COVID kills New Brunswick child aged 0-4
A New Brunswick child aged 0-4 was killed by COVID-19 between March 9-15, according to government data, and influenza killed two people aged 65 or older and one aged 45-64.
The province doesn't provide any information about COVID and flu victims.
Between March 9-15, 10 people were hospitalized with COVID. No one required intensive care.
The province includes data on the number of tests and lab-confirmed cases, but it isn't accurate because it only counts data collected in hospitals.
Forty-five people were hospitalized for influenza between March 9-15, and two people required intensive care.
There were 11 lab-confirmed flu outbreaks, including seven in nursing homes and four in undisclosed facilities. There was also one outbreak of an influenza-like illness in a school.
Finally, there were 66 confirmed cases of RSV between March 9-15. Three people required hospital treatment.
Some New Brunswickers will soon be able to get a new COVID-19 vaccination, the government announced on Monday, but it doesn't appear the shots will be available to most.
The eligible groups are, according to a government press release, 'people aged 65 or older, adult residents of long-term care homes and other congregate-living settings for seniors,' and 'people six months or older who are moderately to severely immunocompromised due to underlying conditions or treatment.'
The release doesn't explain why the vaccine isn't available to everyone, other than a note saying the province is following 'updated guidance from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization.'
Shots will be available from April 7 to June 30, and will be administered by 'participating pharmacies,' the release read. However for children under 12, the shots will only be available until June 21 because 'vaccine products for this age group are expiring and additional vaccines will not be immediately available.'
'Getting vaccinated is one of the best ways to help protect yourself and your community against the impact of vaccine-preventable diseases and illnesses, including COVID-19,' chief medical health officer Dr. Yves Léger said in the release.
'Vaccines against COVID-19 are very effective at preventing severe disease in the elderly and those who are at higher risk. However, studies show that this protection does drop after many months, which is why getting a spring dose is important for those groups.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
32 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump administration vs. mRNA vaccines
The Big Story President Trump once heralded the speedy development of an mRNA vaccine, but his new administration is casting doubts and fostering speculation over their use. © AP The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in late May canceled $766 million awarded to Moderna through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to develop a potential mRNA vaccine for bird flu. This came soon after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced COVID-19 mRNA vaccines would no longer be recommended for children and pregnant women, though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) kept the shot on its schedule of childhood vaccinations. The vaccines marked a breakthrough in medical technology, drastically reducing the timeline for development of targeted vaccines and even showing promise in cancer research. Trump called mRNA the 'gold standard' when he rolled out the first COVID-19 vaccines. In remarks in December 2020, the same month the first COVID-19 vaccines were deployed, Trump praised Operation Warp Speed's ability to develop a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine at a 'breakneck speed,' adding, 'the gold standard vaccine has been done in less than nine months.' According to Joseph Varon, president and chief medical officer of the Independent Medical Alliance, the concerns for mRNA vaccine skeptics are the expedited timeline and the conditions in which the COVID-19 vaccine was approved. 'The biggest concern is that this rushed treatment still remains in use, even under an Emergency Use Authorization in some cases. It needs to be sent back through proper studies and vetting,' Varon told The Hill. In a move that could prevent future mRNA vaccines from receiving approval, Kennedy on Tuesday announced he was removing every member of the independent panel advising the CDC on vaccines. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, he wrote, 'A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science.' Welcome to The Hill's Health Care newsletter, we're Nathaniel Weixel, Joseph Choi and Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health. Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here. Essential Reads How policy will be impacting the health care sector this week and beyond: Senators grill NIH director in budget hearing: 4 takeaways National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya faced questions from senators during an Appropriations subcommittee hearing Tuesday, as the federal government agency has taken hits to its staffing levels and grant-making ability since under President Trump. Senators focused on the Trump administration's requested 2026 budget, which calls for cutting NIH's funding by $18 billion from 2025 levels. … States sue 23andMe over genetic data sales More than two dozen states, along with the District of Columbia, are suing biotechnology company 23andMe over plans to auction off personal genetic information without their customers' knowledge or consent. 'The Pitt' actor Noah Wyle to make push for health care workers at Capitol Noah Wyle is heading to the pit of political power, with a visit to Capitol Hill to push for funding for programs aimed at improving mental health services for health care workers. 