adplus-dvertising
Connect with us

Health

How neighbours and communities are divided over COVID-19 in this rural Alberta county – CBC.ca

Published

 on


Visitors driving into La Crete are greeted by a wooden welcome sign declaring it “Alberta’s Last Frontier.”

The small town about 670 kilometres north of Edmonton — a tidy patch of light-coloured homes and orderly looking businesses — made headlines during the pandemic for its resistance to public health orders, and a number of its residents continue to defy them. 

On a late November day, with temperatures hovering around -20 C, people rushed from vehicles into the post office, grocery stores, banks and other businesses with little evidence that anyone was wearing a mask.

300x250x1

More than two months after Alberta brought in its version of a vaccine-passport program, several restaurants in this community refuse to enforce it and continue to flout masking and capacity rules. At least one under a closure order was still open for dine-in service, with staff and customers unmasked.

La Crete is one of a handful of small towns in Mackenzie County, a massive stretch of farmland and forest in northwest Alberta that covers an area bigger than New Brunswick. 

The CBC visited these three communities in Mackenzie County to hear residents talk about why the region’s vaccination rates are some of the lowest in Alberta. (CBC)

A year into Alberta’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout, the county makes up the bulk of what is the province’s least-immunized health region. 

Just 29.6 per cent of the roughly 25,000 residents are fully immunized. It’s the only health region in Alberta where less than 30 per cent of the total population have had both doses — far lower than the provincewide total of 72 per cent.

Still, attitudes about COVID-19 and immunization in this vast region are not homogenous, and those diverse views have created challenges for those who live there.

At odds with neighbours, church

Daniel Wall, 35, has come to hate going into town.

His life on his farm with his wife and two young daughters is largely self-sufficient. A wood stove warms their living room, a cow provides more than enough milk for the family of four, and crates of vegetables for Wall’s market garden business are piled high in the room where his wife teaches music lessons. 

Daniel Wall goes through the produce he has harvested from his small market garden near La Crete, Alta. (Paige Parsons/CBC)

He travels into La Crete about once a week to pick up other things they need. 

Like most Canadians living in places with public health restrictions, he pulls on a mask when he goes into stores. In La Crete, he’s often the only one.

“I know what people are thinking: ‘You’re scared of the disease,'” Wall said in a recent interview.

Wall and his family are Mennonite, like many families who live in the farming community. But unlike some of their friends, relatives and neighbours, they try, for the most part, to follow the provincial public health restrictions in place to limit the spread of COVID-19. 

Evidence from around the world has shown that masks reduce transmission of the coronavirus and that people who are immunized have far greater protection against COVID-19 and severe outcomes than those who are not.

“We essentially stopped going to church because the pandemic restrictions were that they were limited to a certain size — and none of the local churches that we know of were respecting that,” said Wall.

Wall feeds the cattle that keep him and his family sustained on their farmstead, located just outside of La Crete. (Paige Parsons/CBC)

In December 2020, one local church, Grace Bible Fellowship, published a recording of a sermon by Pastor Mike Hovland where he described the province’s public health restrictions as “tyranny” and suggested church members should ignore them. 

“Each of us need to answer these questions for our own selves, but I say our fellowship and our worship is much too important for us to obey these mandates,” Hovland said.

Wall said he has wrestled with the question of whether to fully follow public health restrictions, especially as his family members don’t have any medical conditions that put them at greater risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19. 

But he also said he doesn’t buy into the conspiracy theories about the virus and vaccines that have been circulating among some residents of his community. He decided to get vaccinated and says he trusts health officials when they say people sick with COVID-19 have been overwhelming hospitals in urban centres.

“I have not felt that I have a freedom of conscience to go against the restrictions just from the limited perspective of what we have here,” Wall said.  

The La Crete Health Care Centre is in the middle of the small community. (Paige Parsons/CBC)

Rate of COVID-19 remains high

Early in the pandemic, a high per-capita case rate and climbing deaths from COVID-19 in Mackenzie County worried health officials. By August 2020, Alberta Health Services was doing targeted outreach in La Crete, trying to dispel myths and rumours about the virus and encouraging people and businesses to follow public health restrictions. 

