Provinces discussed their respective COVID-19 vaccine rollout plans and urged patience following Monday’s announcement that Canada is expecting to receive up to 249,000 doses of a vaccine by the end of December.
Health Canada is expected to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine this week, and the first shipments are on track to arrive next week. Immunization for this vaccine requires two doses administered weeks apart, so the initial batch would be enough for nearly 125,000 Canadians.
Pfizer advises that its vaccine be stored in a freezer at –80C to –60C or in a thermal container at temperatures of –90C to –60C. The vaccine is to be delivered to 14 sites across Canada, with doses divided up on a per-capita basis among the provinces.
Here’s a look at how provinces and territories are planning for the arrival of the first round of vaccines.
Ontario
Retired Gen. Rick Hillier, who is leading Ontario’s vaccine task force, said the province should be able to vaccinate 1.2 million people during the first three months of 2021 — but noted that there is still uncertainty around the initial rollout and there is no firm timeline yet.
WATCH | Rick Hillier discusses Ontario’s vaccine rollout plan:
Retired General Rick Hillier says Ontario hopes to provide an “efficient” and “equitable” COVID-19 vaccination program, to provide every eligible person across the province with the opportunity to voluntarily get vaccinated. Watch the video for more details about the province’s three-phased plan of rolling out the vaccine. 3:08
“Every single day we learn something more about the characteristics and the properties of the vaccine and one of things is that the stability data when it’s moved is uncertain,” Hillier said, noting that the 85,000 doses will be available in the province this month. “As of right now, we may be restricted somewhat in moving it after we receive it.”
Premier Doug Ford said Monday that vulnerable seniors, their caregivers and health-care workers will be among the first to receive the vaccine. Adults in Indigenous communities, residents of retirement homes and recipients of chronic home health care will also be priority groups, but it may be April before the shots are widely available to others.
Hillier said the vaccine will be more broadly available to the public starting in April during the second phase of the rollout, and it will take between six to nine months to distribute across the province. “People are going to have to be patient that their turn will come,” he said.
Quebec
Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé said the province should receive four boxes of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by next Monday, which will allow for 2,000 people at two unspecified long-term care homes to be vaccinated.
Between 22,000 and 28,000 Quebecers will be immunized against COVID-19 by Jan. 4, as the province receives more doses of the vaccine, Dubé said.
WATCH | Christian Dubé discusses Quebec’s rollout plan
Residents of long-term care homes and health-care workers will be the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Quebec. 1:53
“Yes, today’s news is good news, but let’s not let it distract us. We have to stay focused,” he said.
Residents of long-term care homes and health-care workers will be the first to be vaccinated, he said, followed by people living in private seniors’ residences and those in isolated communities, including Indigenous communities. Those four groups represent about 547,000 people living in Quebec.
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey said the province will get 1,950 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine next week, with more to come later.
“Thank God,” he said. “Hope is on the horizon … [but] we are not there yet,” he said.
Furey said the vaccination task force announced on Dec. 4 was working on logistics of who would get inoculated first. While there isn’t a defined list yet for the province, the premier pointed to the guidelines from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) in regards to vaccination priority.
Furey also said last week that vaccination will be “highly suggested” but not mandatory.
(CBC News)
New Brunswick
A spokesperson for New Brunswick’s Department of Justice and Public Safety said up to 1,950 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine should arrive “around Dec. 14 as part of the first of two shipments that may occur this month.”
Those doses would be enough to vaccinate 975 people.
The province is working to “identify the priority groups that will receive the vaccine in the first phase of vaccinations based on recommendations from the federal government,” spokesperson Shawn Berry said in an email.
“Any doses that do arrive ahead of January will be provided to members of those priority groups based on New Brunswick’s operational plan.”
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia’s Department of Health said in a statement to CBC News that the province is expected to receive 1,950 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine next week.
Before that, the province will participate in a dry-run exercise with the manufacturer, the federal government, Dalhousie University and health system partners to prepare for the vaccine’s arrival. The exercise will test shipping, delivery, tracking and storage, but will not include the vaccine.
