This is an excerpt from Second Opinion, a weekly roundup of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers every Saturday morning. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here.
Lots of fresh air, plenty of space for physical distancing and a comprehensive plan to keep sick students out of the classroom to prevent outbreaks.
That might sound like a parent’s wish list for reopening schools in 2020, but they’re actually tactics that worked to keep kids healthy during disease outbreaks over a century ago.
Open-air learning environments, or “forest schools“, were places where students could attend classes while at a lower risk of infection from diseases like tuberculosis and the Spanish Flu.
After first emerging in Germany in the early 20th century, the concept came to Toronto in 1912 when hundreds of kids spent their days learning and socializing outdoors, as detailed in this in-depth TVO story.
But with less than a month to go until schools reopen across the country in the current global pandemic, experts say Canada’s plans to get kids back in the classroom safely are missing some key lessons from history.
Students attend class at an outdoor ‘forest school’ in Toronto’s High Park on July 29, 1913. Without proper ventilation in classrooms, schools should consider moving lessons outside, say experts. (City of Toronto Archives)
Low COVID-19 numbers in community key
Canada currently has a relatively low number of COVID-19 cases circulating in the community, which is an essential precursor to reopening schools safely, but ignoring proven strategies to reduce the spread of the virus in classrooms could put that in jeopardy.
“The single best way to make schools safe is by driving the caseload in the community as low as possible,” said Raywat Deonandan, an epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Ottawa.
Researchers looked at an outbreak of COVID-19 at an overnight summer camp in Georgia that resulted in 260 kids infected. Campers were not required to wear masks, slept 15 per cabin, and windows weren’t kept open to ensure proper ventilation.
But at the time the camp took place, there were still hundreds of new COVID-19 cases reported in the state daily.
“A lot of panic right now is coming from people looking at data from places where there’s an uncontrolled epidemic,” said Dr. Lynora Saxinger, an infectious diseases specialist and an associate professor at the University of Alberta’s faculty of medicine.
Israel may provide a more relevant cautionary tale for jurisdictions where community spread is low. Israel moved to reopen schools quickly in late May, when the coronavirus epidemic had been successfully controlled, but cases exploded soon after, largely because it didn’t limit class sizes, prioritize physical distancing, mandate mask wearing or ensure proper ventilation.
“Closed, crowded, and close-contact spaces are high risk for COVID transmission – and schools meet all those criteria,” said Ashleigh Tuite, an infectious disease epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
“We’ve known for a while that we want to have a return to school in the fall, and we’ve had time to prepare for that.”
But Tuite said she’s frustrated that with less than a month to go, there isn’t a comprehensive plan in place to prevent potential outbreaks in schools.
“I think we’re setting ourselves up for failure,” she said. “We really need to set up our schools in a way that parents and children and staff feel safe to return and that minimize the potential for these outbreaks to happen.”
Keeping sick kids out of school essential to stopping spread
“The most important things to do are actually before the kids and adults are in the building,” said Dr. Andrew Morris, an infectious disease specialist and medical director of the antimicrobial stewardship program at the Sinai Health System and the University Health Network in Toronto.
“Almost all the discussion and effort has been around what happens once kids are in the school, but we need to have a strategy that keeps infected kids out of the school.”
Many jurisdictions, including Ontario, B.C. and Alberta, are telling staff and students (with help from their parents or caregivers) to self-screen for COVID-19 symptoms daily, and stay home or seek medical attention if sick.
From no plan to facilitate contact tracing from bars & restaurants, to no extra effort to mitigate school risk, the Ontario govt is proving itself to lack the administrative sophistication and desire to tackle complexity when we need it most. This doesn’t bode well. <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/onpoli?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#onpoli</a>
One way of doing that is through what’s known as syndromic surveillance, where kids who miss classes are assessed, tested and isolated by local public health officials if they’re infected before they can cause wider outbreaks in schools.
Pooled surveillance is another tactic that can be used to detect transmission in schools before it becomes apparent, which is when entire classrooms are tested at random in order to find unseen COVID-19 cases.
“If you’ve got a kid that’s sick in the class, there’s a very high likelihood that if they’re there every day for five days they’re going to infect at least one other kid,” he said.
“To some degree, you almost can’t overreact when you have a case in a classroom and if you think you’re overreacting, you’re probably doing the right thing.”
Saxinger said while there’s no way to ensure zero risk of COVID-19 cases in schools, it’s important to clamp down on potential outbreaks and isolate infected students and classes quickly to prevent entire schools shutting down.
