Health
Latest: Some French health care workers suspended, no shot – North Shore News
WASHINGTON — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn’t often make many headlines. Now the Labor Department agency has been tossed into the national debate over federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
President Joe Biden directed OSHA to write a rule forcing employers with at least 100 workers to require staff get vaccinated or produce weekly test results showing they are virus-free.
When Congress created OSHA 50 years ago to police workplace safety, 38 workers were dying on the job every day. Now that figure is closer to 15 — even though the American workforce has more than doubled. OSHA writes rules designed to protect workers from dangers such as toxic chemicals, rickety scaffolding and cave-ins at construction sites.
“The hazard in this case is the infectious worker,” says epidemiologist David Michaels, OSHA director in the Obama administration. “This rule will tell employers: You have to take steps to make sure potentially infectious workers don’t come into the workplace.”
The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 650,000 Americans.
The rule will take effect in 29 states where OSHA has jurisdiction, according to a primer by the law firm Fisher Phillips. Other states such as California and North Carolina, with their own federally approved workplace safety agencies, will have up to 30 days to adopt equivalent measures.
“Most employers in my view should greet this with relief,” says Celine McNicholas, former special counsel at the National Labor Relations Board. “This gives them a roadmap of exactly what they need to do.”
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MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:
— Small agency, big job: Biden tasks OSHA with vaccine mandate
— EXPLAINER: What are current COVID-19 guidelines for schools?
— World leaders must be vaccinated to speak at U.N. General Assembly meeting
— Long weekend holiday turns into 9-week lockdown for AP Vietnam reporter
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— See AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
ROME — Italian workers in both the public and private sectors must provide a health pass to access the workplace starting on Oct. 15.
That’s under a decree passed Thursday by Premier Mario Draghi’s broad-based coalition government. The Green Pass measures require proof of vaccination, a negative result on a recent rapid test or recovered from COVID-19 in the last six months.
Unions and right-wing parties are urging employers to provide free coronavirus tests to workers. Slovenia and Greece adopted similar measures this week.
Italy’s measures underscore the government’s determination that the nation won’t face another lockdown even as the numbers of new cases increase, mostly among the non-vaccinated.
The Green Pass requirement covers 14 million private sector workers and 3.4 million in state-supported jobs. Until now, only medical personnel needed to be vaccinated, while the Green Pass mandate was in place only for school employees.
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LONDON — The Scottish government has asked for military help to relieve long waits for ambulances and treatment.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense says it received a request and “we are working hard to identify where we can most effectively assist.”
Pressure on Scottish authorities grew after a 65-year-old Glasgow man died while waiting 40 hours for an ambulance. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon apologized “unreservedly to anyone that has suffered or is suffering unacceptably long waits.”
She says challenges to the emergency services were “mirrored in health services across the U.K. and indeed many parts of the world because of the realities of COVID.”
The military has been called in several times during the pandemic to bolster civilian health authorities. Scotland registered the highest per capital coronavirus rates in the U.K. in recent weeks, though the number of cases has started to level off.
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BEIJING — Chinese health officials say more than 1 billion people have been fully vaccinated in the world’s most populous country.
That represents 72% of its 1.4 billion people. A National Health Commission spokesperson says 2.16 billion doses have been administered and 1.01 billion people have been fully vaccinated.
The announcement comes as China faces a new outbreak of the delta variant in the southeastern province of Fujian, where 200 cases have been confirmed in the past six days.
Authorities have locked down affected neighborhoods, closed schools and entertainment venues and restricted travel out of Fujian in an effort to keep the virus from spreading.
China has largely stopped the spread by imposing restrictions and mass testing whenever new cases are found. It also limits entry to the country and requires people who arrive to quarantine in a hotel for at least two weeks.
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NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he reached out to U.N. Secretary General António Guterres two weeks ago, letting him know the city’s vaccination requirements will apply to world leaders at next week’s General Assembly meeting.
The mayor says he understands the U.N. has its own rules and jurisdiction but it was important to have “continuity” of the city’s vaccination rules to protect the progress made against the coronavirus. He says Guterres has been cooperative and understanding.
