Health

Trudeau exploits rival’s split on vaccines as parliament reconvenes

Published

3 years ago

November 16, 2021

Canada’s vaccine mandate for members of parliament is helping Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau exploit divisions in the opposition Conservative Party, some of whose lawmakers will be shut out when the House of Commons reconvenes next week.

Conservative leader Erin O’Toole, whose party finished second in seats in the Sept. 20 election, has been unable to persuade a portion of his caucus to get inoculated against COVID-19, which means those legislators will not be let into the House when it reopens on Monday.

The party declines to say how many of its parliamentary members are unvaccinated. O’Toole encourages the use of vaccines and says his caucus will follow House rules, but some leading figures in his party want accommodations.

The party split is undermining O’Toole as he fights to ward off a leadership review. Late on Tuesday, the party removed Conservative Senator Denise Batters from its national caucus after she launched a petition to oust O’Toole, saying he was a poor and untrustworthy leader.

“I will not tolerate an individual discrediting and showing a clear lack of respect towards the efforts of the entire Conservative caucus,” O’Toole said in a statement.

To appease the right wing of his party, O’Toole opposed vaccine mandates during the campaign https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-pandemic-election-unvaccinated-candidates-are-knocking-doors-2021-08-23 and allowed his candidates not to be inoculated, even though most Conservative voters embraced vaccines.

“The vaccination issue is sort of coming back and repeating on the (Conservative) party as its absolute worst liability,” said Shachi Kurl, executive director of the Angus Reid Institute, a research foundation.

O’Toole is “a leader who clearly does not feel he can push back in a strong way against that libertarian-minded, freedom-minded segment of the Conservative caucus,” she added.

Trudeau narrowly won https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-trudeau-may-cling-power-election-looks-unlikely-secure-majority-2021-09-20 the September election and ended up with another minority government that forces him to depend on opposition parties to pass legislation.

The two other main opposition parties side with the Liberals on vaccines, isolating the Conservatives in what a senior government source called a “dangerous and risky” position on COVID-19 as cases spike again across the country.

TOUGH STANCE

Speaking to his caucus last week for the first time since the election, Trudeau chided the Conservatives for “stepping up to stand against vaccination, to stand against science, to stand against being there for each other.”

Trudeau’s tough https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/unvaccinated-federal-workers-canada-will-be-put-unpaid-leave-globe-mail-2021-10-06 stance on vaccine mandates is putting some 13,000 civil servants on unpaid leave because of their refusal to get inoculated, a move supported by 70% of Canadians, according to a recent EKOS Research poll.

Some 85% of eligible Canadians have been vaccinated.

In the U.S. Congress, CNN has reported that all Democrats are vaccinated, while some Republican members openly say they are not. There is a mask requirement in Congress, but no vaccine requirement. Canada also has a mask requirement while in parliament.

Conservative lawmaker Marilyn Gladu, who challenged O’Toole in a party leadership race last year, is forming a “civil liberties” working group of 15 to 30 members to stand up for privacy and for a “reasonable accommodation” for unvaccinated workers.

Leslyn Lewis, who also ran for the party leadership last year, has tweeted her opposition to vaccine mandates, as have a handful of others.

Garry Keller, a former senior Conservative Party staffer who is now vice president at public affairs consultancy Strategy Corp, said it is fine to quietly discuss the differences within the caucus.

“But generally speaking, this is a loser of an issue amongst the vast majority of Canadian voters, so why do you want to go down this road?”

(Reporting by Steve Scherer; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Peter Cooney)

Health

The US is mailing Americans COVID tests again. Here’s how to get them

Published

1 day ago

September 26, 2024

Anne Joseph

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans can once again order COVID-19 tests, without being charged, sent straight to their homes.

The U.S. government reopened the program on Thursday, allowing any household to order up to four at-home COVID nasal swab kits through the website, covidtests.gov. The tests will begin shipping, via the United States Postal Service, as soon as next week.

The website has been reopened on the heels of a summer COVID-19 virus wave and heading into the fall and winter respiratory virus season, with health officials urging Americans to get an updated COVID-19 booster and their yearly flu shot.

“Before you visit with your family and friends this holiday season, take a quick test and help keep them safe from COVID-19,” U.S. Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dawn O’Connell said in a statement.

U.S. regulators approved an updated COVID-19 vaccine that is designed to combat the recent virus strains and, they hope, forthcoming winter ones, too. Vaccine uptake is waning, however. Most Americans have some immunity from prior infections or vaccinations, but under a quarter of U.S. adults took last fall’s COVID-19 shot.

Using the swab, people can detect current virus strains ahead of the fall and winter respiratory virus season and the holidays. Over-the-counter COVID-19 at-home tests typically cost around $11, as of last year. Insurers are no longer required to cover the cost of the tests.

Before using any existing at-home COVID-19 tests, you should check the expiration date. Many of the tests have been given an extended expiration from the date listed on the box. You can check on the Food and Drug Administration’s website to see if that’s the case for any of your remaining tests at home.

Since COVID-19 first began its spread in 2020, U.S. taxpayers have poured billions of dollars into developing and purchasing COVID-19 tests as well as vaccines. The Biden administration has given out 1.8 billion COVID-19 tests, including half distributed to households by mail. It’s unclear how many tests the government still has on hand.

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Health

Free COVID tests are back. Here’s how to order a test to your home

Published

1 day ago

September 26, 2024

Anne Joseph

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans can once again order free COVID-19 tests sent straight to their homes.

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Health

Disability rights groups launching Charter challenge against MAID law

Published

1 day ago

September 26, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – A coalition of disability rights groups says it is launching a Charter challenge against a part of Canada’s law on medical assistance in dying.

The group, which also includes two individual plaintiffs, argues that what’s known as track two of the MAID law has resulted in premature deaths.

Under the law, patients whose natural deaths are not reasonably foreseeable but whose condition leads to intolerable suffering can apply for a track-two assisted death.

The coalition says track two of the MAID law has had a direct effect on the lives of people with disabilities and argues medically assisted death should only be available to those whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable.

The executive vice-president of Inclusion Canada – which is part of the coalition – says there has been an alarming trend where people with disabilities are seeking assisted death due to social deprivation, poverty and a lack of essential supports.

Krista Carr says those individuals should instead be supported in order to live better lives.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

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