Prince Edward Island
Since provincial allocation will be done on a per-capita basis, P.E.I. is expected to receive just over 1,000 doses of the first allotment of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
“We’re a small jurisdiction, so we will be able to get around and service Islanders probably more quickly than any other jurisdiction will,” P.E.I. Premier Dennis King said on Nov. 27.
Manitoba
Manitoba’s chief provincial public health officer, Dr. Brent Roussin, said the province is prepared to receive any doses the federal government ships its way, but expects they would be “very limited in quantity.”
“The sooner we are able to receive the vaccine, the better,” he said. “We’re certainly prepared to receive vaccine at any time now, but we just need to set up the expectations that this is going to be a very limited supply, especially early on. And so it will be very minimal scope on who we can immunize with it.”
Getting the vaccine out to everyone who needs it will be “a huge undertaking,” Roussin said. He added that planning for the rollout has made significant progress and he expects details to be announced in the near future.
Last week, Premier Brian Pallister said Manitoba had acquired one of the freezers needed to store the Pfizer/BioNTech; the low storage temperature poses logistical challenges for distributing the vaccine to remote areas.
WATCH | Experts discuss the COVID-19 vaccine rollout:
As Canada prepares to distribute millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines, Chair of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization Dr. Caroline Quach-Thanh and David Levine, who managed the H1N1 vaccine rollout for Montreal, say this vaccination campaign won’t be without challenges. 3:05
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said the province has an ultra-low-temperature freezer that’s required to store the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and that Saskatchewan’s vaccine distribution plan will be revealed Tuesday.
Moe says vaccinations will happen in a staggered approach as the province receives more doses throughout 2021. He said the plan is to start with inoculating health-care workers and vulnerable residents, like seniors living in long-term care homes.
Alberta
Alberta is expected to receive 3,900 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine next week, which would be enough to inoculate 1,950 people.
The provincial government has said it will prioritize frontline health-care workers and vulnerable demographics, such as seniors in long-term care.
WATCH | BioNTech says its vaccine could ship within 24 hours of Health Canada approval:
Sean Marett, chief business and chief commercial officer for BioNTech, says once Canada approves the Pfizer rollout, the vaccine could ship within 24 hours. 9:41
British Columbia
Dr. Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s public health officer, said the province expects to receive its first delivery of the vaccine next week.
“It will be a start of our program, a very important start, but just a small amount to start with to ensure that we get our logistics going,” Henry said. “But our ability to start protecting elders and seniors, particularly in our care homes and the health-care workers who care for them, will be an important step forward in our COVID-19 struggle.”
Henry said she and other provincial officials will deliver a full briefing on B.C.’s vaccine rollout plan later in the week.
Yukon, N.W.T. and Nunavut
Trudeau said the “more significant logistical challenges” associated with distributing the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine means it won’t be going to northern communities right away. He said territorial residents would be among those to be inoculated with the first three million doses, which are expected in the beginning of 2021 and would also include the Moderna vaccine.
“We have worked very closely with the premiers in the northern territories, as well as Indigenous leaders across the country. We know that they are a priority population,” Trudeau said. He said the first three million doses would be a mix of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Dr. Michael Patterson, Nunavut’s chief public health officer, said last week that the territory is more likely to get the Moderna vaccine because the Pfizer vaccine’s strict storage and shipping requirements aren’t appropriate for remote communities.
Neither the Northwest Territories health department, nor Yukon’s office of the chief medical officer of health, immediately responded to a request for comment.
WATCH | Nunavut’s top doctor calls Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine ‘impractical’ for remote areas:
Given the extreme cold storage requirements for shipping the Pfizer vaccine, Nunavut’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Michael Patterson says it’s impractical for remote communities. 0:19
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. syphilis epidemic slowed dramatically last year, gonorrhea cases fell and chlamydia cases remained below prepandemic levels, according to federal data released Tuesday.
