Wed, April 24, 2024 at 9:35 AM EDT
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Outbreak grows in vaccinated Quebec care home, expert says it was to be expected – CP24 Toronto's Breaking News
MONTREAL — A growing COVID-19 outbreak in the first Quebec long-term care to receive Pfizer’s vaccine is not a reason to question the shot’s efficacy, an infectious diseases expert said Wednesday.
As of Tuesday, there were 123 active cases of COVID-19 at the CHSLD Saint-Antoine in Quebec City, up from 98 cases two days earlier. The residence, which began vaccinating residents on Dec. 14, has reported 12 deaths from the disease during the pandemic’s second wave.
Local health authorities indicated on Tuesday that at least some of those who were infected had tested positive after receiving the vaccine.
Benoit Masse, a public health expert at the Universite de Montreal, said the rising case numbers in the home are not surprising, given that the outbreak began before inoculations got underway.
“The vaccine prevents, but if (the virus) is already present, it won’t help much,” said Masse. “It’s the equivalent of putting sunscreen on a sunburn.”
Masse says that, like with other vaccines, it takes about two weeks following the injection for the body to build an immune response, meaning the vaccine is of little use in preventing illness before then.
“That’s why we do flu vaccination campaigns in October, when we expect the virus will arrive in Montreal in November or December,” he said.
While he’s not surprised to see the outbreak continue to grow, Masse worries it could lead to the erroneous belief that the vaccine doesn’t work, or even that it’s harmful.
Roxane Borges Da Silva, another Universite de Montreal public health expert, says it’s worth asking whether staff at the care home became complacent once the vaccination program began.
“Knowing that it’s one of the first long-term care homes to be vaccinated, was there a carelessness in the application of (infection control) measures?” she wrote in an email.
In a statement, the Quebec City health authority said the outbreak at the CHSLD Saint-Antoine began after it was chosen as a vaccination site but before shots began.
“The too short time for antibodies to develop fully in vaccinated people did not allow some residents or workers to avoid developing symptoms, as they had most likely already been exposed to COVID-19, given the context of an outbreak,” spokesman Mathieu Boivin said in a statement.
He said it’s possible the vaccinated residents and workers will experience less severe symptoms of COVID-19, but it’s too soon to say for sure.
He also stressed that those who were infected have not yet received their second doses of the vaccine, even though the efficacy of a first dose is believed to be over 90 per cent after 14 days, he said.
Boivin said the residents who tested positive after vaccination would receive their second doses at the same time as the rest, and that the outbreak wouldn’t affect vaccination.
Masse said more outbreaks are to be expected in care homes after vaccination campaigns begin.
“We’re in a race to vaccinate before the virus arrives in those environment,” he said. “If we get there too late, or we get there during an outbreak, the vaccine won’t succeed in preventing a large outbreak in those places.”
While the vaccination campaign has yet to make a dent in the number of new infections, hospitalizations and deaths in the province, he sees reason for optimism.
Masse believes the province could begin to see some improvement by the end of January, when the province finishes vaccinating those in long-term care homes. Things should look even better by March, when most of those over 80 could be immunized.
In the meantime, he’s urging Quebecers to respect the lockdown measures being put in place in the coming days, which he views as “one last, big effort” to get through the crisis.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan 7, 2021.
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Oil companies planning to ship crude on the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline in Canada are concerned that the project may not begin full service on May 1 but they would be nevertheless obligated to pay tolls from that date.
In a letter to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER), Suncor Energy and other shippers including BP and Marathon Petroleum have expressed doubts that Trans Mountain will start full service on May 1, as previously communicated, Reuters reports.
Trans Mountain Corporation, the government-owned entity that completed the pipeline construction, told Reuters in an email that line fill on the expanded pipeline would be completed in early May.
After a series of delays, cost overruns, and legal challenges, the expanded Trans Mountain oil pipeline will open for business on May 1, the company said early this month.
“The Commencement Date for commercial operation of the expanded system will be May 1, 2024. Trans Mountain anticipates providing service for all contracted volumes in the month of May,” Trans Mountain Corporation said in early April.
The expanded pipeline will triple the capacity of the original pipeline to 890,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 300,000 bpd to carry crude from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia on the Pacific Coast.
The Federal Government of Canada bought the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) from Kinder Morgan back in 2018, together with related pipeline and terminal assets. That cost the federal government $3.3 billion (C$4.5 billion) at the time. Since then, the costs for the expansion of the pipeline have quadrupled to nearly $23 billion (C$30.9 billion).