'The Pitt' and former 'ER' star will touch down in Washington on Thursday to lead a panel discussion at the Cannon House Office Building focused on the 'daily mental health, financial, and bureaucratic challenges for … In Other News Branch out with a different read: Collins calls Kennedy's firing of vaccine experts 'excessive' Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Monday called Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s firing of all 17 experts on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) vaccine panel 'excessive,' but she cautioned she needs to learn more about the decision. Kennedy announced the decision in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, catching many GOP lawmakers by surprise. 'I did not know that that had happened,' … Around the Nation Local and state headlines on health care: What We're Reading Health news we've flagged from other outlets: What Others are Reading Most read stories on The Hill right now: Judge declines to block Trump's Corporation for Public Broadcasting firings but allows board members to stay Correction: A previous version of this article gave incorrect names of the fired CPB board members. They are Laura Ross, Diane Kaplan and Thomas Rothman. … Read more Newsom asks judge for emergency intervention in Trump troop deployment in LA California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) asked a federal judge to immediately intervene on Tuesday to limit President Trump's deployment of the National … Read more You're all caught up. See you tomorrow! Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Newly approved therapy could offer another option for protecting infants from RSV, a common infection that can be deadly
The United States could soon have another tool in the fight against respiratory syncytial virus, an illness that's the No. 1 cause of hospitalization in infants. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new monoclonal antibody to help prevent infection, according to an announcement late Monday from drugmaker Merck. The therapy, Enflonsia, is designed to be given in a single 105-milligram shot to protect newborns and infants from mild, moderate or severe RSV through all five months of their first virus season, which typically starts in the fall and goes through the next spring. Study materials that Merck submitted to the FDA for its approval showed that the antibody had a similar safety profile as a placebo. The most common adverse reactions from Enflonsia were mild and included injection-site swelling and a rash in a small number of infants. In a mid- to late-stage trial, Enflonsia reduced RSV-associated hospitalizations in infants more than 84% compared with a placebo. RSV can sometimes turn into serious lower respiratory infections like pneumonia, but the shot also reduced lower respiratory infections that needed medical attention by more than 60% compared with a placebo. 'Enflonsia provides an important new preventive option to help protect healthy and at-risk infants born during or entering their first RSV season,' Dr. Dean Y. Li, president of Merck Research Laboratories, said in a news release. 'We are committed to ensuring availability of Enflonsia in the US before the start of the upcoming RSV season to help reduce the significant burden of this widespread seasonal infection on families and health care systems.' Merck says it hopes Enflonsia will be available before the start of the 2025-26 respiratory virus season. First, it needs to be recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and that means going in front of the agency's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. It's on the agenda for the panel's meeting this month, but US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy removed all the members of that committee Monday. He says he will appoint new ones, but it's unclear how long that process will take. Doctors say another tool to prevent RSV cannot come soon enough. RSV is ubiquitous, one of the most common causes of childhood illness. Most kids will catch this highly contagious respiratory virus at some point before they turn 2, according to the CDC. For many healthy adults and older kids, RSV causes a mild illness like a cold. Typically, symptoms can be managed at home, and they often go away on their own. But for infants and the elderly, it can be a different story. Very young children's immune systems are just starting to learn how to fight infections, and infants have tiny airways. RSV inflames those airways, making it difficult to breathe, and can turn into a serious lower respiratory illness like bronchiolitis or pneumonia. Some of these RSV infections can be deadly. Two to three percent of infants under 6 months are hospitalized with RSV in the US every year, according to the CDC. Among children younger than 5, about 58,000 to 80,000 are hospitalized due to RSV. There's no specific medicine to treat RSV. Doctors can give an infant supportive care and oxygen, and then they essentially wait until their oxygen levels get back to normal, said Dr. Amy Edwards, director of pediatric infection control at UH Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland. 'I hate RSV,' said Edwards, who was not connected with the Merck trial. 'Just to watch them struggle to breathe, and then they get scared, and then they cry, which of course makes the breathing worse, and their little lips turn blue. It's just so hard to watch.' Enflonsia joins a handful of other tools recently made available to protect babies from, although the FDA put RSV vaccine trials involving infants and young children ages 2 to 5 on hold last year after some developed severe illness. To prevent RSV in infants, the CDC currently recommends an RSV antibody made by Sanofi and AstraZeneca, called Beyfortus, which was approved in 2023. It was in short supply during that year's RSV season, although Edwards said supply started to catch up with demand in her health care system last season, and the company pledged to produce more. The other option to protect an infant is a vaccine that a person can get during pregnancy. Together, Beyfortus and the vaccine have made a difference. A CDC study published in March found that RSV-associated hospitalization rates among infants up to 7 months during 2024-25 season were lower than in seasons when those therapies weren't available. Edwards just hopes people will get protection for their infants. 'Every RSV season fills us to the gills,' she said. 'This should theoretically empty us out, if we have good uptake.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Opinion: Chronic Absenteeism Is a Vital Sign for Kids' Health. New Framework Seeks a Cure