“That’s something people have to wrap their heads around – that having a class being quarantined because someone was positive is going to be kind of normal and that in fact picking that up is good, versus not picking it up.”
Ventilation overlooked in Canadian schools
Another key area experts say is lacking in the gear up to reopen schools across the country is a focus on adequate ventilation, despite new federal guidelines from the Public Health Agency of Canada that call for increased air circulation and outdoor classrooms whenever possible.
Schools are notorious for having minimal access to windows and for using antiquated HVAC systems that can rely on recirculated air – leaving unanswered questions as to how schools are expected to ensure a steady flow of fresh air in classrooms.
“I haven’t seen any discussion of that at all in Ontario context,” said Tuite. “You hear stories about schools where the windows are painted shut.”
WATCH | Dr. Tam discusses risks of sending kids to school, and keeping them home
Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam spoke with reporters on Parliament Hill Friday about the upcoming school year. 2:27
Linsey Marr, one of the top aerosol scientists in the world and an expert on the airborne transmission of viruses at Virginia Tech, said ensuring proper ventilation is crucial to successfully keeping COVID-19 out of schools.
“It’s important to get kids back to school in person, but I think we also need to do everything possible [to prevent transmission],” she said.
“And even if it just means opening windows, or upgrading an HVAC filter, or putting an air purifier in the room – that you’re doing something that is going to reduce the risk.”
Marr said the move to push classrooms outdoors whenever possible would also drive down the risk of COVID-19 infection dramatically and should be done while the weather permits – even if temperatures drop and students need to bundle up.
“It’s worth it for the education of a generation,” she said. “Because it will be so much safer to go outdoors than to stay indoors.”
Marr said ventilation is one of four essentials that need to be prioritized in the reopening of schools in order to successfully navigate a return to the classroom; the others being ensuring enough space for physical distancing, mask wearing and avoiding crowds.
“In the cars we drive we have seatbelts, we have airbags, we have anti-lock brakes and we try to drive carefully,” she said. “Would you get in your car if the airbags are broken?”
Mask policies in schools a ‘hodgepodge’ across Canada
Mandating students to wear masks while in the classroom is another strategy that could help curb the spread of COVID-19, but some provinces don’t have strict policies in place for doing so.
In B.C., students won’t be required to wear masks, while Ontario’s plan will see masks required only for students in grades four to 12.
Alberta will also require students of those ages to wear masks, but only while in hallways, common areas and when working closely with others.
Saskatchewan will send students back to class without either requiring students to wear masks or reducing class sizes.
“The reason it’s a hodgepodge is because we know that in different places, combinations of those things have worked,” Saxinger said, referencing schools in Europe and Asia that have since dialled back strict reopening policies.
“You’re trying to find this balance of what is feasible and what’s the range of reasonable and how can we learn from this? Because frankly, there’s a lot of pandemic left and if we’re not learning from what we’re doing, we’re missing a really big opportunity.”
Dr. Lynora Saxinger says Canada has a ‘hodgepodge’ of policies around mask wearing for students because of the different strategies that have worked around the world. (Halfpoint/Shutterstock)
The new federal guidelines also say that consideration should be given to the use of masks and face shields, because the “evidence is evolving on their benefits to the wearer to reduce their risk of infection.”
But they stop short of recommending widespread mask use and say non-medical masks should not be worn by anyone who is “unable to remove the mask without assistance, due to age, ability or developmental status.”
Deonandan says that while he agrees there is an age cutoff for children who can effectively wear masks, he thinks more students should be required to wear masks in schools across the country.
“We could look into masks and face shields, the two of them together … that added layer of … self protection through a face shield, I think would pay extraordinary dividends,” he said.
Deonandan said the arguments against mask wearing for younger students in schools focus on the fact that they will fidget with them, risk exposure by touching their face, or not wear them consistently throughout the day.
For those kids incapable of wearing a mask, instead of saying, ‘Well then, masks are impossible,’ have them wear face shields only. It’s not as good as a mask for outward mitigation, but it’s better than nothing.”
“It won’t be perfect, but … don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.”
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WINNIPEG – Some 250 coloured tacks pepper a large-scale world map among bookshelves at Whodunit Mystery Bookstore.
Estonia, Finland, Japan and even Fenwick, Ont., have pins representing places outside Winnipeg where someone has ordered a page-turner from the independent bookstore that specializes in mystery and crime fiction novels.
