Quebec public health director resigns

Policy Insider for Jan 11: COVID Cases Continue to Peak in Canada; the realities of the long COVID; and Ontario to reopen schools

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Flooded in COVID: Omicron has overwhelmed Canada, CTV reports, causing more new cases in 40 days than during the entire first year of the pandemic.

And while the much more infectious Omicron variant appears to cause less severe illness than previous variants of concern, such as Delta, the sheer number of infections continues to increase hospitalizations and intensive care admissions, testing already fragile health care systems in many jurisdictions. Hospitalization figures are approaching or reaching record levels in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.

But the comparison is probably conservative, with actual infections during the last wave widely believed to be significantly higher due to factors including difficulty in booking PCR tests in some regions during the holidays and changes in test eligibility in provinces like Ontario after the new year. Wastewater data from different parts of the country also indicate that the actual number is much higher.

Do not visit: Canada is so full of COVID that the CDC is advising Americans Must Not Visit, Reuters reports. The CDC has about 80 destinations around the world on its no-travel list.

rule out: Quebec Public Health Director Dr. Horacio Arruda resigned Monday, citing a loss of public confidence in his judgment, CTV reports.

In Arruda’s resignation letter, obtained by CTV News, he cited recent criticism of his work, but did not specify exactly what he was referring to. “Recent observations made on the credibility of our opinions and on our scientific rigor undoubtedly cause some erosion in the adherence of the population”He wrote, referring to people’s willingness to follow public health rules. “In this context, I consider it appropriate to offer him the possibility of replacing me before the end of my term.”

Back to school: Ontario schoolchildren will return to their classrooms next Monday, Star reports. by doug ford The office confirmed Monday night that “as previously planned and announced, students will return to in-person learning” on January 17th.

NS ER overwhelmed: An ER doctor in Nova Scotia says the situation there has never been worse.

Patients with serious conditions requiring emergency intervention, people on the Canadian acuity and triage Level 3 scale, waited more than eight hours to be seen on Monday, he said. That five-tier system is used by emergency room physicians in Canada to assess the severity of patients’ conditions. The Canadian standard for a Level 3 patient to be seen is “within 30 minutes, 90 percent of the time,” he said.

Omicron output: At toronto sun, Brian lilley Talk to Former Ontario Chief Medical Officer Dr. Richard Schabas, who thinks The infection is likely to have peaked in that province.

Long term: In maclean’s, cristina frangou It has a cool feature about COVID long-haul carriers, people who are stuck dealing with a prolonged illness and even a disability.

Conservative estimates suggest that around 10 percent of Canadians who contract COVID-19 will experience prolonged symptoms. Some reports put the number closer to one in three. About 1.7 million Canadians have recovered from COVID-19 so far, meaning there could be between 170,000 and half a million people in this country with persistent health problems from the virus. An unknown number are struggling to return to their basic life activities. “You can be a marathon runner who can’t walk a block,” he says. Dr. Angela Cheung, a clinical researcher at the University Health Network and a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto who studies long-term COVID. “That is scary for many patients.”

Tests and pills: Prime ministers pressured Justin Trudeau to distribute faster antigen tests and speed up approval of antiviral pills during a call Monday, Global reports.

Committees! Opposition MPs Are Pushing For Two Committees To Examine The Federal Government’s Current COVID-19 Response Efforts And The Use Of Canadians’ Cellular Data To Inform Public Health Measures To Be Abandoned Early, CTV reports. Conservative deputies, the bloc and the NDP request the Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos and senior officials to answer questions about increased support for the provinces and other questions about managing the pandemic.
Parliamentarians also want an ethics committee meeting to discuss the Public Health Agency of Canada’s plan to continue using anonymized cell phone location data of Canadians to track travel patterns during the pandemic, the Post reports.
Try alcohol and weed: At Star, Susana delacourt has a reflective column linked to Quebec’s recent imposition of a vaccination mandate for alcoholic beverages and marijuana purchases. She points out that while people debate what is the best message politicians can use to encourage vaccination, it probably doesn’t matter too much what they say about it.

Before anyone gets too focused on what politicians should or shouldn’t say to increase vaccination rates, we must remember that your influence on the persuasion front is extremely limited. Even among the general public, very few people would get up from their chairs to make a vaccination appointment because a politician said so. Among those vacillating about the vaccine, political conferences count less than nothing: distrust in the government goes hand in hand with distrust in what is in the needle, as any look at social networks would tell.

Deal with Taiwan: Canada to seek a foreign investment protection agreement with Taiwan amid its current tension with mainland China, CP reports. The ad garnered positive reviews.

Economic fears: Canadians told pollster Angus Reid Institute they are concerned about the economic impact of a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, CTV reports.

He offered to help: melanie joly offered Canada’s help to the United States by imposing deterrence measures against Russia, which could include sanctions, to avoid a crisis in Ukraine, CBC News reports.

Deadliest Mexico: Mexico tops the list of countries with the highest number of Canadians killed abroad since 2016, CTV reports. Twenty-five Canadians have been killed in Mexico since 2016. The United States ranks second (22), followed by Jamaica (17), the Philippines (13), and Burkina Faso (10).

Extension! The balloon Juan Ibbitson write that there is a simple solution to the housing crisis: let cities expand.

The party continues: Canadian partygoers from a controversial Sunwing flight are still stuck in Cancun, the Vancouver sun. reports. “What better way to teach them a lesson”, Jimmy Fallon joked on Saturday.

– Esteban Maher



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