When we worked in clinics caring for families and children, we routinely measured vital signs like blood pressure and heart rate and growth metrics like height and weight. But one of the most important health indicators remained out of reach: whether the kids were regularly showing up in school. School attendance is critical for success in the classroom, and success in school is core to health across a lifespan. Children who attend school regularly are far more likely to achieve academically and graduate from high school than those who are chronically absent. In turn, high school graduation leads to better health outcomes, and students who graduate are more likely to have fewer chronic illnesses and fewer injuries, and live longer lives, than those who do not. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Yet today, more than 1 in 4 American students is chronically absent, defined as missing more than 10% of school days. In some districts, that proportion is closer to 1 in 2. The COVID pandemic widened and deepened a longstanding problem, and now, the obstacles that prevent children from coming to school — chronic illness, disengagement in the classroom and unmet social needs — are wide-ranging. While many teachers and principals have worked tirelessly to get students back into the classroom, chronic absence has become a problem too big for educators or schools to solve alone. Related A new public health framework, developed by education and public health experts at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Kaiser Permanente and Attendance Works, offers a comprehensive, community-driven approach with three core elements: data, partnerships and prevention. First, school attendance data should be tracked and analyzed on a regular basis by district-level teams of educators, epidemiologists and clinicians who can interpret patterns and target solutions. Key questions include: When during the academic year does attendance dip? At what age does it start to falter? Which neighborhoods are most affected? Public health departments can include chronic absence in their community health needs assessments. Sharing school attendance data securely with health providers can help identify children with particular conditions, like asthma, who are missing school and require extra attention. In the District of Columbia, for example, pediatricians — with the consent of parents — receive regular reports about which children in their practices are on track to become chronically absent. They then can talk to families about what's happening. If children are missing school for health reasons, more intensive medical treatment may be needed. If the problem is disengagement in the classroom, clinicians can help assess whether there are additional educational needs. If there are social factors, such as inadequate child care or housing, clinicians can work with social workers in schools or community services to find resources to assist families. Related Data alone is not enough; partnerships are essential. Beyond health care providers, community organizations, afterschool programs and religious institutions all have a role to play in supporting families in areas with low attendance rates. Such broad coalitions have a track record of success. For example, the Cincinnati All Children Thrive Learning Network is a citywide collaborative anchored by the Cincinnati Children's Hospital and the public school system. The collaboration reviews education and health data and uses it to inform targeted action in the clinic and classroom; for example promoting access to primary care. The results include increased improved third-grade reading scores and reduced pediatric hospitalizations. The third pillar is prevention. It can be easy to see troubling attendance patterns as simply an issue with a truant student, a problem family or a bad school. But punitive approaches are less likely to work than efforts that listen to parents, address their needs and anticipate future challenges. Using data and evidence to guide action, coalitions can take such steps as providing safer transportation routes to school by improving sidewalk safety, creating protected bike lanes, installing flashing lights on crosswalks and offering better public transportation options; adding services to afterschool programs; and expanding school-based mental health support. Communities can also set a widespread expectation that all kids must go to school every day. Encouraging the development of such norms is difficult, but doing so was at the core of other successful public health strategies, like smoking cessation and traffic safety. Related Not every approach will succeed. To sustain progress, it is important to document, evaluate and share what works and why. Research-practice partnerships such as the Catamount Community Schools Collaborative build long-term collaborations among researchers, health practitioners and representatives from districts and state agencies to quickly assess the implementation and results of innovative programs. In San Francisco, youth are trained as researchers to help in such efforts. Most fundamentally, this framework's approach to chronic absence means keeping focus on a measurable outcome and innovating with solutions until every child has the best chance of success, both in and out of the classroom. Like heart rate and blood pressure, school attendance is a vital sign for health. Like weight and height, it is fundamental to child development. Now is the time to prioritize reducing chronic absence to support the long-term health of children.