De Blaiso also responded to objections from Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia about the requirement, saying, “If the Russian ambassador is against it, I’m for it.”
“I have no words for Vladimir Putin and everything else that’s come out of Russia but they’ve invalidated themselves in so many ways, including trying to disrupt our elections,” he said during a news conference.
Among Nebenzia’s objections is the city rule that only World Health Organization-approved vaccines will be accepted, which doesn’t include Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.
Participants must show proof of vaccination to gain entry. The city will offer free, walk-in vaccinations — Johnson & Johnson’s single shot — and testing outside the U.N. during the meeting. It’s not immediately clear how the vaccination requirement will be enforced, but it will be up to the U.N.
Some 104 heads of state and government and 23 cabinet ministers plan to deliver speeches in person from the Assembly hall. Leaders of other nations will speak by video.
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TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas schools are experiencing a growing number of coronavirus outbreaks, and school-aged children are getting infected more frequently than any age group.
The state Department of Health and Environment’s latest data shows 63 active coronavirus clusters in schools across the state on Wednesday. Those clusters were responsible for 408 cases and one hospitalization.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the number of active clusters is up from 31 with 179 cases last week. Also, 34 of this week’s reported clusters are new.
The state’s data shows 450 new cases per 100,000 children ages 5 to 17 the week of Sept. 5.
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PARIS — About 3,000 French health care workers were suspended for not meeting this week’s deadline to get mandatory coronavirus vaccinations, the health minister said Thursday.
Most of those suspended work in support positions and were not medical staff, Health Minister Olivier Veran told RTL radio. The number suspended was lower than projected ahead of the Wednesday deadline.
A few dozen of France’s 2.7 million health care workers have quit their jobs because of the vaccine mandate, he says.
France ordered all health care workers to get vaccinated or be suspended without pay. Most French people support the measure. However, it prompted weeks of protests by a vocal minority against the vaccine mandate.
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BOISE, Idaho — Idaho’s public health leaders have expanded health care rationing statewide amid a massive increase in the number of coronavirus patients requiring hospitalization.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare made the announcement Thursday. St. Luke’s Health System, Idaho’s largest hospital network, asked state health leaders to allow “crisis standards of care” on Wednesday because the increase in COVID-19 patients who are unvaccinated has exhausted the state’s medical resources.
Crisis standards of care means that scarce resources, such as ICU beds, will be allotted to those patients most likely to survive. Kootenai Health in the city of Coeur d’Alene was the first hospital in the state to officially enter crisis standards of care last week.
Idaho is among the least vaccinated U.S. states, with only about 40% of its residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Only Wyoming and West Virginia have lower vaccination rates.
More than 1,300 new coronavirus cases were reported to the state on Wednesday, according to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. The mostly rural state ranks 12th in the U.S. for cases per capita.
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MADRID — Spanish health authorities have approved an additional dose of a COVID-19 vaccine for residents of nursing homes and increased the availability for people with suppressed immune systems.
The new policy includes cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Spain had only previously authorized an additional dose for people with organ transplants and certain groups with suppressed immune systems.
Spain has fully vaccinated 75% of its population, with rates at 98% among those 70 years and up.
Of the 85,000 Spaniards who have lost their lives to the coronavirus, more than 20,500 were residing in nursing homes. An additional 10,500 deaths in nursing homes are suspected from COVID-19 due to symptoms, but people weren’t tested in time to confirm the cause.
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LONDON — Britain is giving coronavirus booster shots to people over age 50 and those 16 to 49 with underlying medical conditions.
The National Health Service says the first shots were administered Thursday to health care workers.
That means more than 30 million people are due to be given a booster at least six months after their second dose of vaccine. More than 81% of British adults have received two doses.
The decision to offer booster shots is not recommended by the World Health Organization, which has asked wealthy nations to delay giving them until every country has vaccinated at least 40% of their people. So far, only a few wealthy countries have recommended the use of boosters.
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HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe officials have told all government employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or they won’t be allowed to come to work.
It wasn’t clear what would happen to those who refused to be vaccinated. State-owned newspaper The Herald reported the government would adopt a policy where unvaccinated workers wouldn’t be paid.
