At the beginning of this week, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it was granting permission for doctors to treat COVID-19 patients with plasma taken from other patients who had recovered from the virus.
The announcement was framed as a huge step forward by President Donald Trump as he took part in the announcement.
But outside the White House, researchers were puzzled. While the treatment has been under review for months, there had been no recent changes in the science or in the results to explain why the FDA had suddenly taken the action.
The announcement was framed as a huge step forward by President Donald Trump as he took part in the announcement.
In addition, the numbers that FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen M. Hahn cited — a 35 per cent additional survival rate for those who received the treatment — appear nowhere in the research that FDA says it was basing its conclusion on. And the researchers who actually did the work say they are mystified about where the numbers could have come from. (Hahn later backed away from a large part of his White House statement.)
It shows the risk of selectively sampling science to satisfy political ends.
There are clear reasons for it to happen: politicians, especially in times like these, answer to voters who want clear, quick results. They want action. That’s especially the case if COVID-19 cases are booming and an election is looming, as is the case in the United States.
But it’s important to note that COVID-19 is a virus that is still being examined by scientists — more is being learned about it and its effects every day.
It’s still very much a stranger.
Rushes to treatment do have nasty side-effects. You only have to look at the much-hyped hydroxychloroquine, which, instead of stopping COVID-19, can actually harm patients being treated with the drug.
The reason that there are so many steps in developing things like a vaccine is that there are so many things that can go wrong, the least of which is that a highly promoted but unsuccessful vaccine or treatment can make people let their guards down, and let up on the simple things that already lessen the likelihood of the virus being transmitted — things like washing your hands frequently and wearing a mask in public places.
The other problem is that treatments might well cause undetected harm if they move into public use too quickly.
Make no mistake: pharmaceutical companies desperately want to be among the first at the table with a vaccine or effective treatment — there’s a lot of money and a lot of reputation and prestige involved. Politicians want solutions, too.
And there are reasons for moving quickly — thousands of people around the world are dying from COVID-19 every single day there isn’t an effective drug regime or vaccine.
But it’s careful science that will find a vaccine or effective treatments. Playing politics just muddies the water and creates false hopes and fears.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