The numbers represented some good news about sexually transmitted diseases, which experienced some alarming increases in past years due to declining condom use, inadequate sex education, and reduced testing and treatment when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Last year, cases of the most infectious stages of syphilis fell 10% from the year before — the first substantial decline in more than two decades. Gonorrhea cases dropped 7%, marking a second straight year of decline and bringing the number below what it was in 2019.
“I’m encouraged, and it’s been a long time since I felt that way” about the nation’s epidemic of sexually transmitted infections, said the CDC’s Dr. Jonathan Mermin. “Something is working.”
More than 2.4 million cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia were diagnosed and reported last year — 1.6 million cases of chlamydia, 600,000 of gonorrhea, and more than 209,000 of syphilis.
Syphilis is a particular concern. For centuries, it was a common but feared infection that could deform the body and end in death. New cases plummeted in the U.S. starting in the 1940s when infection-fighting antibiotics became widely available, and they trended down for a half century after that. By 2002, however, cases began rising again, with men who have sex with other men being disproportionately affected.
The new report found cases of syphilis in their early, most infectious stages dropped 13% among gay and bisexual men. It was the first such drop since the agency began reporting data for that group in the mid-2000s.
However, there was a 12% increase in the rate of cases of unknown- or later-stage syphilis — a reflection of people infected years ago.
Cases of syphilis in newborns, passed on from infected mothers, also rose. There were nearly 4,000 cases, including 279 stillbirths and infant deaths.
“This means pregnant women are not being tested often enough,” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine at the University of Southern California.
What caused some of the STD trends to improve? Several experts say one contributor is the growing use of an antibiotic as a “morning-after pill.” Studies have shown that taking doxycycline within 72 hours of unprotected sex cuts the risk of developing syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia.
In June, the CDC started recommending doxycycline as a morning-after pill, specifically for gay and bisexual men and transgender women who recently had an STD diagnosis. But health departments and organizations in some cities had been giving the pills to people for a couple years.
Some experts believe that the 2022 mpox outbreak — which mainly hit gay and bisexual men — may have had a lingering effect on sexual behavior in 2023, or at least on people’s willingness to get tested when strange sores appeared.
Another factor may have been an increase in the number of health workers testing people for infections, doing contact tracing and connecting people to treatment. Congress gave $1.2 billion to expand the workforce over five years, including $600 million to states, cities and territories that get STD prevention funding from CDC.
Last year had the “most activity with that funding throughout the U.S.,” said David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors.
However, Congress ended the funds early as a part of last year’s debt ceiling deal, cutting off $400 million. Some people already have lost their jobs, said a spokeswoman for Harvey’s organization.
Still, Harvey said he had reasons for optimism, including the growing use of doxycycline and a push for at-home STD test kits.
Also, there are reasons to think the next presidential administration could get behind STD prevention. In 2019, then-President Donald Trump announced a campaign to “eliminate” the U.S. HIV epidemic by 2030. (Federal health officials later clarified that the actual goal was a huge reduction in new infections — fewer than 3,000 a year.)
There were nearly 32,000 new HIV infections in 2022, the CDC estimates. But a boost in public health funding for HIV could also also help bring down other sexually transmitted infections, experts said.
“When the government puts in resources, puts in money, we see declines in STDs,” Klausner said.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists can’t know precisely when a volcano is about to erupt, but they can sometimes pick up telltale signs.
That happened two years ago with the world’s largest active volcano. About two months before Mauna Loa spewed rivers of glowing orange molten lava, geologists detected small earthquakes nearby and other signs, and they warned residents on Hawaii‘s Big Island.
Now a study of the volcano’s lava confirms their timeline for when the molten rock below was on the move.
“Volcanoes are tricky because we don’t get to watch directly what’s happening inside – we have to look for other signs,” said Erik Klemetti Gonzalez, a volcano expert at Denison University, who was not involved in the study.
Upswelling ground and increased earthquake activity near the volcano resulted from magma rising from lower levels of Earth’s crust to fill chambers beneath the volcano, said Kendra Lynn, a research geologist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and co-author of a new study in Nature Communications.
