It was a Friday in February and Canada’s COVID-19 situation seemed to be improving. The second wave had crested. Just over 3,000 cases were reported countrywide that day, Feb. 19, down from a peak of 8,766 six weeks earlier.
Dr. Theresa Tam, however, came to a virtual news conference with a warning. New variants of the novel coronavirus threatened the country’s progress.
“We’ve been saying all along that if we ease measures too soon, the epidemic will resurge even stronger. But with highly contagious variants in our midst, the threat of uncontrolled epidemic growth is significantly elevated,” Canada’s chief public health officer said.
“These variants have been smouldering in the background and now threaten to flare up.”
Tam released modelling that took variants into consideration for the first time. One graph showed cases growing exponentially. It said that the number of new cases could shoot up to 10,000 per day by late March if provinces kept the same restrictions in place, or increase even further and faster to 20,000 per day by mid-March if restrictions were relaxed even more.
WATCH | CBC News analysis finds ‘a tale of two curves’ as variants spread:
When several provinces eased COVID-19 restrictions, a rising arc of more-infectious coronavirus variants was already on a trajectory to thrust Canada into a third wave of infections. 3:38
But some businesses shuttered during the second wave — including restaurants and bars in Alberta and retail stores in much of Ontario — had already reopened. And despite Tam’s warnings, those two provinces and Quebec loosened restrictions throughout March.
All were forced to quickly backtrack by late March or early April. One of the possibilities forecasted in Tam’s modelling had materialized: variants spread widely and cases skyrocketed.
Lockdowns and public opinion
This may have happened because politicians weigh the advice they get from scientists with public opinion, according to Mark Pickup, an associate professor of political science at Simon Fraser University who’s studied the politicization of COVID-19 in Canada and the U.S.
“Public opinion is not always going to be lined up with the best scientific advice. And so the politicians are trying to balance those things off,” Pickup told CBC News.
“And, of course, politicians are fallible. That’s known by everyone.”
Wherever there is ambiguity — like with mathematical models that forecast a range of different possibilities — there’s room for policy-makers to insert their own opinions and ideology, he added.
But epidemiologists say the situation was avoidable.
“The writing was on the wall,” said Kirsten Fiest, assistant professor and director of research and innovation at University of Calgary’s Department of Critical Care Medicine.
“It was almost inevitable that what we’re seeing now was going to happen. Warnings weren’t heeded early on and they haven’t been since, frankly.”
A mobile health unit is shown on the grounds of Sunnybrook Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto on April 30, 2021. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)
In a media interview in February, Fiest cautioned that a third wave was possible in Alberta if businesses were opened up too soon and the spread of new virus variants was not controlled.
“I did, didn’t I? And here we are.”
Ontario and Alberta are now the provinces hit hardest by third waves, with cases and hospitalizations coming close or surpassing peaks seen in December and January.
While daily death counts haven’t come close to the highs seen in December and January, about 2,000 more Canadians have died since March 1.
Spokespeople for Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Health Minister Tyler Shandro did not respond to questions sent by email.
A spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of Health said the government has “never hesitated” to take action to stop COVID-19.
“The third wave is driven by variants, which continue to enter the country and province through international travel and represent a significant threat to the health and wellbeing of Ontarians. Our government continues to request that the federal government take immediate action at Canada’s international borders,” Christian Hasse said by email.
Policy caused third wave: epidemiologist
Dr. Nitin Mohan, a physician-epidemiologist and assistant professor at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, said policy decisions, “or lack thereof,” created Canada’s third wave.
Restrictions were lifted too early, Mohan said, and some provincial governments failed to bring in policies like paid sick leave that would suppress workplace outbreaks.
On March 1, Alberta announced that libraries could open and fitness studios could host low-intensity classes like tai-chi and yoga. A week later, restrictions were also eased on malls, retail stores and youth sports.
Patrons dined in at Hunter’s Country Kitchen in Carstairs, Alta., as the province began easing restrictions in February. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)
Ontario lifted a stay-at-home order and opened retail stores in the hard-hit areas of Toronto and Peel on March 8. Premier Doug Ford’s government also upped restaurant capacity in red and orange zones, and allowed restaurants to serve on patios in Toronto and Peel.
Within weeks, doctors and experts were calling for urgent action.
Epidemiologists with Quebec’s public health agency said new rules were needed to control the spread of variants at a media briefing on March 26.
Ontario was “being led down a very dangerous path,” 153 intensive care unit (ICU) doctors wrote in a letter to Ford, his health minister and chief medical officer of health, on April 1.
An association of Edmonton-area health-care workers also wrote to their premier that day.
“The recent rapid increase in active COVID cases in Alberta represents the predicted third wave which will dwarf what we saw in December if urgent and competent action is not taken,” the letter said.
It was happening because of the more transmissible B117 virus variant, because individuals weren’t following rules, and because of the government’s “premature relaxation of existing COVID-19 precautions which has encouraged super-spreader events,” the doctors said.
Restriction whiplash
It wouldn’t be long before loosened restrictions were tightened again.
Quebec put three regions into strict lockdowns April 1 and strengthened rules in Montreal and other red zones April 6. Gyms in Montreal were only open for 12 days before being forced to shut their doors again.
Five days later, he said that Alberta would move back to step one of its reopening plan. And on Thursday, Kenney announced even more measures, like the closing of junior and senior high schools in some communities, as cases hit a new high.
Even British Columbia, which had allowed indoor dining since May 2020 and hadn’t tightened any restrictions since November, had to change course. The province announced a three-week lockdown on March 29, which the government now says will last until May 25.
Mohan said he believes provincial leaders either don’t understand the information they’re given or willfully disregard scientists’ warnings.
“It’s one of those two scenarios,” he told CBC.
“We knew what was coming here. There’s no surprise. So we know what is going to help us prevent a fourth wave. And that is almost entirely related to the public health measures.”
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
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Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
