The new Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine should be in Canada by the time you read this with 249,000 doses on order by the end of December. Most people, including me, say hallelujah to that but I can hear a little voice in the back of my brain saying hold on a minute.
After all, this isn’t a candy bar we’re talking about or a new brand of beer. It’s a medical vaccine that many believe will save the world and I sincerely hope it will. But hasn’t this miracle healer been rushed into production in record time? That it has.
Vaccines normally take years to develop and bring into production and certified for use. But this one has been produced in a matter of months and will supposedly stop the dreaded pandemic in its tracks.
I certainly hope so, but any vaccine that has to be stored and distributed at minus 70 C makes me wonder. If it warms up a few degrees will it lose its effectiveness? Do we have minus 70 C freezers in Cranbrook? Will we have to travel hundreds of miles to get our two shots? So many questions.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m absolutely not an anti-vaxxer. I’ve had numerous vaccines throughout my life and had my two children vaccinated and they’re both over 30 now and doing fine. As for me, I’m one of the healthiest septuagenarians around and could probably still climb Mt. Fisher if it were the right day and someone would bet me enough money to do it. However, I’ve done a bit of research and it does give pause to think.
For instance, warnings were issued about the Pfizer vaccine after two health workers in Britain developed severe reactions to it Dec. 8. Both had a history of severe allergies and developed anaphylaxis-like symptoms shortly after receiving a test shot. Both have now recovered and Pfizer is investigating the incident.
Millions of people in the world have allergies. So, the Pfizer vaccine is obviously not for them.
But there are many other vaccines close to approval and soon to be on the market which leads me to think that a little hesitancy in making the vaccine decision might be wise. For instance, Canada has also approved the purchase of up to 56 million vaccine doses from Moderna, a biopharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, Mass. whose RNA vaccine is expected to be approved by Health Canada before the end of the year.
In all, some 150 bio-tech companies are researching potential COVID-19 vaccines around the world leading one to think that haste shouldn’t be part of the COVID-19 decision like it was with thalidomide and the 2,000 deaths it caused as well as thousands of birth defects in the 1960s.
All vaccines and drugs come with side effects and that should be a big part of the vaccine decision. Age is another huge factor with seniors going to the head of the line along right behind health care workers. One’s general state of health is also important, but there’s another big factor creeping into the equation that absolutely shouldn’t be there and that, of course is politics. Unfortunately, it’s happening right here in the Key City.
On Dec. 5, around 30 tightly packed and maskless people demonstrated in front of Cranbrook City Hall waving signs saying their “human rights” were being compromised and claiming media “propaganda.” One sign said, “We are all essential,” and who could disagree? But surely health care protocols are “essential” too in the fight against COVID-19. And wearing a mask in public is “essential” as well. And it’s now the law.
But we live in a democracy and that of course means people have the “right” to be wrong. I think many of the demonstrators meant well and some were clearly there for religious reasons. But the pandemic doesn’t care and has now claimed more than 1.5 million lives world-wide, 290,000 in the US and 13,000 in Canada. Something has to be done.
Surely wearing a mask and staying six feet apart is not too much of a sacrifice to make to stop this tragedy?
– Gerry Warner is a retired journalist, who’s willing to sacrifice some of his “human rights” to protect others.
The number of measles cases has stabilized, according to the Montreal Public Health.
Since March 25, there have been no contaminations reported within the community.
“Our teams have identified all contact cases of measles,” said media relations advisor Geneviève Paradis. “It’s a laborious task: each measles case produces hundreds of contacts.”
All community transmission cases since February 2024 have been caused by returning travelers who were either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.
Currently, there are 18 measles cases in Montreal – with 46 total in Quebec. This according to the April 18 figures from the provincial government.
“With the summer vacations approaching, if you’re travelling, it is essential to check if you are protected against measles,” explained Paradis.
According to Montreal Public Health, a person needs to have received two doses after the age of 12 months to be immunized against the virus.
They’ve launched a vaccination campaign throughout the region, and currently, 11,341 people have been vaccinated against measles in Montreal between March 19 and April 15.
Vaccination is also being provided in schools and at local service points.
“The vaccination operation is under the responsibility of the five CIUSSS of the territory,” concluded Paradis.
The World Health Organization has raised concerns about the spread of H5N1 bird flu, which has an “extraordinarily high” mortality rate in humans.
An outbreak that began in 2020 has led to the deaths or killing of tens of millions of poultry. Most recently, the spread of the virus within several mammal species, including in domestic cattle in the US, has increased the risk of spillover to humans, the WHO said.
“This remains I think an enormous concern,” the UN health agency’s chief scientist, Jeremy Farrar, told reporters in Geneva.
Cows and goats joined the list of species affected last month – a surprising development for experts because they were not thought susceptible to this type of influenza. US authorities reported this month that a person in Texas was recovering from bird flu after being exposed to dairy cattle, with 16 herds across six states infected apparently after exposure to wild birds.
The A(H5N1) variant has become “a global zoonotic animal pandemic”, Farrar said.
“The great concern of course is that in … infecting ducks and chickens and then increasingly mammals, that virus now evolves and develops the ability to infect humans and then critically the ability to go from human to human,” he added.
So far, there is no evidence that H5N1 is spreading between humans. But in the hundreds of cases where humans have been infected through contact with animals over the past 20 years, “the mortality rate is extraordinarily high”, Farrar said, because humans have no natural immunity to the virus.
