This week, Saskatchewan recorded its highest jump in COVID-19 cases and the 16th death due to complications from the virus.
Days earlier, protesters were in front of the provincial legislature clamouring against the use of masks — in a province where no government body has mandated their use — and spreading conspiracy theories about the novel coronavirus.
“This is no more than the seasonal flu and we have been scared to death,” Martine Carlina said.
Carlina was one of roughly a dozen gathered on Sunday in Regina, a small part of a larger movement taking place across the country — a movement whose message defies science and the cries for caution from public health officials.
Protesters at March to Unmask events in Vancouver told Global News wearing a mask causes cancer, while others insisted information about masks coming from the media and health officials was part of a global conspiracy to create a world government funded by Bill Gates.
In Calgary anti-mask protester Shelley Klumpp claimed a mask would deplete her oxygen and noted that “when people are wearing a mask your immune system gets suppressed.”
Carlina espoused similar beliefs noting that people need to build their immunity naturally, even saying people should be hugging rather than wearing masks.
Agencies such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization and the United Nations have talked about how the lack of good information is a major geopolitical risk, said Alec Couros, a professor of information and technology at the University of Regina.
“These obvious falsities, these obvious fake news stories, are allowed to spread in these spaces without any caption or without any descriptor that this is probably not real. So you get people thinking that it’s OK not to wear a mask,” Couros said.
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Couros said these types of views often begin in niche online communities.
“Once you get into that space, where there’s a critical mass of people who are sharing the same things, you start to think that the world is like that … that you’re not so odd.”
As these online communities grow, their users become vehicles for the spread of misinformation. Some political actors will come in with technical knowledge to mobilize people, Couros explained.
Though Facebook comments, tweets or even misleading memes may not appear to be a threat worth taking seriously, psychologists argue that the danger posed by the misinformation is greater than it may first appear.
“A single prior exposure to fake news headline — a completely made-up thing — if you read it before, just one exposure later on when you see it, you’re more likely to believe it. That’s even if you don’t remember having seen it before; it’s even true if it’s something that’s inconsistent with your ideology,” said Gordon Pennycook, a behavioural science professor at the University of Regina.
1:49 Coronavirus: Saskatchewan exceeds 1,000 cases, sets new daily record
Coronavirus: Saskatchewan exceeds 1,000 cases, sets new daily record
Pennycook says that psychological preconception can be particularly troubling when paired with people inclined to believe in conspiracy theories.
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“One thing that you’ll notice is that people who think (COVID-19) is a hoax, and who are not worrying about it, are far more confident about their opinion than people who are worried about it and that are actually following what scientists are saying,” Pennycock said.
“What that means, especially in the context of COVID-19, is a single person who could transmit (the virus) and is doing the wrong thing could pass it along to lots of people.”
That’s an assertion Dr. Anne Huang agrees with. A former deputy medical health officer with the Saskatchewan Health Authority and Health Canada, Huang bristled at protesters’ assertions that COVID-19 was no more than the common flu.
“It’s important to recognize that quite a few of the working-age, otherwise healthy people who recover (from COVID-19) actually have difficulty concentrating, cannot resume their regular work, and many of them have lingering effects in terms of shortness of breath, despite negative (polymerase chain reaction) test for the wires,” Huang said.
“The more people who oppose to adopting effective intervention of reducing COVID-19 transmission, the faster and the more new COVID-19 cases Saskatchewan will be at risk for,” she continued.
Huang argues that she’d like to see Saskatchewan do a better job with its messaging, particularly when it comes to masks.
“I would really like to see Saskatchewan move forward at this time. Either through mandating or through a drastic increase in public education about the need to wear a face mask,” ” Huang said.
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“It’s up to us to decide whether we want to wait for the outbreak to occur before we act, or if we want to take preventive measures right now.”
Saskatchewan’s current chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, recommends masks be worn indoors when keeping a safe distance of two metres is not possible.
He says come the fall, as people presumably spend less time outdoors, masking will keep the province open.
Questions about COVID-19? Here are some things you need to know:
Symptoms can include fever, cough and difficulty breathing — very similar to a cold or flu. Some people can develop a more severe illness. People most at risk of this include older adults and people with severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease. If you develop symptoms, contact public health authorities.
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To prevent the virus from spreading, experts recommend frequent handwashing and coughing into your sleeve. They also recommend minimizing contact with others, staying home as much as possible and maintaining a distance of two metres from other people if you go out. In situations where you can’t keep a safe distance from others, public health officials recommend the use of a non-medical face mask or covering to prevent spreading the respiratory droplets that can carry the virus. In some provinces and municipalities across the country, masks or face coverings are now mandatory in indoor public spaces.
For full COVID-19 coverage from Global News, click here.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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