In an interview this summer, Mackenzie County Reeve Josh Knelsen told CBC that some residents were taking precautions, but others weren’t.

“People here realize that bills must be paid. You can’t put life on hold, and you protect those that you can,” he said.

WATCH | Meet the people in the region with Alberta’s lowest vaccination rate: 

Inside the community with Alberta’s lowest vaccination rate

4 hours ago

Duration 3:43

The rural community of La Crete has Alberta’s lowest COVID-19 vaccination rate, just 29 per cent of its total population is fully immunized, and many residents who ignore public health guidelines. It’s put the community at risk and left those taking the pandemic seriously feeling isolated. 3:43

The per-capita case rate in the region has been among  the highest in the province at times. Of the 3,328 recorded cases, there have been 53 deaths caused by COVID-19. In the city of Grande Prairie, which has twice the population and has had more than twice the number of cases, there have been a similar number of deaths: 55.

Wall attributes the resistance to public health measures and vaccines to a number of factors. 

Resentment about economic impact is part of it, he said, but it’s been further fuelled by a belief that limits on church capacity curtailed religious freedom and what some see as government overreach. 

“That really gave impetus to conspiracy theories and all of that stuff, saying that they’re just trying to restrict our rights and move us towards a communist state,” he said.

Cash vaccine incentive raised questions for some

Danny Friesen, 34, a Mennonite farmer and businessman in nearby Fort Vermilion, got COVID-19 himself last February. But it didn’t convince him to get vaccinated.

Despite evidence from health authorities around the world showing vaccines are safe and highly effective, and side-effects rare, news about breakthrough cases made Friesen question how well they work. 

Also driving his skepticism is the provincial government’s offer of a $100 incentive to get vaccinated. Facing the lowest vaccination rate in Canada, Alberta introduced the incentive in early September for anyone who got either a first or second dose by Oct. 14.

“If they’re paying you to take a shot, something doesn’t quite add up,” Friesen said, standing on the banks of the Peace River in Fort Vermilion.

Danny Friesen stands along the shore of Peace River in Fort Vermilion, Alta. (Paige Parsons/CBC)

Friesen said when he contracted COVID-19, he stayed home for two weeks. But he doesn’t think the government has any business imposing quarantine rules and other public health restrictions, describing the rules as “two-faced.”

“You got the small business — it’s trying to implement the rules. And then you see [Premier] Jason Kenney and all these other big shots sitting with no masks on, no restrictions, Learjetting all over the world, crossing borders,” said Friesen, whose wife owned a restaurant in Fort Vermilion until recently. 

The public health rules have meant Friesen has missed three funerals over the course of the pandemic due to capacity limits. 

Currently, the province has prohibited indoor weddings and funerals unless the venue has adopted Alberta’s restriction-exemption program, which requires proof of vaccine or a negative test. Even then, they are limited to 50 per cent capacity.

But the province has allowed events such as NHL games to go ahead at 100 per cent capacity, as long as the venue has the restriction-exemption program in place.

Friesen finds it frustrating he has to miss important events while tens of thousands of people are allowed to gather in stadiums.

“Everybody has a story of it, and everybody’s getting sick of it,” he said. 

Frank conversations a way to increase uptake

As the pandemic stretches on, though, the number of Mackenzie County residents willing to get vaccinated has slowly started to climb. Thirty-five per cent of all residents have at least one dose, up from 26 per cent in mid-November. 

Pharmacist Keyur Shah said he saw a bump in people seeking vaccination at his Fort Vermilion pharmacy when the $100 incentive was announced in September. And he said it’s been steady since the introduction of Alberta’s restriction-exemption program.

“What our government is doing seems like it’s working,” he said.

Keyur Shah, standing inside his pharmacy in High Level, Alta., says vaccinations at his clinic are slowly starting to rise. (Trevor Wilson/CBC)

When Shah talks to vaccine-hesitant patients, he said, they often have concerns about side-effects or questions around if it’ll work.

“I urge the patient, ‘Please get the vaccine, just to prevent any kind of hospitalization,'” he said. 

