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CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
How have you been affected by the Air Canada strike?
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CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Alberta COVID-19 vaccination program triggers confusion, criticism
Medical tools are pictured in an exam room at a health clinic in Calgary, Friday, July 14, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh Health experts, advocates and unions are sounding the alarm over Alberta's plan for paid COVID-19 shots, calling it concerning and confusing. On Monday, two months after the province announced it was adding a fee, it opened online pre-ordering for the vaccine. Albertans still need to book appointments for the shots, starting in October. Dr. James Talbot, the province's former chief medical officer of health, said the government appears to be doing everything it can to make this year's immunization campaign a 'failure' by making it less available, less accessible and less affordable. 'They are basically sabotaging their own COVID campaign,' he said. Dr. James Talbot Dr. James Talbot, co-chair of the EZMSA strategic COVID-19 pandemic committee, said in an interview with CTV News Edmonton that EZMSA has been predicting for four weeks now that variants would drive a significant third wave of COVID-19 cases (CTV News Edmonton). He's among a chorus of critics warning it could lead to more hospitalizations and stress on the health-care system. Talbot and other public health experts and physicians penned an opinion piece in the Edmonton Journal last week, arguing the plan creates unfair barriers and puts Albertans at risk. 'You've created this unfairness where if you're rich, you can get protected, but if you're poor, you may not be able to,' Talbot said. Extreme outlier Leigh Allard, president and CEO of Alberta Lung, part of the National Lung Health Alliance, said the government's policy makes it an extreme outlier and its precedent could ripple across the country. Those who suffer from lung conditions like asthma, cystic fibrosis or pulmonary fibrosis are vulnerable, she added. This year, Albertans also won't be able to walk into a pharmacy to get a COVID-19 shot, where the vast majority of doses were given last year. They must go to a public health clinic. Allard said people are confused over the plan. She's also concerned many won't be able to access a clinic for a shot, especially if hours aren't extended, or some simply won't be able to afford it. She said she expects an uptake in Alberta Lung's financial assistance programs. 'As a charity, we should not be supplementing what the government should be doing.' The government said it will still pay for some to get shots, including those who have compromised immune systems or are on social programs. Seniors in congregate settings will also be covered. However, the specifics of the qualifying health conditions have not been released. It's estimated a shot could cost $110, but the government has yet to pin down the price. Kyle Warner, spokesperson for Primary and Preventative Health Minister Adriana LaGrange, said details are forthcoming. 'The fall immunization plan is being finalized, and details — including the updated vaccination schedule, eligible conditions, exact locations and administrative fee for COVID-19 vaccines — will be available soon,' he said in a statement. Warner also said Albertans who don't pre-order by the Sept. 30 deadline can still book a vaccine appointment once doses become available. He said online pre-ordering helps determine future vaccine needs, minimize waste, manage delivery and prevent double bookings, since the influenza vaccine can be given at the same time. Those who pre-order are promised a reminder in October to book an appointment. The province said it has ordered 485,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine for the fall and some of the estimated $49-million cost would be covered through those who have to pay. The government didn't respond to questions about whether it has a contingency plan to order more doses if needed, whether out-of-province costs might be reimbursed, and what informed its decision to order 250,000 fewer doses than last year. It also didn't clarify whether flu shots, which remain free, would be available in pharmacies. The province's interim chief medical officer of health, Dr. Sunil Sookram, wasn't made available for an interview. Disrespectful Talbot called withholding the specifics disrespectful. 'It's bad enough that there's a list that says you're going to ration it, but then to have confusion about who's on the list — that just seems cruel,' he said. The province has said an estimated one million COVID-19 vaccine doses, or just over half of Alberta's supply, weren't used during the 2023-24 respiratory virus season. Premier Danielle Smith has said that meant $135 million was 'flushed down the drain.' Facing heated questions about the policy at a public town hall in Edmonton on Thursday, Smith said her United Conservative Party government is trying not to waste public money. 'There are lots of different types of vaccines that are paid for out of pocket right now ... because the federal government defunded it,' she said, pointing to shots for yellow fever, which also need to be purchased. The latest provincial data says 394 Albertans with confirmed COVID-19 have died since last August. Talbot and labour leaders have also said the plan puts health workers in harm's way, and potentially forces those in an already strained system to take sick time off work to avoid infecting others. 'You're going to be the only province in the country that says we care so little about these people that we're going to force them to pay for their own vaccine,' said Talbot. 'It seems inconceivable to me that a rational mind would think that was a good way to recruit and retain health-care professionals.' Potential fallout Unions warned this week of potential fallout. In a Tuesday letter to the premier, Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan wrote it would be a violation of workplace health and safety laws not to include all health workers, education workers, transit operators and those in the service sector on its priority list. McGowan said he's also hearing frustration and confusion from front-line members. 'It's not just incompetence. This is clearly not a vaccine rollout strategy. It's a vaccine suppression strategy,' he said. The United Nurses of Alberta has said the plan limits the freedom of Albertans to choose vaccination by intentionally limiting supply and penalizing those who can't afford it. --Lisa Johnson This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 16, 2025.
