than stopping all new infections of a highly transmissible virus.
Tam said it’s now clear that the primary series of a COVID-19 vaccine — the first two shots of an mRNA vaccine or a viral vector product like the AstraZeneca vaccine — do not protect against an Omicron infection.
But these shots still offer “reasonably good protection” against severe outcomes like hospitalization and death. A third shot provides “superior protection,” dramatically reducing the likelihood of severe outcomes, she said. A third dose might also help to prevent an actual infection, Tam added.
Tam said the country’s priority should be to deploy as many booster shots as possible. But the immunization campaign has stalled, with just 50 per cent of people eligible for a booster having had that third shot.
WATCH | Tam outlines how boosters help protect against COVID-19:
Receiving mRNA booster ‘superior’ protection against COVID-19, Tam says
12 hours ago
Duration 3:20
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, highlights the importance of vaccines, specifically booster doses, in the fight against COVID-19. 3:20
Tam says she’s ‘optimistic’
With vaccines widely available and promising therapeutics like Pfizer’s Paxlovid starting to roll out, and with natural immunity levels higher in the wake of a massive wave of Omicron cases, Tam said she’s “optimistic” that the country can find a better balance between fighting COVID and letting people return to more normal lives.
Dr. Howard Njoo, Canada’s deputy chief public health officer, said Canada must guard against public health threats while “not unduly restricting travel and trade.”
The top doctors’ comments come after some European countries vowed this week to do away with many of the public health measures that have become fixtures of everyday life for the past two years.
Scandinavian countries like Denmark, Norway and Sweden are leading the charge. Sweden announced it will do away with vaccine passports, face masks in some public places and limits on social contacts. Neighbouring Denmark has scrapped most restrictions.
“It is time to open Sweden again,” said Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson as she announced the restrictions would be removed on Feb. 9.
People queue for a drop-in COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Stockholm City Terminal station, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022. (Anders Wiklund/AP)
Sweden is pushing ahead because its rate of booster vaccinations is very high, which is reducing the strain on the country’s health care systems. 80 per cent of all Swedes over the age of 50 have now received three vaccine doses.
In Canada, third dose vaccination rates are lower.
The U.K., which dropped most restrictions months ago, is poised to scrap remaining limits on incoming travel, including arrival testing.
Here at home, Alberta and Saskatchewan have taken the lead among the provinces and territories in signalling they will soon remove most, if not all, remaining COVID-19 public health measures.
PHAC reported last week that the number of new Omicron infections peaked in January.
But the health care system is still under stress — there’s usually a lag time between an infection and a severe outcome that requires hospitalization. There are still over 10,000 people being treated in hospital on any given day, with 1,100 of them in ICU. Roughly 140 people are dying each day from the virus.
Some provinces report those deliveries have been falling short of expectations. Of the 54.3 million rapid tests the federal government promised to Ontario in January, only 17.6 million have been delivered so far.
In Alberta, provincial health authorities have received less than half of the 16 million rapid tests initially promised by the federal government, a spokesperson for the provincial health minister said. To compensate for the shortfall, the provincial government there is buying 14.3 million tests on its own to fill the gap.
“There are more tests arriving in provinces and territories in the next few days,” Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said. “We were competing against many other countries with needs and requests.”
Experts say an abundance of rapid tests would help fight the spread of the virus by breaking the chain of transmission, allowing COVID-infected people to safely leave isolation and expanding access to Pfizer’s oral antiviral, which requires a positive test result before use.
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump is refusing to say how he voted on Florida’s abortion measure — and getting testy about it.
The former president was asked twice after casting his ballot in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday about a question that the state’s voters are considering. If approved, it would prevent state lawmakers from passing any law that penalizes, prohibits, delays or restricts abortion until fetal viability — which doctors say is sometime after 21 weeks.
If it’s rejected, the state’s restrictive six-week abortion law would stand.
The first time he was asked, Trump avoided answering. He said instead of the issue that he did “a great job bringing it back to the states.” That was a reference to the former president having appointed three conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who helped overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 2022.
Pressed a second time, Trump snapped at a reporter, saying “you should stop talking about it.”
Trump had previously indicated that he would back the measure — but then changed his mind and said he would vote against it.
In August, Trump said he thought Florida’s ban was a mistake, saying on Fox News Channel, “I think six weeks, you need more time.” But then he said, “at the same time, the Democrats are radical” while repeating false claims he has frequently made about late-term abortions.
In addition to Florida, voters in eight other states are deciding whether their state constitutions should guarantee a right to abortion, weighing ballot measures that are expected to spur turnout for a range of crucial races.
Passing certain amendments in Arizona, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota likely would lead to undoing bans or restrictions that currently block varying levels of abortion access to more than 7 million women of childbearing age who live in those states.
NEW YORK (AP) — In a new video posted early Election Day, Beyoncé channels Pamela Anderson in the television program “Baywatch” – red one-piece swimsuit and all – and asks viewers to vote.
In the two-and-a-half-minute clip, set to most of “Bodyguard,” a four-minute cut from her 2024 country album “Cowboy Carter,” Beyoncé cosplays as Anderson’s character before concluding with a simple message, written in white text: “Happy Beylloween,” followed by “Vote.”
At a rally for Donald Trump in Pittsburgh on Monday night, the former president spoke dismissively about Beyoncé’s appearance at a Kamala Harris rally in Houston in October, drawing boos for the megastar from his supporters.
“Beyoncé would come in. Everyone’s expecting a couple of songs. There were no songs. There was no happiness,” Trump said.
She did not perform — unlike in 2016, when she performed at a presidential campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in Cleveland – but she endorsed Harris and gave a moving speech, initially joined onstage by her Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland.
“I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother,” Beyoncé said.
“A mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world where we’re not divided,” she said at the rally in Houston, her hometown.
“Imagine our daughters growing up seeing what’s possible with no ceilings, no limitations,” she continued. “We must vote, and we need you.”
Harris used the song in July during her first official public appearance as a presidential candidate at her campaign headquarters in Delaware. That same month, Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, publicly endorsed Harris for president.
Beyoncé gave permission to Harris to use the song, a campaign official who was granted anonymity to discuss private campaign operations confirmed to The Associated Press.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May pay tribute to the life of Murray Sinclair, former judge, senator and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Sinclair died November 4, 2024 at the age of 73. (Nov. 4, 2024)