For 30 years, the store has been offering fans of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot or Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes a place to get lost in whodunits both old and new.
Jack and Wendy Bumsted bought the shop in the Crescentwood neighbourhood in 2007 from another pair of mystery lovers.
The married couple had been longtime customers of the store. Wendy Bumsted grew up reading Perry Mason novels while her husband was a historian with vast knowledge of the crime fiction genre.
At the time, Jack Bumsted was retiring from teaching at the University of Manitoba when he was looking for his next venture.
“The bookstore came up and we bought it, I think, within a week,” Wendy Bumsted said in an interview.
“It never didn’t seem like a good idea.”
In the years since the Bumsteds took ownership, the family has witnessed the decline in mail-order books, the introduction of online retailers, a relocation to a new space next to the original, a pandemic and the death of beloved co-owner Jack Bumsted in 2020.
But with all the changes that come with owning a small business, customers continue to trust their next mystery fix will come from one of the shelves at Whodunit.
Many still request to be called about books from specific authors, or want to be notified if a new book follows their favourite format. Some arrive at the shop like clockwork each week hoping to get suggestions from Wendy Bumsted or her son on the next big hit.
“She has really excellent instincts on what we should be getting and what we should be promoting,” Micheal Bumsted said of his mother.
Wendy Bumsted suggested the store stock “Thursday Murder Club,” the debut novel from British television host Richard Osman, before it became a bestseller. They ordered more copies than other bookstores in Canada knowing it had the potential to be a hit, said Michael Bumsted.
The store houses more than 18,000 new and used novels. That’s not including the boxes of books that sit in Wendy Bumsted’s tiny office, or the packages that take up space on some of the only available seating there, waiting to be added to the inventory.
Just as the genre has evolved, so has the Bumsteds’ willingness to welcome other subjects on their shelves — despite some pushback from loyal customers and initially the Bumsted patriarch.
For years, Jack Bumsted refused to sell anything outside the crime fiction genre, including his own published books. Instead, he would send potential buyers to another store, but would offer to sign the books if they came back with them.
Wendy Bumsted said that eventually changed in his later years.
Now, about 15 per cent of the store’s stock is of other genres, such as romance or children’s books.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced them to look at expanding their selection, as some customers turned to buying books through the store’s website, which is set up to allow purchasers to get anything from the publishers the Bumsteds have contracts with.
In 2019, the store sold fewer than 100 books online. That number jumped to more than 3,000 in 2020, as retailers had to deal with pandemic lockdowns.
After years of running a successful mail-order business, the store was able to quickly adapt when it had to temporarily shut its doors, said Michael Bumsted.
“We were not a store…that had to figure out how to get books to people when they weren’t here.”
He added being a community bookstore with a niche has helped the family stay in business when other retailers have struggled. Part of that has included building lasting relationships.
“Some people have put it in their wills that their books will come to us,” said Wendy Bumsted.
Some of those collections have included tips on traveling through Asia in the early 2000s or the history of Australian cricket.
Micheal Bumsted said they’ve had to learn to be patient with selling some of these more obscure titles, but eventually the time comes for them to find a new home.
“One of the great things about physical books is that they can be there for you when you are ready for them.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Sept. 15, 2024.
MONTREAL – Canada’s labour minister is praising both Air Canada and the union representing about 5,200 of its pilots for averting a work stoppage that would have disrupted travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Steven MacKinnon’s comments came in a statement shared to social media shortly after Canada’s largest air carrier announced it had reached a tentative labour deal with the Air Line Pilots Association.
MacKinnon thanked both sides and federal mediators, saying the airline and its pilots approached negotiations with “seriousness and a resolve to get a deal.”
The tentative agreement averts a strike or lockout that could have begun as early as Wednesday for Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge, with flight cancellations expected before then.
The airline now says flights will continue as normal while union members vote on the tentative four-year contract.
Air Canada had called on the federal government to intervene in the dispute, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that would only happen if it became clear no negotiated agreement was possible.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2024.
When it comes to plant-based alternatives, Canadians have never had so many options — and nowhere is that choice more abundantly clear than in the milk section of the dairy aisle.
To meet growing demand, companies are investing in new products and technology to keep up with consumer tastes and differentiate themselves from all the other players on the shelf.
“The product mix has just expanded so fast,” said Liza Amlani, co-founder of the Retail Strategy Group.
She said younger generations in particular are driving growth in the plant-based market as they are consuming less dairy and meat.