Globe and Mail
3 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
N.B. professor aims to broaden tick research after battling Lyme disease
When Vett Lloyd was bitten by a tick in 2011, it marked the beginning of a painful, years-long battle with Lyme disease. It also abruptly altered the trajectory of her career. At the time, Dr. Lloyd's research at New Brunswick's Mount Allison University was focused on cancer biology but she wondered why people weren't paying more attention to ticks. So, she converted her cancer lab into a tick lab and reoriented her life's work around the tiny bloodsucker that nearly ruined her. It was a scientific pursuit with a surprisingly therapeutic perk. 'When testing ticks, the first step you do is grind them into oblivion,' she says. 'And I must admit, it took me about 10 years to get over the joy of doing that.' Nova Scotians watch their backs – and each other's – during another tick-infested summer Dr. Lloyd would still love to see ticks 'disappeared from the face of the Earth.' But 13 years studying the parasitic arachnids have forced a begrudging admiration as well, both for their fascinating biology and remarkable ability to spread. Ticks, which are cousins of spiders and scorpions, have been crawling the planet for about 99 million years, according to fossil evidence showing that they once fed on dinosaurs. But in countries such as Canada and the United States, their numbers have risen dramatically in recent decades and ticks are increasingly recognized as a growing threat to public health. In Canada, some 40-odd tick species have been documented, Dr. Lloyd says – but only a handful are adept at biting people or spreading human disease. One species that's expert at both is the Ixodes scapularis, also known as the blacklegged tick or deer tick. It was once ignored by the public-health establishment. That all changed after 1976, when authorities in Lyme, Conn., reported a cluster of children with unexplained arthritis – an illness later attributed to the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, which is primarily spread through tick bites. Today, blacklegged ticks are a known vector for seven human pathogens: five bacteria (including the Lyme bacterium), one parasite (that causes a malaria-like illness) and a rare virus called Powassan, named for the Ontario town where it was discovered after the death of a five-year-old. Just three decades ago, there was only one spot in Canada where blacklegged ticks were known to be endemic: Long Point, Ont., along the shores of Lake Erie. But just across the U.S.-Canadian border, ticks were on the rise – as were the diseases they spread. Every year, millions of ticks are biting birds that fly into Canada. A 2008 study estimated that northward-migrating birds carry anywhere from 50 million to 175 million blacklegged ticks into Canada every year – all of which drop off their feathered hosts once they finish feeding. 'Canada's being bombed by ticks in the spring,' says Nick Ogden, first author of the 2008 migratory bird study and director of the modelling hub division with the Public Health Agency of Canada. Ask a Doctor: What should I know about ticks and Lyme disease? 'And when the temperatures rise to a suitable level for the ticks, they can start off a population.' In 2019, researchers conducted Canada's first real-time surveillance study of tick populations and found Ixodes ticks in every province except Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador. Of the 567 ticks collected, 25 per cent were infected with the Lyme bacterium. (In British Columbia, Lyme disease is less of a concern because another tick species – the Ixodes pacificus, a far less competent vector – is prevalent.) Climate change has been a major driver of their spread. Ticks were already capable of surviving Canadian winters under certain conditions, Dr. Ogden says – for example, if they find a cozy leaf layer, where the microclimate might keep temperatures closer to zero. 'And they've got a bit of antifreeze in their bodies, which protects them,' he adds. But the warming planet is resulting in more cumulative days with temperatures above zero – a key threshold for ticks to survive and thrive, according to Dr. Ogden's research. Given that female ticks can lay between 2,000 to 3,000 eggs in a single clutch, it doesn't take long for their numbers to explode. 'Nationally, it's really exponential what we're seeing,' says Manisha Kulkarni, the scientific director of the Canadian Lyme Disease Research Network and a professor at the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. 'The abundance of ticks is really increasing ... which is leading to that amplification of tick-borne pathogens and that potential for spillover.' The key to fighting ticks? Getting to know them better Every person who contracts Lyme will have unwittingly supplied one of the three blood meals that a blacklegged tick requires over its lifetime, which can span two to four years. Newly hatched from its egg, the six-legged tick larvae will die without its first blood meal. 'So, the mom usually lays her eggs close to a mouse burrow,' says clinical microbiologist Muhammad Morshed, program head for zoonotic disease and emerging pathogens at the BC Centre for Disease Control. 'They can easily hop onto mice or some other warm-blooded animal.' Rodents are natural reservoirs for the Lyme bacterium, however. So, this first feed often infects the tick, which continues harbouring the pathogen even after moulting into an eight-legged nymph. Blacklegged ticks don't seek out people. But their primary strategy for finding a blood meal is to climb a leaf or blade of grass, outstretch its front legs, and simply wait. If the first warm-blooded creature to come along is human, so be it. For the first 24 hours after biting, the tick is mostly just salivating and preparing for what scientists refer to, somewhat horrifyingly, as the 'big sip.' 'It's not really getting a lot of blood at first,' says Rebecca Eisen, a research biologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's division of vector-borne diseases. 'But it keeps on feeding, and then it just gets the big sip and engorges.' Ticks need strategies for staying attached. It helps to be a nymph, which is the size of a poppy seed and therefore tough to detect. Their mouthparts also have barbs and their salivary glands secrete an adhesive substance known as 'tick cement.' And generally, an infected tick needs to be embedded for more than 24 hours before disease transmission occurs, Dr. Eisen says. 'The blood getting into the midgut tells [the bacteria] 'Hey, we found a host,'' she explains. 'Then they'll start the migration into the salivary glands.' In its final life stage, the adult tick is trying to mate. A female needs a third and last blood meal to lay her eggs, so tick copulation mostly occurs on larger mammals – primarily white-tailed deer, an animal that's enjoyed a population resurgence in recent decades. As ever more millions of ticks embark upon this life cycle in Canada, Dr. Lloyd hopes her research will help people live more safely among their exploding numbers. Her lab is looking for better diagnostics, as well as answers to basic science questions – why, for example, do ticks seemingly have a greater hunger drive when they're infected? Pulverizing ticks may have provided early satisfaction for Dr. Lloyd, but her research has always been driven by a deep and personal understanding of the misery these bloodsuckers can cause. She still thinks of the man who once left her a voice mail, desperately seeking help for his chronic Lyme symptoms. When she phoned back, she learned that he had died by suicide. 'It's not just a nine-to-five job for me; I want to try and help,' Dr. Lloyd says. 'I've seen the devastation this causes.'
