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No masks and 4th doses? Experts concerned about ‘mixed’ COVID-19 messaging – Global News

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More Canadians are now eligible for a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose, but with less than half of the population having received a third shot and most restrictions lifted across the country, experts are questioning the “mixed messaging” coming from public health officials.

On Tuesday, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) published new guidance, recommending second boosters for older Canadians over the age of 70.

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Several provinces, including Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Alberta and Manitoba, have announced their plans to roll out fourth doses to older demographics.

The rollout comes as Canadian provinces grapple with a sixth wave of COVID-19, which public health officials say is being driven by the highly-transmissible BA.2 subvariant of Omicron and lifting of restrictions including masking and proof of vaccination, in most settings.

Experts say Canadians need more information and better communication from public health authorities on how this fourth dose could be helpful in fighting the latest Omicron surge.

“I think a lot of the messaging right now is very mixed,” said Dr. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at Sinai Health and University Health Network hospitals in Toronto.






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6th COVID-19 wave: Provinces diverge in measures, mandates


6th COVID-19 wave: Provinces diverge in measures, mandates

Sinha said it is difficult to convince people to get a fourth dose when at the same time they are being told that masks are not necessary anymore — and it’s up to them to wear one or not.

Quebec has decided to prolong its mask requirement in public places through the month of April amid a surge in hospitalizations and cases related to COVID-19.

But Ontario says there is no need to re-impose a widespread mask mandate in the province despite evidence of increased COVID-19 spread. As things stand now, only Nunavut, P.E.I. and Quebec still have their mask mandates in place.

Most provinces told Global News Wednesday they have no plans to reintroduce COVID-19 restrictions.

“I think all this mixed messaging is challenging because now people hear fourth doses. ‘Well, what does it matter? Why would I get a fourth dose when I don’t even need to wear a mask?’” said Sinha.






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Ontario’s premier Ford denies he’s downplaying any perceived resurgence of COVID-19, says province doing ‘fairly well’

Kerry Bowman, a professor of bioethics and global health at the University of Toronto, is concerned that what is being communicated — or not — is not only creating confusion but sowing divisions.

“I think our messages are becoming increasingly diluted. And also, we know that as a society, we are increasingly divided as well on so much of this,” he said.

A national survey by the Canadian Hub for Applied and Social Research at the University of Saskatchewan published Monday found that 72 per cent of respondents said the COVID-19 pandemic was a divisive issue over the past year.

About 40 per cent of those surveyed said they have reduced contact with friends or family over an argument about the pandemic or politics.

Fully vaccinated definition

Even though more than 81 per cent of the Canadian population has received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, uptake of a first booster, or third dose, has been slow — currently at 47 per cent.

Sinha said he is particularly worried that among older vulnerable Canadians, only 80 per cent have received three doses compared to 94 per cent who have gotten two doses.

Read more:

Feds consider adding COVID-19 boosters to be considered fully vaccinated

Part of the problem, according to Sinha, is that Canada’s definition of what is considered to be fully vaccinated still includes two doses when older adults are now recommended to get four.

“I think we really need to start getting rid of this term ‘fully vaccinated’ as meaning just two doses,” he said. “It’s time we start revising our language.”






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Frustration rises over COVID-19 surge amid lifting measures, new XE recombinant variant

Bowman said convincing people who have had COVID-19 after being triple-vaccinated to get a fourth dose is “going to be very difficult.”

This is why the onus falls on the public health authorities to provide more information and evidence on the need for additional doses, he said.

Read more:

6th COVID-19 wave: Experts urge masking, boosters to tackle latest surge

According to NACI, the intent of a booster dose is to restore protection that may have decreased over time or is no longer sufficient in individuals who initially responded adequately to a complete primary vaccine series.

In the context of sixth wave, a fourth dose will be “really important” to lessen the burden of disease among the oldest Canadians, said Sinha.

“I think we’re doing a disservice for older people when they don’t appreciate that actually four doses is what we’re recommending for you now and that if you only have two, you’re only 50 per cent to where you need to be,” he said.

— with files from Rachel Gilmore and The Canadian Press 

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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Australia plans a social media ban for children under 16

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MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Australian government announced on Thursday what it described as world-leading legislation that would institute an age limit of 16 years for children to start using social media, and hold platforms responsible for ensuring compliance.

“Social media is doing harm to our kids and I’m calling time on it,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

The legislation will be introduced in Parliament during its final two weeks in session this year, which begin on Nov. 18. The age limit would take effect 12 months after the law is passed, Albanese told reporters.

The platforms including X, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook would need to use that year to work out how to exclude Australian children younger than 16.

“I’ve spoken to thousands of parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles. They, like me, are worried sick about the safety of our kids online,” Albanese said.

The proposal comes as governments around the world are wrestling with how to supervise young people’s use of technologies like smartphones and social media.

Social media platforms would be penalized for breaching the age limit, but under-age children and their parents would not.

“The onus will be on social media platforms to demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access. The onus won’t be on parents or young people,” Albanese said.

Antigone Davis, head of safety at Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said the company would respect any age limitations the government wants to introduce.

“However, what’s missing is a deeper discussion on how we implement protections, otherwise we risk making ourselves feel better, like we have taken action, but teens and parents will not find themselves in a better place,” Davis said in a statement.

She added that stronger tools in app stores and operating systems for parents to control what apps their children can use would be a “simple and effective solution.”

