B.C. mink farmers lose appeal for damages against province for pandemic-era ban
The ruling posted Friday says several farms filed identical lawsuits against the provincial government after regulatory changes in 2021 made it illegal to farm mink in B.C. in response 'to the risk of farmed mink spreading respiratory viruses,' namely COVID-19.
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Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Got the sniffles? Here's what to know about summer colds and the COVID-19 variant called stratus
Summer heat, outdoor fun … and cold and flu symptoms? The three may not go together in many people's minds: partly owing to common myths about germs and partly because many viruses really do have lower activity levels in the summer. But it is possible to get the sniffles — or worse — in the summer. Federal data released Friday, for example, shows COVID-19 is trending up in most states, with emergency department visits up among people of all ages. Here's what to know about summer viruses. How much are colds and flu circulating right now? The number of people seeking medical care for three key illnesses — COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV — is currently very low, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Flu is trending down and RSV has been steady. But COVID-19 is trending up in most U.S. states. Wastewater data from around the country estimates 'moderate' COVID-19 activity. CDC wastewater also shows the XFG variant — nicknamed stratus — is most common in the U.S. Stratus can cause a 'razor blade' sore throat and is considered a 'variant under monitoring' by the World Health Organization. The WHO said the variant is only marginally better at evading people's immune systems and vaccines still work against it. The expectation is that COVID-19 will eventually settle into a winter seasonal pattern like other coronaviruses, but the past few years have brought a late summer surge, said Dr. Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at University of California Davis Children's Hospital. Other viruses circulating this time of year include the one that causes 'hand, foot and mouth' disease — which has symptoms similar to a cold, plus sores and rashes — and norovirus, sometimes called the stomach flu. Do viruses spread less in the summer? Many viruses circulate seasonally, picking up as the weather cools in the fall and winter. So it's true that fewer people get stuffy noses and coughs in the summer — but cold weather itself does not cause colds. It's not just about seasonality. The other factor is our behavior, experts say. Nice weather means people are opening windows and gathering outside where it's harder for germs to spread. But respiratory viruses are still around. When the weather gets too hot and everyone heads inside for the air conditioning, doctors say they start seeing more sickness. In places where it gets really hot for a long time, summer can be cold season in its own right. 'I grew up on the East Coast and everybody gets sick in the winter,' said Dr. Frank LoVecchio, an emergency room doctor and Arizona State University researcher. 'A lot of people get sick in the summer here. Why is that? Because you spend more time indoors.' With stratus spreading, should you get another COVID-19 booster? For people who are otherwise healthy, timing is a key consideration to getting any vaccine. You want to get it a few weeks before that big trip or wedding, if that's the reason for getting boosted, doctors say. But, for most people, it may be worth waiting until the fall in anticipation of winter cases of COVID-19 really tick up. 'You want to be fully protected at the time that it's most important for you,' said Dr. Costi Sifri, of the University of Virginia Health System. People at higher risk of complications should always talk with their doctor about what is best for them, Sifri added. Older adults and those with weak immune systems may need more boosters than others, he said. Are more younger kids getting sick with COVID-19? Last month, the CDC noted emergency room visits among children younger than 4 were rising. That makes sense, Blumberg said, because many young kids are getting it for the first time or are unvaccinated. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in May that the shots would no longer be recommended for healthy kids, a decision that health experts have said lacks scientific basis. The American Academy of Pediatrics still endorses COVID-19 shots for children older than 6 months. How else can I lower my risk? The same things that help prevent colds, flu and COVID any other time of the year work in the summer, doctors say. Spend time outside when you can, wash your hands, wear a mask. And if you're sick, stay home. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Toronto Sun
17 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
CDC shooting latest in string of hostility directed at health-care workers
