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Don Martin: Better communication can take the panic out of pandemic – CTV News

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At the heart of supermarket lineups filled with anxious toilet paper and hand sanitizer hoarders lies a coronavirus communications failure.

And to overcome that, the federal government needs to up its game to calm down eye-rolling Canadian over-reactions to COVID-19.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, back sporting his I’m-really-busy loosened-tie and rolled-up-sleeves look, is dealing with the issue in his usual basic bland style while offering a new cabinet committee as a definitive crisis response.

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“Taking it extremely seriously…working with provinces…. drawing on global experts…ready for all scenarios….keeping Canadians safe,” he said today, albeit in slightly longer sentences.

You get the drift. No concrete funding to unveil. No new precautions to announce. Stay tuned and there might be something in the federal budget.

He’s shrugged off the heavy lifting to deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland who, while undeniably capable, is overwhelmed by her too-many other duties to give the coronavirus outbreak the fixated attention it demands.

This is where the new health minister needs to become the point person leading the charge against the impact of this deadly virus.

Patty Hajdu has been a mostly-impressive cabinet talent since her election in 2015. She is now displaying the right stuff to advocate pandemic precaution and discourage public over-reaction.

The public might normally look to the chief public health officer for expert insight, like it did in 2003 when David Butler-Jones was the reassuring and unflappable source of information in the SARS outbreak.

But while the current public health boss, Theresa Tam, may well excel behind the microscope, she’s not so great behind the microphone.

In fact, she was one of the few Power Play interviews last year that we decided not to air because her answers were too difficult to understand.

That puts Canada’s health minister on the front-and-centre line of communications in this major combat mission.

Hajdu will have to track the spread and severity of the virus with her provincial and city counterparts; deliver regular, preferably daily, briefings to the public; and ensure emergency health care funding is on tap for provinces to cope with the oncoming viral wave.

It’s difficult to grasp how, in just a few short weeks, Canadians have been jolted by the high probability of an oncoming existential crisis.

If this virus takes hold, it could scuttle school for their kids, terminate business and vacation travel, stop manufacturing, empty offices and, yes, force households to create pandemic pantries for sick families forced into self-isolation. All this to the soundtrack of an economy skidding into the ditch.

That makes coronavirus information delivered with reassurance and accuracy almost as important as face masks, if you can find them, to control its spread.

Canadians are still at the all-we-have-to-fear-is-fear-itself stage of this outbreak.

But we’re also at the equivalent of trauma care’s golden hour, where quick damage control is vital and having reliable go-to communications is essential to ensuring rational reactions.

When there’s a vacuum of clear, timely, accurate information about a serious threat to Canadian lifestyles, panic fills the void.

But if the truth and consequences are properly articulated, pandemic and panic need not clash in the supermarket toiletries section.

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RCMP warn about benzodiazepine-laced fentanyl tied to overdose in Alberta – Edmonton Journal

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Grande Prairie RCMP issued a warning Friday after it was revealed fentanyl linked to a deadly overdose was mixed with a chemical that doesn’t respond to naloxone treatment.

The drugs were initially seized on Feb. 28 after a fatal overdose, and this week, Health Canada reported back to Mounties that the fentanyl had been mixed with Bromazolam, which is a benzodiazepine.

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Mounties say this is the first recorded instance of Bromazolam in Alberta. The drug has previously been linked to nine fatal overdoses in New Brunswick in 2022.

The pills seized in Alberta were oval-shaped and stamped with “20” and “SS,” though Mounties say it can come in other forms.

Naloxone treatment, given in many cases of opioid toxicity, is not effective in reversing the effects of Bromazalam, Mounties said, and therefore, any fentanyl mixed with the benzodiazepine “would see a reduced effectiveness of naloxone, requiring the use of additional doses and may still result in a fatality.”

Photo of benzodiazepine-laced fentanyl seized earlier this year by Grande Prairie RCMP after a fatal overdose. edm

From January to November of last year, there were 1,706 opioid-related deaths in Alberta, and 57 linked to benzodiazepine, up from 1,375 and 43, respectively, in 2022.

Mounties say officers responded to about 1,100 opioid-related calls for service, last year with a third of those proving fatal. RCMP officers also used naloxone 67 times while in the field, a jump of nearly a third over the previous year.

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CFIA continues surveillance for HPAI in cattle, while sticking with original name for disease – RealAgriculture

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The Canada Food Inspection Agency will continue to refer to highly pathogenic avian influenza in cattle as HPAI in cattle, and not refer to it as bovine influenza A virus (BIAV), as suggested by the American Association of Bovine Practitioners earlier this month.

Dr. Martin Appelt, senior director for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, in the interview below, says at this time Canada will stick with “HPAI in cattle” when referencing the disease that’s been confirmed in dairy cattle in multiple states in the U.S.

The CFIA’s naming policy is consistent with the agency’s U.S. counterparts’, as the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has also said it will continue referring to it as HPAI or H5N1.

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Appelt explains how the CFIA is learning from the U.S. experience to-date, and how it is working with veterinarians across Canada to stay vigilant for signs of the disease in dairy and beef cattle.

As of April 19, there has not been a confirmed case of HPAI in cattle in Canada. Appelt says it’s too soon to say if an eventual positive case will significantly restrict animal movement, as is the case with positive poultry cases.

This is a major concern for the cattle industry, as beef cattle especially move north and south across the U.S. border by the thousands. Appelt says that CFIA will address an infection in each species differently in conjunction with how the disease is spread and the threat to neighbouring farms or livestock.

Currently, provincial dairy organizations have advised producers to postpone any non-essential tours of dairy barns, as a precaution, in addition to other biosecurity measures to reduce the risk of cattle contracting HPAI.

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Toronto reports 2 more measles cases. Use our tool to check the spread in Canada – Toronto Star

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Canada has seen a concerning rise in measles cases in the first months of 2024.

By the third week of March, the country had already recorded more than three times the number of cases as all of last year. Canada had just 12 cases of measles in 2023, up from three in 2022.

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