From 2003 to 2024, 889 cases and 463 deaths caused by H5N1 have been reported worldwide from 23 countries, according to the WHO, putting the case fatality rate at 52%.
The recent US case of human infection after contact with an infected mammal highlights the increased risk. When “you come into the mammalian population, then you’re getting closer to humans”, Farrar said, warning that “this virus is just looking for new, novel hosts”.
Farrar called for increased monitoring, saying it was “very important understanding how many human infections are happening … because that’s where adaptation [of the virus] will happen”.
“It’s a tragic thing to say, but if I get infected with H5N1 and I die, that’s the end of it,” he said. “If I go around the community and I spread it to somebody else then you start the cycle.”
He said efforts were under way towards the development of vaccines and therapeutics for H5N1, and stressed the need to ensure that regional and national health authorities around the world had the capacity to diagnose the virus.
This was being done so that “if H5N1 did come across to humans, with human-to-human transmission”, the world would be “in a position to immediately respond”, Farrar said, calling for equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.
“I’m not saying it’s society’s problem, but there should be recognition of the load that caregivers are taking.”
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Published Apr 18, 2024 • Last updated 7 hours ago • 4 minute read
Dr Lisa Walker is co-chair of the Enhancing Access to Care conference on Saturday.Photo by Ottawa Brain and Mind Research Institute /Handout
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When former CEO Bruce Wood was diagnosed with young onset Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, he made a point of talking publicly about the illness to help others. When he could no longer do so, that duty fell to his wife, Lisa Raitt.
The former senior federal cabinet minister, lawyer and mother has made speaking about her husband’s illness part of her busy life, even when it is difficult, which it often is. She sees it as a duty to help people better understand the disease and to support caregivers like her.
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“I always accept these invitations.”
Raitt will be keynote speaker at an Ottawa conference this weekend aimed at helping patients and their caregivers navigate the often complex systems of care once they are diagnosed with neurological illnesses such as Alzheimer’s.
The Enhancing Access to Care conference, sponsored by the University of Ottawa’s Brain and Mind Research Institute, will include sessions on barriers to accessing care for rural residents, the latest research for neurodegenerative illnesses, including Parkinson’s disease and dementia, information on the regional geriatric program and Raitt’s talk on the challenges of care for young-onset Alzheimer’s.
The conference is a recognition of the difficulties patients and their caregivers can have accessing the help they need.
Wood was diagnosed when he was 56 and Raitt was 47. It was a shock. Raitt said she wanted people to think about the fact that “sometimes it’s Alzheimer’s” — meaning possible symptoms shouldn’t be dismissed just because of a person’s age.
In the early days after his diagnoses, Wood’s disease seemed to move slowly, she said, and they were able to travel and “do all of our bucket-list things.” But then it progressed and life became increasingly difficult.
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“We had a very specific set of circumstances where Bruce was becoming very combative, not just aggressive, but aggressive that was threatening to our lives in the house. When you are in it, you can’t negotiate because you are drowning and just trying to keep your head up.”
Raitt said she thought it was important that people hear the realities of the disease “because I am not the only one who is going through this or went through this. I believe there’s an obligation for me to at least give some kind of colour to the reality so that others can recognize it.”
Wood is now in a long-term care home, something Raitt says she fought “with every fibre.” She acknowledges he is receiving better care than he could receive at home and that she probably waited too long to do so.
“I think what could have helped me is somebody saying they are better off in a long-term care facility because he gets better care than I could have provided.”
Raitt said she also hoped members of the medical community heard her story to start to think about the possibility of young onset Alzheimer’s when a patient had symptoms that might include increasing problems with planning, problem solving, attention and emotions.
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Wife, mother, lawyer and former MP and cabinet minister Lisa Raitt will be keynote speaker at the Enhancing Access to Care conference on Saturday.Photo by Ottawa Brain and Mind Research Institute /Handout
She also noted that the vast majority of caregivers, like her, are women. Raitt, a lawyer, belonged to a support group of caregivers in similar circumstances and says almost all of them decided to retire early because of the pressures of caring on top of their work.
“I didn’t have the choice to retire. I’ve got two kids in university and a husband with special needs. That takes extra cash — and I continue to work for my own sanity, too” she said. “But the reality is caregivers are the ones taking a load off society and society couldn’t function without us. I’m not saying it’s society’s problem, but there should be recognition of the load that caregivers are taking.”
The conference, which will be held Saturday at the RA Centre, is aimed at people with neurological conditions and their care partners. In addition to presentations, organizations will be on-site to offer information about other services available in the community, including from traditionally marginalized group “who might not know there are services specific to their needs,” said Dr. Lisa Walker, a clinical neuropsychologist who is co-lead of the uOttawa Brain and Mind Research Institute’s neurodegeneration pillar.
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It is the first event of its kind for the University of Ottawa Brain and Mind Research Institute. Typically, events are geared toward research, Walker said.
It is difficult living with neurodegenerative conditions, she said, and can be a daunting task to access care. Sometimes, it is available, but people don’t know how to find it.
She said the shortage of family doctors was an added burden for people to understand the supports available in the community. “There are many excellent services that people can access, but they don’t know they exist and can’t access them.”
Among them are services through the regional geriatric program and the Dementia Society of Ottawa and Renfrew County. One of the speakers will talk about Ontario 211, a help line to help people access social services, programs and community supports.
Walker said the conference would also address the burden on informal caregivers, as family members and friends who care for loved ones are called.
“It is a huge burden of care, both from a practical standpoint and an emotional standpoint.”
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