Published Aug 13, 2025 • 4 minute read A memorial is seen in the aftermath of a shooting near the CDC where DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose was killed while responding, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, in Atlanta. Photo by Mike Stewart / AP Photo ATLANTA — A barrage of bullets launched at the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week by a man authorities say was angry over COVID-19 vaccinations is the latest attack directed at health-care workers amid hostility lingering from the pandemic. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Some public health care workers say the shooting that killed a police officer and rattled the CDC campus shouldn't be surprising in the face of ongoing misinformation and animosity about the safety of immunizations. 'All of us, anybody who stands up for science or vaccines, will at some level get hate mail or a phone call that's unnerving or a death threat,' said Paul Offit, the co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine. Just four years ago, while hospitals overflowed with unvaccinated patients, school board members, local leaders and doctors were regularly confronted in public with taunts comparing them to the Taliban, Nazis and leaders of Japanese internment camps. Sometimes the conflicts descended into violence and harassment. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The distrust and anger that grew since then has been amplified by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said Offit, who heads the vaccine education centre at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Kennedy has been a leading voice in spreading false information about vaccines, scientists and public health leaders, often using heated rhetoric that says they have caused mass death and injury. People he describes in such language have said his comments have led to threats, intimidation and even violence. Kennedy denounces violence but criticizes CDC's work Kennedy, who toured the CDC campus on Monday, said no one should face violence while working to protect the health of others and called political violence wrong. But he went on to criticize the agency's pandemic response. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'One of the things that we saw during COVID is that the government was overreaching in its efforts to persuade the public to get vaccinated, and they were saying things that are not always true,' Kennedy said during a television interview with Scripps News later in the day. A spokesperson for Kennedy blasted any notion that blamed vaccine misinformation for Friday's attack. 'This narrative is pure fiction, built on anonymous complaints and a willful disregard for the facts,' said Andrew Nixon of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 'Secretary Kennedy is not advancing an 'anti-vaccine agenda' — he is advancing a pro-safety, pro-transparency, and pro-accountability agenda.' Authorities have said that Patrick Joseph White, 30, had written about his discontent with the COVID-19 vaccine before he opened fire on the CDC. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. White also had verbalized thoughts of suicide, which led to law enforcement being contacted several weeks before the shooting, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. White died at the scene of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Friday after killing DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose. Shooting rattles CDC campus Following the attack, CDC employees were asked to scrape off old CDC parking decals from their vehicles. But even before that, some workers had taken steps to become less visible, including not wearing their public health service uniform, said Yolanda Jacobs, a union leader who represents some CDC workers. The CDC's new director told employees this week that no act of violence can diminish their mission to protect public health. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'We know that misinformation can be dangerous. Not only to health, but to those that trust us and those we want to trust,' Dr. Susan Monarez told employees during an 'all-hands' meeting Tuesday, her first since the attack capped her first full week on campus as director. The federal agency, tasked with tracking diseases and responding to health threats, has been hit by widespread staff cuts, key resignations and heated controversy over long-standing CDC vaccine policies upended by Kennedy. 'What happened on Friday is a direct result of that misinformation,' said Sarah Boim, a former CDC worker whose job was targeted for elimination earlier this year. 'Health Secretary Kennedy is one of the biggest pushers of misinformation.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The shooting, she said, left her in tears. 'My friends and family still work in those buildings,' she said. 'My mom works in one of those buildings.' In the aftermath, officials are assessing security and encouraging staff to report any new threats, including those based on misinformation about the CDC and its vaccine work. Anti-vaccine tension has been building Despite its prominence since the pandemic, anti-vaccine rhetoric leading to harassment and violence took root before then. In 2019, an anti-vaccine activist assaulted California state Sen. Richard Pan, streaming it live on Facebook, after Pan sponsored a bill to make it more difficult to get a vaccine exemption. Another threw blood at Pan and other lawmakers. The attacks came after Kennedy spoke outside the California Capitol, two large posters behind him featured Pan's image, with the word 'LIAR' stamped across his face in blood-red paint. Pan, a pediatrician, blames Kennedy for what happened then and now at the CDC. 'And you wonder why someone would go shoot up the CDC,' Pan said. 'Because he basically told them that those are the people you should hurt.' Read More Editorial Cartoons Toronto Maple Leafs Columnists Columnists Toronto & GTA
Toronto Star
a day ago
- Toronto Star
CDC shooting marks latest in a string of hostility directed at health workers. Many aren't surprised
ATLANTA (AP) — A barrage of bullets launched at the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week by a man authorities say was angry over COVID-19 vaccinations is the latest attack directed at health care workers amid hostility lingering from the pandemic. Some public health care workers say the shooting that killed a police officer and rattled the CDC campus shouldn't be surprising in the face of ongoing misinformation and animosity about the safety of immunizations.