When pressure was high enough, the magma broke through brittle surface rock and became lava – and the eruption began in late November 2022. Later, researchers collected samples of volcanic rock for analysis.
The chemical makeup of certain crystals within the lava indicated that around 70 days before the eruption, large quantities of molten rock had moved from around 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) to 3 miles (5 kilometers) under the summit to a mile (2 kilometers) or less beneath, the study found. This matched the timeline the geologists had observed with other signs.
The last time Mauna Loa erupted was in 1984. Most of the U.S. volcanoes that scientists consider to be active are found in Hawaii, Alaska and the West Coast.
Worldwide, around 585 volcanoes are considered active.
Scientists can’t predict eruptions, but they can make a “forecast,” said Ben Andrews, who heads the global volcano program at the Smithsonian Institution and who was not involved in the study.
Andrews compared volcano forecasts to weather forecasts – informed “probabilities” that an event will occur. And better data about the past behavior of specific volcanos can help researchers finetune forecasts of future activity, experts say.
(asterisk)We can look for similar patterns in the future and expect that there’s a higher probability of conditions for an eruption happening,” said Klemetti Gonzalez.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Waymo on Tuesday opened its robotaxi service to anyone who wants a ride around Los Angeles, marking another milestone in the evolution of self-driving car technology since the company began as a secret project at Google 15 years ago.
The expansion comes eight months after Waymo began offering rides in Los Angeles to a limited group of passengers chosen from a waiting list that had ballooned to more than 300,000 people. Now, anyone with the Waymo One smartphone app will be able to request a ride around an 80-square-mile (129-square-kilometer) territory spanning the second largest U.S. city.
After Waymo received approval from California regulators to charge for rides 15 months ago, the company initially chose to launch its operations in San Francisco before offering a limited service in Los Angeles.
Before deciding to compete against conventional ride-hailing pioneers Uber and Lyft in California, Waymo unleashed its robotaxis in Phoenix in 2020 and has been steadily extending the reach of its service in that Arizona city ever since.
Driverless rides are proving to be more than just a novelty. Waymo says it now transports more than 50,000 weekly passengers in its robotaxis, a volume of business numbers that helped the company recently raise $5.6 billion from its corporate parent Alphabet and a list of other investors that included venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz and financial management firm T. Rowe Price.
“Our service has matured quickly and our riders are embracing the many benefits of fully autonomous driving,” Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said in a blog post.
Despite its inroads, Waymo is still believed to be losing money. Although Alphabet doesn’t disclose Waymo’s financial results, the robotaxi is a major part of an “Other Bets” division that had suffered an operating loss of $3.3 billion through the first nine months of this year, down from a setback of $4.2 billion at the same time last year.
But Waymo has come a long way since Google began working on self-driving cars in 2009 as part of project “Chauffeur.” Since its 2016 spinoff from Google, Waymo has established itself as the clear leader in a robotaxi industry that’s getting more congested.
Electric auto pioneer Tesla is aiming to launch a rival “Cybercab” service by 2026, although its CEO Elon Musk said he hopes the company can get the required regulatory clearances to operate in Texas and California by next year.
Tesla’s projected timeline for competing against Waymo has been met with skepticism because Musk has made unfulfilled promises about the company’s self-driving car technology for nearly a decade.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s robotaxis have driven more than 20 million fully autonomous miles and provided more than 2 million rides to passengers without encountering a serious accident that resulted in its operations being sidelined.
That safety record is a stark contrast to one of its early rivals, Cruise, a robotaxi service owned by General Motors. Cruise’s California license was suspended last year after one of its driverless cars in San Francisco dragged a jaywalking pedestrian who had been struck by a different car driven by a human.
Cruise is now trying to rebound by joining forces with Uber to make some of its services available next year in U.S. cities that still haven’t been announced. But Waymo also has forged a similar alliance with Uber to dispatch its robotaxi in Atlanta and Austin, Texas next year.
Another robotaxi service, Amazon’s Zoox, is hoping to begin offering driverless rides to the general public in Las Vegas at some point next year before also launching in San Francisco.
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