X did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. TikTok declined to comment.

The Digital Industry Group Inc., an advocate for the digital industry in Australia, described the age limit as a “20th Century response to 21st Century challenges.”

“Rather than blocking access through bans, we need to take a balanced approach to create age-appropriate spaces, build digital literacy and protect young people from online harm,” DIGI managing director Sunita Bose said in a statement.

More than 140 Australian and international academics with expertise in fields related to technology and child welfare signed an open letter to Albanese last month opposing a social media age limit as “too blunt an instrument to address risks effectively.”

Jackie Hallan, a director at the youth mental health service ReachOut, opposed the ban. She said 73% of young people across Australia accessing mental health support did so through social media.

“We’re uncomfortable with the ban. We think young people are likely to circumvent a ban and our concern is that it really drives the behavior underground and then if things go wrong, young people are less likely to get support from parents and carers because they’re worried about getting in trouble,” Hallan said.

Child psychologist Philip Tam said a minimum age of 12 or 13 would have been more enforceable.

“My real fear honestly is that the problem of social media will simply be driven underground,” Tam said.

Australian National University lawyer Associate Prof. Faith Gordon feared separating children from there platforms could create pressures within families.

Albanese said there would be exclusions and exemptions in circumstances such as a need to continue access to educational services.

But parental consent would not entitle a child under 16 to access social media.

Earlier this year, the government began a trial of age-restriciton technologies. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, the online watchdog that will police compliance, will use the results of that trial to provide platforms with guidance on what reasonable steps they can take.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the year-long lead-in would ensure the age limit could be implemented in a “very practical way.”

“There does need to be enhanced penalties to ensure compliance,” Rowland said.

“Every company that operates in Australia, whether domiciled here or otherwise, is expected and must comply with Australian law or face the consequences,” she added.

The main opposition party has given in-principle support for an age limit at 16.

Opposition lawmaker Paul Fletcher said the platforms already had the technology to enforce such an age ban.

“It’s not really a technical viability question, it’s a question of their readiness to do it and will they incur the cost to do it,” Fletcher told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“The platforms say: ’It’s all too hard, we can’t do it, Australia will become a backwater, it won’t possibly work.’ But if you have well-drafted legislation and you stick to your guns, you can get the outcomes,” Fletcher added.



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A tiny grain of nuclear fuel is pulled from ruined Japanese nuclear plant, in a step toward cleanup

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TOKYO (AP) — A robot that has spent months inside the ruins of a nuclear reactor at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi plant delivered a tiny sample of melted nuclear fuel on Thursday, in what plant officials said was a step toward beginning the cleanup of hundreds of tons of melted fuel debris.

The sample, the size of a grain of rice, was placed into a secure container, marking the end of the mission, according to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which manages the plant. It is being transported to a glove box for size and weight measurements before being sent to outside laboratories for detailed analyses over the coming months.

Plant chief Akira Ono has said it will provide key data to plan a decommissioning strategy, develop necessary technology and robots and learn how the accident had developed.

The first sample alone is not enough and additional small-scale sampling missions will be necessary in order to obtain more data, TEPCO spokesperson Kenichi Takahara told reporters Thursday. “It may take time, but we will steadily tackle decommissioning,” Takahara said.

Despite multiple probes in the years since the 2011 disaster that wrecked the. plant and forced thousands of nearby residents to leave their homes, much about the site’s highly radioactive interior remains a mystery.

The sample, the first to be retrieved from inside a reactor, was significantly less radioactive than expected. Officials had been concerned that it might be too radioactive to be safely tested even with heavy protective gear, and set an upper limit for removal out of the reactor. The sample came in well under the limit.

That’s led some to question whether the robot extracted the nuclear fuel it was looking for from an area in which previous probes have detected much higher levels of radioactive contamination, but TEPCO officials insist they believe the sample is melted fuel.

The extendable robot, nicknamed Telesco, first began its mission August with a plan for a two-week round trip, after previous missions had been delayed since 2021. But progress was suspended twice due to mishaps — the first involving an assembly error that took nearly three weeks to fix, and the second a camera failure.

On Oct. 30, it clipped a sample weighting less than 3 grams (.01 ounces) from the surface of a mound of melted fuel debris sitting on the bottom of the primary containment vessel of the Unit 2 reactor, TEPCO said.

Three days later, the robot returned to an enclosed container, as workers in full hazmat gear slowly pulled it out.

On Thursday, the gravel, whose radioactivity earlier this week recorded far below the upper limit set for its environmental and health safety, was placed into a safe container for removal out of the compartment.

The sample return marks the first time the melted fuel is retrieved out of the containment vessel.

Fukushima Daiichi lost its key cooling systems during a 2011 earthquake and tsunami, causing meltdowns in its three reactors. An estimated 880 tons of fatally radioactive melted fuel remains in them.

The government and TEPCO have set a 30-to-40-year target to finish the cleanup by 2051, which experts say is overly optimistic and should be updated. Some say it would take for a century or longer.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said there have been some delays but “there will be no impact on the entire decommissioning process.”

No specific plans for the full removal of the fuel debris or its final disposal have been decided.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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DeMar DeRozan scores 27 points to lead the Kings past the Raptors 122-107

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.

Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.

Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.

The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.

DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.

RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.

Takeaways

Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.

Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.

Key moment

The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.

Key stat

Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.

Up next

Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.

Kings: Host the Clippers on Friday night.

___

AP NBA:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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