Commercial sales of dairy milk have been weakening for years, according to research firm Mintel, likely in part because of the rise of plant-based alternatives — even though many Canadians still drink dairy.
The No. 1 reason people opt for plant-based milk is because they see it as healthier than dairy, said Joel Gregoire, Mintel’s associate director for food and drink.
“Plant-based milk, the one thing about it — it’s not new. It’s been around for quite some time. It’s pretty established,” said Gregoire.
Because of that, it serves as an “entry point” for many consumers interested in plant-based alternatives to animal products, he said.
Plant-based milk consumption is expected to continue growing in the coming years, according to Mintel research, with more options available than ever and more consumers opting for a diet that includes both dairy and non-dairy milk.
A 2023 report by Ernst & Young for Protein Industries Canada projected that the plant-based dairy market will reach US$51.3 billion in 2035, at a compound annual growth rate of 9.5 per cent.
Because of this growth opportunity, even well-established dairy or plant-based companies are stepping up their game.
It’s been more than three decades since Saint-Hyacinthe, Que.-based Natura first launched a line of soy beverages. Over the years, the company has rolled out new products to meet rising demand, and earlier this year launched a line of oat beverages that it says are the only ones with a stamp of approval from Celiac Canada.
Competition is tough, said owner and founder Nick Feldman — especially from large American brands, which have the money to ensure their products hit shelves across the country.
Natura has kept growing, though, with a focus on using organic ingredients and localized production from raw materials.
“We’re maybe not appealing to the mass market, but we’re appealing to the natural consumer, to the organic consumer,” Feldman said.
Amlani said brands are increasingly advertising the simplicity of their ingredient lists. She’s also noticing more companies offering different kinds of products, such as coffee creamers.
Companies are also looking to stand out through eye-catching packaging and marketing, added Amlani, and by competing on price.
Besides all the companies competing for shelf space, there are many different kinds of plant-based milk consumers can choose from, such as almond, soy, oat, rice, hazelnut, macadamia, pea, coconut and hemp.
However, one alternative in particular has enjoyed a recent, rapid ascendance in popularity.
“I would say oat is the big up-and-coming product,” said Feldman.
Mintel’s report found the share of Canadians who say they buy oat milk has quadrupled between 2019 and 2023 (though almond is still the most popular).
“There seems to be a very nice marriage of coffee and oat milk,” said Feldman. “The flavour combination is excellent, better than any other non-dairy alternative.”
The beverage’s surge in popularity in cafés is a big part of why it’s ascending so quickly, said Gregoire — its texture and ability to froth makes it a good alternative for lattes and cappuccinos.
It’s also a good example of companies making a strong “use case” for yet another new entrant in a competitive market, he said.
Amid the long-standing brands and new entrants, there’s another — perhaps unexpected — group of players that has been increasingly investing in plant-based milk alternatives: dairy companies.
For example, Danone has owned the Silk and So Delicious brands since an acquisition in 2014, and long-standing U.S. dairy company HP Hood LLC launched Planet Oat in 2018.
Lactalis Canada also recently converted its facility in Sudbury, Ont., to manufacture its new plant-based Enjoy! brand, with beverages made from oats, almonds and hazelnuts.
“As an organization, we obviously follow consumer trends, and have seen the amount of interest in plant-based products, particularly fluid beverages,” said Mark Taylor, president and CEO of Lactalis Canada, whose parent company Lactalis is the largest dairy products company in the world.
The facility was a milk processing plant for six decades, until Lactalis Canada began renovating it in 2022. It now manufactures not only the new brand, but also the company’s existing Sensational Soy brand, and is the company’s first dedicated plant-based facility.
“We’re predominantly a dairy company, and we’ll always predominantly be a dairy company, but we see these products as complementary,” said Taylor.
It makes sense that major dairy companies want to get in on plant-based milk, said Gregoire. The dairy business is large — a “cash cow,” if you will — but not really growing, while plant-based products are seeing a boom.
“If I’m looking for avenues of growth, I don’t want to be left behind,” he said.
Gregoire said there’s a potential for consumers to get confused with so many options, which is why it’s so important for brands to find a way to differentiate themselves, whether it’s with taste, health, or how well the drink froths for a latte.
Competition in a more crowded market is challenging, but Taylor believes it results in better products for consumers.
“It keeps you sharp, and it forces you to be really good at what you’re doing. It drives innovation,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2024.