Conversations about vaccines with local health-care workers whom residents already know and trust is a cornerstone in AHS’s efforts to increase vaccine uptake in the area, said Dr. Kathryn Koliaska, the medical officer of health for the north zone.

“It really is a conversation,” Koliaska said. “As the conversation evolves with the pandemic — and, quite frankly, as the pandemic evolves, too — different questions come up. And so to the best of our knowledge, to the best of the scientific evidence available, we will listen to questions and then answer them and respond to them.”

AHS staff want to hear the specific worries people have about the vaccine — whether it’s a rumour they’ve heard or something they saw on social media, Koliaska said.

“If someone has that in the back of their mind, any of the other information we present, does it really help until we’ve answered the question that someone’s really worried about?” she said. 

Asked about the apparent widespread disregard for public health restrictions in La Crete, Koliaska acknowledged that legal options for enforcement exist. But it’s a “very, very challenging question,” she said.

AHS is better at education and service delivery, Koliaska said, and turns to enforcement only in a limited number of cases.

“Ultimately, what we care about in Alberta Health Services is about keeping people healthy and keeping people safe, keeping people out of hospital,” she said. “That’s what’s actually really important.”

When entering the Dene Tha’ First Nation in Bushe River, Alta., signs direct you to wash your hands to help control the spread of COVID-19. (Paige Parsons/CBC)

A diverse community

Alberta’s Ministry of Health declined to provide a breakdown of immunization rates for different municipalities and First Nations within Mackenzie County, but visits to different communities across the county suggest attitudes about COVID-19 vary.

While there is a large Mennonite population, particularly in and around La Crete, the area is diverse. A Métis settlement and several First Nations call the region home, and between agriculture, forestry and oil and gas, many others come to the area for work.

One large sign near the Dene Tha’ First Nation band office at Bushe River encourages handwashing. Another directs workers arriving from outside the First Nation to check in for COVID-19 screening. Handwritten signs at a nearby convenience store post updates on case counts in surrounding communities.

In the community of High Level, masking in businesses is de rigueur, and local restaurant staff check for proof of vaccination. 

The town is a hub for accommodations for workers, whose steady presence has helped restaurants and hotels in the northern town stay afloat, said Tareq Morad, president of his family’s hospitality company, which operates five hotels and attached restaurants in High Level.

A chef at the Best Western Mirage in High Level, Alta., prepares dinner for local customers. (Paige Parsons/CBC)

When Alberta lifted nearly all public health restrictions over the summer, Morad said there was a surge in business as locals made their way back to his dining rooms.

But then came the restriction-exemption program, which requires restaurants to check for proof of vaccine if they want to open for indoor dining.  

“Local traffic and demand really, really diminished due to low vaccination rates in our area,” Morad said.

Morad’s businesses enforce health restrictions, but he has empathy for people he’s spoken with who have various reasons for not wanting to be immunized. He feels for provincial decision-makers, too, he says.

“It’s a tough one,” Morad said. “There was no playbook for this, right?”

Wall and his family, meanwhile, are debating whether or not to stick to the rules and face another lonely winter without social gatherings.

“At some point we’re also humans, we have social needs,” he said.

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Health

Measles case reported locally turns out to be negative: health unit

Published

 on

NEWS RELEASE
SIMCOE MUSKOKA DISTRICT HEALTH UNIT
*************************
On March 26, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) was notified by Public Health Ontario’s (PHO) laboratory that due to laboratory error, the case of measles that had been lab-confirmed positive on March 12, based on symptoms and a positive urine measles laboratory result by PHO’s laboratory, is in fact negative for the measles virus.

“With this new information of the negative lab result, we believe that that individual was not infected with measles and that there has not been any public exposure to measles resulting from this individual’s illness,” said Dr. Charles Gardner, medical officer of health. “We recognize that notifying the public of what we believed to be a positive measles case in our area created worry, anxiety and disruption for some, and we regret this.

“We do know that, despite best efforts, on rare occasions laboratory errors can occur. We are working closely with the PHO’s laboratory to do all that we can to ensure that such an incident does not occur again.”