The government is Zimbabwe’s biggest employer and has about 500,000 workers.
Zimbabwe is one of the leading African countries in terms of vaccinations. More than 12% of the southern African nation’s 15 million people are fully vaccinated. That compares to just 3.6% of people across the continent, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Zimbabwe has received more than 11 million doses, mainly the Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines. The southern African nation announced last month it was opening COVID-19 vaccinations to children ages 14 to 17.
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MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin says dozens of his staff have been infected with the coronavirus and he’ll continue his self-isolation because of the outbreak.
The Kremlin announced this week he was self-isolating after someone in his inner circle was infected. Putin tested negative for the coronavirus. He was previously fully vaccinated with Russia’s Sputnik V.
Putin said Thursday the infections were extensive and “now we have to observe the self-isolation regime for several days.” He was speaking by video link to a summit of the Russia-led Collective Treaty Security Organization.
Russia was the first country to roll out a coronavirus vaccine, but less than 30% of the country is fully vaccinated. The national coronavirus task force says there’s been about 7.2 million cases in the country of 145 million and 195,835 confirmed deaths.
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BRUSSELS — The European Union says it will fund its new heath preparedness and rapid response agency to the tune of 30 billion euros ($35 billion) over the next six years.
The Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority was officially launched Thursday. The aim of HERA is to make sure the EU will be ready when the next crisis strikes.
The 27-nation bloc lagged the U.S. and Britain in vaccination rates because of distribution issues before regrouping and meeting its goal of having 70% of EU adults vaccinated this summer.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who first announced plans for such a medical response agency last year, said this week that the overall total until 2027 could reach 50 billion euros ($59 billion) by 2027.
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LONDON — The World Health Organization’s Africa director says COVID-19 cases across the continent dropped 30% last week, but says it’s hardly reassuring given the dire shortage of vaccines.
WHO’s Dr. Matshidiso Moeti says only 3.6% of Africa’s population have been fully immunized, noting export bans and the hoarding of vaccines by rich countries has resulted in “a chokehold” on vaccine supplies to Africa. “As long as wealthy countries lock COVAX and the African Union out of the market, Africa will miss its vaccination goals,” Moeti said, referring to the U.N.-backed effort to share vaccines with other countries.
She says even if all planned vaccine shipments by COVAX and others arrive on the continent by the end of the year, Africa will still be at least 500 million doses short of African leaders’ initial target of vaccinating 60% of the population by the end of the year.
Dr Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija, Chair of the African Vaccine Delivery Alliance, says some countries donated vaccines that were set to expire within about six weeks, making it difficult for African countries to immunize people before the doses expired.
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The Associated Press
Peel Region has a massive childhood vaccination backlog, with more than half of children missing at least one mandated vaccine dose.
That’s the warning from Peel’s acting medical officer of health, who says the lack of school immunizations is spelling trouble for communicable diseases.
“Without significant dedicated resources, we estimate it will take seven years to complete screening catch up and achieve pre-pandemic coverage rates,” said Dr. Katherine Bingham in a presentation to Peel council on April 11.
She says low immunization coverage among students significantly increases the risk for the re-emergence of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles.
Unless children have a valid exception, the following vaccines are mandatory for Ontario school children: diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, meningitis, whooping cough and chicken pox. Several other vaccines are strongly recommended by public health units and doctors.
Advocates, doctors and Peel public health are advocating for more attention to the issue, more money from the province for public health and the formation of an action plan to quickly address the currently low vaccination rates.
Peel stacks lower than the provincial average on a number of vaccinations. For example, just over 37 per cent of seven-year-olds had been vaccinated against measles compared to more than 52 per cent province-wide as of August 31, 2022.
Peel Public Health says many children missed vaccinations they would have received at school or a doctor’s offices. Reporting of vaccines and enforcement also fell behind in the pandemic. To tackle the backlog more quickly, Peel Public Health opened public clinics for mandatory vaccines as of April 1 of this year.
‘We never thought it would be us’: mother
Jill Promoli, a Mississauga mother, lost her son, Jude, to a school flu outbreak eight years ago even though he was vaccinated. She’s now an illness prevention advocate championing immunizations and said the low vaccination rates in Peel children are “very concerning.”