The expansion project has faced continuous delays over the years. In one of the latest roadblocks in December, the Canadian regulator denied a variance request from the project developer to move a small section of the pipeline due to challenging drilling conditions.
The company asked the regulator to reconsider its decision, and received on January 12 a conditional approval, avoiding what could have been another two-year delay to start-up.
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Tesla profits slump by more than a half
Tesla has announced its profits fell sharply in the first three months of the year to $1.13bn (£910m), compared with $2.51bn in 2023.
It caps a difficult period for the electric vehicle (EV) maker, which – faced with falling sales – has announced thousands of job cuts.
Boss Elon Musk remains bullish about its prospects, telling investors the launch of new models would be brought forward.
Its share price has risen but analysts say it continues to face significant challenges, including from lower-cost rivals.
The company has suffered from falling demand and competition from cheaper Chinese imports which has led its stock price to collapse by 43% over 2024.
Figures for the first quarter of 2024 revealed revenues of $21.3bn, down on analysts’ predictions of just over $22bn.
But the decision by Tesla to bring forward the launch of new models from the second half of 2025 boosted its shares by nearly 12.5% in after-hours trading.
It did not reveal pricing details for the new vehicles.
However Mr Musk made clear he also grander ambitions, touting Tesla’s AI credentials and plans for self-driving vehicles – even going as far as to say considering it to be just a car company was the “wrong framework.”
“If somebody doesn’t believe Tesla is going to solve autonomy I think they should not be an investor,” he said.
Such sentiments have been questioned by analysts though, with Deutsche Bank saying driverless cars face “technological, regulatory and operational challenges.”
Some investors have called for the company to instead focus on releasing a lower price, mass-market EV.
However, Tesla has already been on a charm offensive, trying to win over new customers by dropping its prices in a series of markets in the face of falling sales.
It also said its situation was not unique.
“Global EV sales continue to be under pressure as many carmakers prioritize hybrids over EVs,” it said.
Despite plans to bring forward new models originally planned for next year the firm is cutting its workforce.
Tesla said it would lose 3,332 jobs in California and 2,688 positions in Texas, starting mid-June.
The cuts in Texas represent 12% of Tesla’s total workforce of almost 23,000 in the area where its gigafactory and headquarters are located.
However, Mr Musk sought to downplay the move.
“Tesla has now created over 30,000 manufacturing jobs in California!” he said in a post on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday.
Another 285 jobs will be lost in New York.
Tesla’s total workforce stood at more than 140,000 late last year, up from around 100,000 at the end of 2021, according to the company’s filings with US regulators.
Musk’s salary
The car firm is also facing other issues, with a struggle over Mr Musk’s compensation still raging on.
On Wednesday, Tesla asked shareholders to vote for a proposal to accept Mr Musk’s compensation package – once valued at $56bn – which had been rejected by a Delaware judge.
The judge found Tesla’s directors had breached their fiduciary duty to the firm by awarding Mr Musk the pay-out.
Due to the fall in Tesla’s stock value, the compensation package is now estimated to be around $10bn less – but still greater than the GDP of many countries.
In addition, Tesla wants its shareholders to agree to the firm being moved from Delaware to Texas – which Mr Musk called for after the judge rejected his payday.
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Stock market today: Nasdaq futures pop, Tesla surges after earnings with more heavyweights on deck
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Tech stocks rose on Wednesday, outstripping the broader market as investors welcomed Tesla’s (TSLA) cheaper car pledge and waited for the next rush of corporate earnings.
The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose roughly 0.6%, coming off a sharp closing gain. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was up 0.2%, continuing a rebound from its longest losing streak of 2024, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell 0.1%.
Tesla shares jumped nearly 12% after the EV maker’s vow to speed up the launch of more affordable models eclipsed its quarterly earnings and revenue miss. That cheered up investors worried about growth amid a strategy shift to robotaxis and the planned cancellation of a cheaper model.
The results from the first “Magnificent Seven” to report have intensified the already high hopes for Big Tech earnings, that the megacaps can revive the rally in stocks they powered. The spotlight is now on Meta’s (META) report due after the market close, as the Facebook owner’s shares rose after the Senate voted for a potential ban on rival TikTok. Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOG) next up on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Boeing (BA) reported better than expected first quarter results before the opening bell with a loss per share of $1.13, narrower than the $1.72 estimated by Wall Street. Shares rose about 2% in morning trade.
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