Measles is a highly contagious viral infection that spreads very easily through airborne transmission. The measles virus can live in the air or on surfaces for up to two hours.

300x250x1

Symptoms of measles begin seven to 21 days after exposure and include fever, runny nose, cough, drowsiness, and red eyes. Small white spots appear on the inside of the mouth and throat but are not always present. Three to seven days after symptoms begin, a red, blotchy rash appears on the face and then progresses down the body.

The risk of transmission to those vaccinated with two doses is low, and when it does occur tends to show a reduction in the severity of these symptoms.

“Although we are relieved for the individual involved, and for all Simcoe-Muskoka residents, that this case has now been confirmed as negative, we know that measles is still active in Ontario at this time and the potential remains for new cases to arise, especially given the increase in Ontarians travelling to areas in the world that have higher numbers of measles cases,” said Dr. Gardner. “This is why we continue to advise individuals to keep up to date with their routine immunizations, including measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination.”

The risk of measles is low for people who have been fully immunized with two doses of measles vaccine or those born before 1970; however, many children have been delayed in receiving their routine childhood immunizations and people who have not had two doses of measles vaccine are at higher risk of contracting the disease.

People who do get sick usually recover without treatment, but measles can be more severe for infants, pregnant women, and those with compromised immune systems. Possible complications include middle-ear infections, pneumonia, diarrhea, or encephalitis (swelling of the brain) and occasionally death in the very young. Even individuals who are up to date with the measles vaccine should watch for symptoms of measles for 21 days after exposure.

For more information about measles, please visit smdhu.org or call Health Connection at 705-721-7520 or 1-877-721-7520, Monday to Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to speak with a public health professional.

*************************

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Health

Kate Middleton Not Alone. Cancer On Rise For People Under 50, Say Experts

Published

 on

<!–

–>

Kate Middleton revealed on Friday that her cancer was discovered after she received abdominal surgery

London:

300x250x1

When Catherine, Princess of Wales, revealed she was being treated for cancer last week, part of the shock was that an otherwise healthy 42-year-old has a disease that mostly plagues older people.

However, researchers have been increasingly sounding the alarm that more and more people under 50 are getting cancer — and no one knows why.

Across the world, the rate of under-50s diagnosed with 29 common cancers surged by nearly 80 percent between 1990 and 2019, a large study in BMJ Oncology found last year.

window._rrCode = window._rrCode || [];_rrCode.push(function() (function(v,d,o,ai)ai=d.createElement(“script”);ai.defer=true;ai.async=true;ai.src=v.location.protocol+o;d.head.appendChild(ai);)(window, document, “//a.vdo.ai/core/v-ndtv/vdo.ai.js”); );

The researchers predicted the number of new cancer cases among younger adults will rise another 30 percent by the end of this decade, with wealthy countries particularly affected.

The increase in cases — and soaring global population — means that the number of deaths among under 50s from cancer has risen by nearly 28 percent over the last 30 years.

This occurred even as the odds of people of all ages surviving cancer have roughly doubled over the last half century.

Shivan Sivakumar, a cancer researcher at the UK’s University of Birmingham, called it an “epidemic” of young adult cancer.

Since Kate Middleton revealed on Friday that her cancer was discovered after she received abdominal surgery earlier this year, Sivakumar and other doctors have spoken out about the uptick in younger cancer patients they have been seeing at their clinics.

While breast cancer remains the most common for people under 50, the researchers expressed particular concern about the rise of gastrointestinal cancers — such as of the colon, pancreas, liver and oesophagus — in younger adults.

Colon cancer is now the leading cause of cancer deaths in men under 50 in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. For women, it is number two — behind only breast cancer.

One high profile case of colorectal cancer was “Black Panther” actor Chadwick Boseman, who died at the age of 43 in 2020.

Why is this happening?

“We just don’t have the evidence yet” to say exactly what is causing this rise, Sivakumar told AFP, adding it was likely a combination of factors.

Helen Coleman, a cancer epidemiology professor at Queen’s University Belfast who has studied early onset cancer in Northern Ireland, told AFP there were two potential explanations.