“We never thought it would be us, but it is going to be someone,” said Promoli, who’s also a Peel District School Board Trustee, but did not speak to CBC Toronto in that capacity.
“The reason that we do vaccinate against these diseases is not because they’re inconvenient or uncomfortable, but it’s because people do die from them,” she said.
Promoli says she’s also concerned about children who are vaccinated being exposed, given vaccines do not provide complete immunity.
Pediatric and infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anna Banerji, called the proportion of Peel students missing a mandated dose “very high.”
“It needs to be addressed,” she said.
She says part of the problem in the region is access, including to family doctors, but the region also has a diverse population, which can mean additional challenges.
“I think that language and cultural support and trying to get these kids vaccinated will be very important,” she said.
Banerji also pointed to vaccine hesitancy being higher for some coming out of the pandemic.
She says seven years is far too long to have school-aged children not protected against such concerning diseases.
Needs will only grow, says Caledon mayor
The public health unit says they have less money than several nearby health units to try and tackle the issue, receiving one of the lowest provincial per capita funding rates in the province.
For cost-shared programs, in Peel, public health was funded by the province at approximately $34 per capita in 2022, while Toronto and Hamilton each received $49 per capita, according to the health authority’s report.
Caledon Mayor Annette Groves says the funding needs to change now to address problems that will continue to climb for Peel Public Health.
“Peel is a growing region and there will be greater need for funding as our resident population increases,” she said in a statement.
Province says funding has been increasing
Asked why Peel Public Health gets fewer dollars per capita, Ministry of Health spokesperson Hannah Jensen didn’t dispute Toronto and Hamilton received more funding per capita.
“Since 2018, our government has increased our investment into Peel Public Health by nearly 20 per cent,” she said in a statement.
Jensen said that’s in addition to the $100 million the provincial government invested into public health units across the province to provide support throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government has restored a funding model where the province pays 75 percent of cost sharing for public health units and municipalities including Peel pay 25 percent, she said, noting the province had been paying 70 per cent for some time, so this represented an increase.
The province also increased base funding by one per cent per year, over the next three years, starting this year for public health units and municipalities including Peel, she added.
Asked why Peel would still receive a lower per capita rate that some of its neighbours, the province did not respond directly.
She says the government is working closely with its partners to get children caught up on vaccines.
Promoli says the per capita discrepancy in funding between regions is “shocking” and diverse populations need more, not less.
“It’s always important to try to meet people where they are,” she said. “To hear those questions, to hear the reasons why people are hesitant or even refusing and to try to understand…and then find the best ways to help people make decisions that will best protect their families.”
Peel Public Health says it plans to return to council soon with more details about the challenges and its plans to address them.
Health
It's possible to rely on plant proteins without sacrificing training gains, new studies say – The Globe and Mail
At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, a scientist named Paul Schenk surveyed the eating habits of top athletes from around the world. The Canadians reported plowing through more than 800 grams of meat per day on average; the Americans were downing more than two litres of milk daily.
While there have been plenty of changes in sports nutrition since then, the belief that meat and dairy are the best fuel for building muscle persists. These days, though, a growing number of athletes are interested in reducing or eliminating their reliance on animal proteins, for environmental, ethical or health reasons. A pair of new studies bolsters the case that it’s possible to rely on plant proteins without sacrificing training gains, as long as you pick your proteins carefully.
The standard objection to plant proteins is that they don’t have the right mix of essential amino acids needed to assemble new muscle fibres. Unlike animal proteins, most plant proteins are missing or low in at least one essential amino acid.
In particular, there’s one specific amino acid, leucine, that seems to play a special role in triggering the synthesis of new muscle. It’s particularly abundant in whey, one of the two proteins (along with casein) found in milk. That’s why whey protein is the powdered beverage of choice in gyms around the world, backed by decades of convincing research, which was often funded by the dairy industry.
But one of the reasons whey looks so good may be that we haven’t fully explored the alternatives. A 2018 study by Luc van Loon of the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, for example, tested nine vegetable proteins including wheat, hemp, soy, brown rice, pea and corn. To their surprise, they found that corn protein contains 13.5 per cent leucine – even more than whey.
Based on that insight, van Loon decided to pit corn against milk in a direct test of muscle protein synthesis. Volunteers consumed 30 grams of one of the proteins; a series of blood tests and muscle biopsies were collected over the next five hours to determine how much of the ingested protein was being turned into new muscle fibres. The results, which appeared in the journal Amino Acids, were straightforward: Despite all the hype about whey, there was no discernible difference between them.
A second study, this one published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise by a team led by Benjamin Wall of the University of Exeter in Britain, had similar findings. Instead of corn, it used a mix of 40 per cent pea, 40 per cent brown rice and 20 per cent canola proteins. Since different plants have different amino acids profiles, mixing complementary proteins has long been suggested as a way overcoming the deficiencies of any single plant protein. Sure enough, the protein blend triggered just as much new muscle synthesis as whey.
On the surface, the message from these studies is straightforward: Plant proteins are – or at least can be – as effective as even the best animal proteins for supporting muscle growth. There are a few caveats to consider, though. One is that the studies used isolated protein powders rather than whole foods. You would need nearly nine cobs of corn to get the 30 grams of protein used in van Loon’s study, compared to just three-and-a-half cups of milk.
Another is that plants are generally harder to digest, meaning that not all the amino acids will be usable. That may not be a problem for healthy young adults consuming 30 grams of protein at once, which is enough to trigger a near-maximal muscle response. But for older people, who tend to have blunted muscle-building responses to protein, or in situations where you’re getting a smaller dose of protein, the details of protein quality may become more important.
Of course, the effectiveness of plant proteins won’t be news to notable plant-based athletes such as ultrarunner Scott Jurek or basketball star Chris Paul – but it’s encouraging to see the science finally begin to catch up.
Alex Hutchinson is the author of Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance. Follow him on Threads @sweat_science.
CLOVER, S.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Poultry farmers across the Carolinas aren’t taking any chances. Many are turning to strict protocols as another wave of bird flu continues to threaten the chicken population across the country.
Since 2022, it is estimated more than 90 million birds have either died from the virus or were killed to prevent further spread in the U.S.
“We try to make them the happiest as possible. We always say a happy chicken is a tasty chicken,” owner of Eden Farms Adam Shumate said.
With their happiness in mid, Shumate also wants to keep his chickens alive and healthy. On his farm in Clover, he has implemented protocols to minimize a potential bird flu outbreak.
“We want to be prepared,” he said. “We feel like the things that we can do to prevent it first is the best case because we don’t want to start from scratch with a whole new flock.”
Because bird flu is commonly spread through bird droppings, Shumate is limiting the number of people coming into contact with his flocks. He says this would minimize the chances of someone walking onto the property with bird droppings on the bottoms of their shoes.
On top of monitoring the chickens closely, Shumate and his staff are constantly cleaning their equipment, including what they wear on their feet.
“We have specific shoes that are just for working with the flock and for when we are taking care of them,” Shumate said.
Other farmers, like Holly Burrell, haven’t let a visitor step foot near her hens in Gastonia for more than two years.
No visitors or outside cars are welcomed, and her chickens are separated in what she calls “tent cities.”
“We don’t want to do that because we want them to live their best life,” Burrell said in a 2022 interview with Queen City News.
Recently, health officials have detected bird flu in other animals like seals, squirrels and dolphins.
Earlier this month, bird flu was detected in one of the state’s dairy cow herds. While concerning, state health officials say the overall risk to the general public remains low.
“I’ve not heard of any cases, zero cases of people being affected by this virus associated with food consumption, milk consumption with egg consumption… any of these products we’re getting from farm animals is not really been associated with any human risk at this point,” said Dr. Michael Martin, director of the Veterinary Division at the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
As of March 28, at least 80 birds in North Carolina were detected with the virus. Back in York County, Shumate says it all starts with the individual farms.
“When it comes to wildlife and things that that, there is only so much that you can do is be observant,” Shumate said. “Keep a healthy flock that way they can find off the infections that may come about.”
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