One is that people in their 40s were exposed to factors known to cause cancer — such tobacco smoke, alcohol or being obese — at an earlier age than previous generations.

She pointed out that the “obesity epidemic” did not start until the 1980s.

Sivakumar felt that at least part of the puzzle could be explained by obesity.

However, there is “another wave” of under-50 patients who are neither obese nor genetically predisposed still getting cancer, he emphasised, adding that this could not be put down to “statistical chance”.

The other theory, Coleman said, is that “something different” has been going on with her generation.

Fingers have been pointed out a range of possible culprits — including chemicals, new drugs and microplastics — but none have been proven.

Some have suggested that so-called ultra-processed foods could be to blame. “But there’s very little data to back any of that up,” Coleman said.

Another theory is that the food we eat could be changing our gut microbiome.

While there is nothing conclusive yet, Coleman said her own research suggested that cancer causes changes to the microbiome, not the other way around.

Anti-vaxx conspiracy theorists have even tried to blame Covid-19 vaccines.

This is easily disproven, because the rise in young adult cancer has taken place over decades, but the vaccines have only been around for a few years.

What can be done?

To address the rise in younger colorectal cancer, in 2021 the US lowered the recommended age for screening to 45. Other countries have yet to follow suit.

But the researchers hoped that Catherine’s experience would remind people at home that they should consult their doctor if they sense anything is wrong.

“People know their bodies really well,” Sivakumar said.

window._rrCode = window._rrCode || [];_rrCode.push(function(){ (function(d,t) var s=d.createElement(t); var s1=d.createElement(t); if (d.getElementById(‘jsw-init’)) return; s.setAttribute(‘id’,’jsw-init’); s.setAttribute(‘src’,’https://www.jiosaavn.com/embed/_s/embed.js?ver=’+Date.now()); s.onload=function()document.getElementById(‘jads’).style.display=’block’;s1.appendChild(d.createTextNode(‘JioSaavnEmbedWidget.init(a:”1″, q:”1″, embed_src:”https://www.jiosaavn.com/embed/playlist/85481065″,”dfp_medium” : “1”,partner_id: “ndtv”);’));d.body.appendChild(s1);; if (document.readyState === ‘complete’) d.body.appendChild(s); else if (document.readyState === ‘loading’) var interval = setInterval(function() if(document.readyState === ‘complete’) d.body.appendChild(s); clearInterval(interval); , 100); else window.onload = function() d.body.appendChild(s); ; )(document,’script’); });

“If you really feel that something isn’t right, don’t delay — just get yourself checked out.”

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Health

Almost 3,000 students suspended in Waterloo Region over immunization issues

Published

 on

Close to 3,000 children attending elementary school across Waterloo Region were suspended from school on Wednesday morning for not having up-to-date immunization records.

The region says Waterloo Public Health suspended 2,969 students under the Immunization of School Pupils Act (ISPA).

For several months, the region has been campaigning for people to get their children’s vaccinations up to date, including sending letters home to parents on a couple of occasions, warning that students’ records needed to be up to date or they would be suspended.

300x250x1

It announced in January that 32,000 students did not have up-to-date records: 22,000 elementary students and 10,000 high school students.


The latest health and medical news
emailed to you every Sunday.

“We have made remarkable progress from the original 27,567 immunization notices we sent to parents in November and December 2023,” Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, medical officer of health, stated.

“Since that time, we have resolved more than 24,500 outdated vaccination records, providing students with valuable protection against these serious and preventable diseases.”

The high school students still have a few weeks to get their records up to date or else face suspension.

The ISPA requires students to have proof-of-vaccination records for diphtheria, polio, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (chickenpox) and meningitis, which must be on file with public health.

Public health says caregivers whose children are suspended will need to book an appointment at regionofwaterloo.ca/vaccines for clinics, which will be held in Cambridge and Waterloo on weekdays.

“Given the high number of suspensions, it may take several days before you can be seen at an appointment and return your child to school,” a release from the region warns.

“Record submission and questions must be done in person to ensure immediate resolution.”

The last time suspensions over immunizations were issued was in 2019, when 1,032 students were suspended.

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending