Scarborough researchers found the link between multi-generational households and COVID-19. What it could change about housing in years to come


A new study by three Scarborough researchers shows that the places that have been hardest hit by COVID-19 are also the places where multiple working adults or families are all sharing a household.


The study by the Neighbourhood Change Research Partnership and the University of Toronto found that the maps that showed which areas in the GTA have high rates of COVID-19, shared a lot of overlap with areas that had the most households of what they call “mutually dependent adults.” One of those areas being Scarborough, where all three researchers reside.

The findings confirm some assumptions people have made about why COVID-19 has spread the way it has, disproved some others, and reinforced why information like this is crucial to an effective pandemic response.

But looking to the future it also shows that as more people live in bigger households like this, it’s time we get ahead of this issue, and build homes that can keep the people living inside healthy.

What does mutually dependent mean?

Using special-ordered Statistics Canada data from 2006 and 2016, the team parsed data on “mutually dependent adults” — combinations of households that could be a group of roommates, a grandparent living with a single mom, a family who rents out a room in their house — pretty much any situation where multiple working-age adults are living together under one roof, rather than independently, or as just a traditional couple.

Between 2006 and 2016 as housing costs skyrocketed, the amount of working-age residents living together and depending on one another also grew by about 13 per cent across the country.

The most being in the notoriously expensive Toronto and Vancouver, where in 2016 mutually dependent adults were 27 and 25 per cent of the population, respectively.

Multiple-family households and COVID-19

When broken down by neighbourhoods in Toronto, overall, the 10 with the highest rate of COVID-19 cases had just over twice as many mutually dependent adults at 37 per cent of the population. These were mostly found in Scarborough, northwest Toronto and some areas of York and North York.

Meanwhile neighbourhoods that had more independent households also had fewer COVID-19 cases.

The same held true in the GTA, with areas like Brampton. which has 37.2 per cent of adults in these kinds of households, and the highest average household size in the GTA — 3.5 people compared to Canada’s overall average 2.4. At the end of last year, Brampton also had 68 per cent of Peel Region’s COVID-19 cases.

John Stapleton, social policy expert and one of the study’s authors, said pooling resources in this way is both a solution to the high cost of living in Toronto, and to improve quality of living. It’s a way for people to potentially get more space — a house with a yard, for example, rather than living independently in smaller homes. But it created a higher risk for a virus like COVID-19.

“What it was doing was creating an accelerant for a pandemic of this particular sort,” Stapleton said.

Through the pandemic, Stapleton noted the assumptions that were made about why racialized people have seen disproportionate rates of COVID-19 — gathering for holidays like Diwali, language barriers. “It has very little to do with it,” he said.

“Having so many people in a household and a number of adults working ... and most likely working right in key sectors that you can’t do the work from home ... that means that those households will be more vulnerable to COVID spread,” said David Hulchanski, a housing and community development professor at U of T.

“It’s demonstrating in yet another way what is wrong with having such a huge gap in income and wealth, which then affects all aspects of our life,” Hulchanski said.

Seeing the overlap in the maps reaffirms that it is wise to focus treatment and resources in these highly-affected areas.

“In other words, it’s telling you, yes, you should have the vaccines (for) Scarborough. You should be doing this stuff by postal code,” Stapleton said.

Still with the vaccine rollout, Ontario only allotted 25 per cent of supply to hot spot areas despite its science table recommending 50 per cent, and only recently announced plans to up it to half as distribution has expanded.

Epidemiologist Colin Furness said that the province’s reluctance to collect demographic data and have it influence the response from the start of the pandemic, has been a huge downfall.

“The tail has really had to pull the dog along here and it really should not be that way,” he said.

Building a healthier future

While the high cost of housing is a factor at play here, Stapleton also notes that for some families, it’s more traditional and a choice to live together, rather than just affordability and circumstance.

And with this data in mind, and the cultural choice factor, both Furness and Stapleton see a takeaway being to make these kinds of multi-family households more livable and safe.

Furness said: “How do we make ourselves resistant to communicable disease in a home? No one talks about that. So, I think we might have some opportunities in terms of how we think about designing safe residences, given what we now understand both what living patterns are, and what the risks are associated with that.”

Furness said building codes, ventilation requirements, the ability for more separation in the household are all things that could be incorporated into creating living spaces that can keep people safe. And also considering sustainability, rather than plowing into farmland in Ontario to create more and bigger houses.

It’s a complex problem he said and it’s up to leaders to move the dial in this direction. Furness says he is “not optimistic.”

“What we learn from history is that we do not learn from history.”

Angelyn Francis is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star covering equity and inequality. Her reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. Reach her via email: afrancis@thestar.ca

Angelyn Francis, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Toronto Star

Low-wage workers and mothers of color lost more in the pandemic economy, Fed Chair Powell says

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell. Sarah Silbiger/Getty 

In a Monday speech, Jerome Powell discussed data on inequities from an upcoming Federal Reserve survey.

Black and Hispanic workers disproportionately suffered in the pandemic, especially mothers, he said.

A K-shaped recovery has taken shape, with higher-earning workers seeing job and income growth.

Low-wage workers and workers of color have seen a slower recovery than the rest of the labor force, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Monday.

In a speech for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Powell highlighted data from an upcoming Federal Reserve survey, showing how low-wage workers and workers of color bore a disproportionate blow from the pandemic's economic devastation.

For instance, Powell said, 20% of those in the lowest-earning group were still unemployed a year out from February 2020. Among the highest-earners, that number was 6%.

Workers of color and less-educated workers were also more likely to be laid off. According to that new survey, 20% of "prime-age adults" without a bachelor's degree were laid off, compared to 12% of their college-educated peers.

Over 20% of Black and Hispanic workers saw layoffs in a set period, compared to 14% of white workers.

Women - particularly mothers - have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, with wage gap progress and labor force participation set back substantially. According to Powell, labor force participation dropped by about 4% for Black and Hispanic women, compared to 1.6% for white women and 2% for men.

Research from the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) found that the unemployment rate for mothers doubled from 2019 to 2020, rising from 3.5% to 7.5%. The rate was higher from Asian, Black, and Latina mothers. And 575,000 mothers completely left the labor force - meaning that they aren't counted in unemployment rates.

Broadly, Powell said, 22% of parents had either paused working or worked less due to childcare needs. That number was far higher for Black and Hispanic mothers, coming in at 36% and 30%, respectively.

And the NWLC report found that, even prior to the pandemic, mothers saw a wage gap compared to white fathers. Black mothers lose $33,600 every year, and Latina mothers lose $38,000, showing how the pandemic exacerbated preexisting disparities.

All of the data shows a continued trend of unequal recovery, which economists - and President Joe Biden - call a "K-shaped" recovery. That's when high-earning workers see their jobs and incomes rebound and grow, while low-earning workers experience the opposite.

"We will only reach our full potential when everyone can contribute to, and share in, the benefits of prosperity," Powell said.

Jobs have rebounded somewhat, with jobless claims coming in at pandemic-era lows. However, millions of Americans still remain unemployed.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Women face significant jobs risk during Covid pandemic, UK analysis finds

Alexandra Topping 

THE GUARDIAN

MAY THE FOURTH

BE WITH YOU

Working women are facing a significant risk in the labour market, with far greater numbers being made redundant as a result of the pandemic than during the 2007 financial crisis, according to analysis seen by the Guardian.

© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

Women are experiencing much higher levels of redundancies during the Covid pandemic than in previous recessions, according to the Trades Union Congress. Female redundancies in the UK hit 178,000 between September and November 2020, according to its analysis – 76% higher than the peak reached during the height of the financial crisis when female redundancy levels hit 100,000.

In the same 2020 period 217,000 men were made redundant – 3% more than the peak of male redundancies during the financial crisis.

“Women are more likely to be on furlough than men and to work in sectors hit hardest by Covid, like retail and hospitality. And they bore the brunt of childcare while schools and nurseries were closed,” said Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the TUC. “Without ongoing support from ministers, many more women face losing their jobs.”

Experts say the jobs market looks particularly fragile for women, who often dominate the industries hardest hit by Covid. According to the TUC’s jobs monitor “there is a significant risk to women’s employment going forwards”. From the 12 months from December 2019 women accounted for six in 10 job losses in hospitality, six in 10 job losses in wholesale and retail and almost 60% of job losses in other services including hairdressers, beauty and care services.© Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images Women are more likely to be on furlough than men and to work in sectors hit hardest by Covid.

Soph Hudson was made redundant from her role as an assistant manager for a cafe and conference centre. Without an income, she focused on increasing the success of her “side hustle”: making gender-free children’s clothing into a fully fledged business. “I felt I had no other choice as we were still in the midst of the pandemic and I saw no increase in the jobs in that sector,” she said.

Related: Pregnant women need better Covid safety at work, say campaigners

While the number of female redundancies has slowed down since November last year, numbers remain at “crisis levels”, said the TUC. According to the latest official figures there were close to 94,000 female redundancies between December and February of 2021 – close to levels seen at the peak of the financial crash.

Economists said another wave of female redundancies was likely when the current furlough scheme ends in September, as women are more likely to have been furloughed than men. According to research from the Women’s Budget Group, 52.1% of women have been furloughed despite women only making up 47.3% of the overall UK workforce. By the end of February 2021, 2,337,900 women were furloughed compared with 2,144,700 men.

“Unfortunately, things are likely to get worse before they get better,” said Felicia Willow, the chief executive of the Fawcett Society. “When the furlough scheme ends, we expect to see employers in hospitality, retail, and other customer service industries lay off large numbers of employees. Because of the clustering of women in these sectors, we fear that redundancy rates of women will increase significantly.”

Mary-Ann Stephenson, the director of the Women’s Budget Group said the government plans to ‘build back better’ focus largely on construction projects, but WBG research showed that investment in care could create nearly three times as many jobs as similar investment in construction. “A care-led recovery would create more jobs for men, and many more for women, who are at greater risk of redundancy,” she said.

Why some older workers fared worse during Covid-19 than the Great Recession

Lorie Konish 

CNN 3/5/2021

AMERICAN HOWEVER THE GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT AGE RELATED TO RETIREMENT IS THE SAME IN CANADA

The Covid-19 pandemic has not disproportionately impacted older workers.
Yet when compared with the Great Recession, some ages 50 and up may have been hit harder than others.

New research finds that low earners in that age cohort are slightly worse off amid Covid-19 compared with the Great Recession.

Meanwhile, high earners age 62 and up are more likely to retire now compared with 2009.

© Provided by CNBC

It's no secret that the Covid-19 pandemic has hurt workers of all ages.

Yet when it comes to older workers — those ages 50 to 62 and up — some may have fared worse than they did during the Great Recession, according to recent research from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Just how older workers were affected depends on their age cohort, and whether they are ages 50 to 61 or 62 and up, according to the analysis of data from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey.

For those ages 50 to 61, the data shows that Covid-19 was harder on low earners than high earners.

Nineteen percent of those in the lowest earnings tercile were no longer working in 2020 compared with one year earlier, the data reveals. In comparison, in 2009 during the Great Recession, 17% of people in that category were no longer working.

Meanwhile, 9% of the highest earnings tercile were no longer working in 2020, compared with 11% in 2009.

"The big thing that stands out about any recession, including the Covid recession, is just the extent to which it hurts lower-income people more," said Geoffrey Sanzenbacher, research fellow at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Despite the negative consequences for people in this age cohort, there was not a noticeable increase in how many consider themselves to be retired. Part of that may be due to the fact that they are not yet 62, and thus unable to claim Social Security retirement benefits.

VIDEO What workers want post-pandemic

For those ages 62 and up, it's a different story.

Lower earners in that age cohort were still more likely to be not working. Yet when compared with the Great Recession, the unemployment rate was about the same, 38% in 2020 versus 37% in 2009.

However, high earners ages 62 and up were more likely to be unemployed. In 2020, 22% of those in the highest earnings quartile were no longer working compared with a year earlier, versus 18% who fell into that category in 2009 during the Great Recession.

High earners retired at a greater clip during Covid-19 than in the Great Recession. In 2020, 15% of that cohort were retired a year after working, versus 10% in 2009. Yet the rate at which lower earners retired stayed about the same, 26% in 2020 versus 25% in 2009.

The results compare data from December 2020 to December 2019. There would likely have been a more dramatic difference in unemployment rates had the data measured for earlier months in 2020, Sanzenbacher said.

Admittedly, the health risks tied to Covid-19 could have prompted some employers to encourage workers to retire.

"From the data, we can't really tell whether it's pure choice on the part of the employee or whether it's a joint decision of some kind," Sanzenbacher said.

As the pandemic wears on far longer than many expected, some workers who at first identified as unemployed may now say they are retired.

That decision could also prompt them to claim Social Security benefits early, which is a concern, Sanzenbacher said.

Generally, if you claim at 62, the earliest age at which workers are generally eligible, you take permanently reduced benefits. Ideally, workers will wait until full retirement age to get 100% of their benefits, or up to age 70 to get enhanced benefits by waiting to claim.

"The best thing you can do to have a retirement where you have a high income is to delay claiming Social Security," Sanzenbacher said.

First-ever image of COVID-19 variant supports faith in current vaccines, says UBC


VANCOUVER — The first images of a mutation on a COVID-19 variant of concern have been captured by researchers at the University of British Columbia who say the photos offer some reassurance about how the virus strain may react to current vaccines.© Provided by The Canadian Press

The University of B.C. says the researchers are the first to publish structural images of the mutation found on one portion of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

The spike protein is the part of the virus that opens the door to infection, while the mutation is the change believed partly responsible for the rapid spread of the variant first identified in the United Kingdom.

A team led by Dr. Sriram Subramaniam, professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at UBC's faculty of medicine, found the images show localized placement of the mutation allows it to enter human cells more easily.

The team's analysis, recently published in PLOS Biology, reveals that, once inside, the mutation can still be sidelined by antibodies from current vaccines.

Researchers say that adds to growing evidence that most antibodies generated by existing vaccines are likely to remain effective in preventing mild and severe cases of the B.1.1.7 variant.

The statement says its researchers are also using beams of supercooled electrons in powerful microscopes to visualize the detailed shapes of other COVID-19 variants that are 100,000 times smaller than a pinhead.

"It’s important to understand the different molecular structures of these emerging variants to determine whether they’ll respond to existing treatments and vaccines and ultimately find ways to control their spread more effectively," the statement says.

Variants under study at UBC include those first identified in India, California and South Africa, as well as the P.1 variant of concern first found in Brazil, which along with the B.1.1.7 mutation has accounted for a growing number of infections in Canada.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2021.

The Canadian Press

ONTARIO LTC SCANDAL

Fullerton says lessons from SARS were ‘forgotten’ in response to long-term care report
Duration: 00:39 

Ontario’s Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton on Monday addressed the damning final report from the Ontario Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission, stating that the report “makes it clear that many of the lessons learned from SARS were forgotten.”

#ENDCUBAEMBARGO

Cuba hopes to become smallest country to develop Covid vaccines

Ed Augustin in Havana

THE GUARDIAN

MAY THE FOURTH

 BE WITH YOU


Hit by the double whammy of US sanctions and a pandemic, Cuba is going through its gravest economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Pharmacy shelves are barren. People queue for hours to buy chicken. It’s hard to find bread.

© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Yander Zamora/EPA

And yet this island under siege could become the smallest country in the world to develop its own coronavirus vaccines. Of the 27 coronavirus vaccines in final stage testing around the world, two are Cuban.

“To have our sovereignty we need our own vaccines,” said Dr Vicente Vérez, director of the Finlay Institute, which has developed Sovereign 2, the most advanced of the country’s five vaccine candidates. “In nine months we have gone from an idea to a vaccine in phase three clinical trials.”

44,000 volunteers in Havana are currently participating in phase three trials for Sovereign 2. A similar number in the eastern city of Santiago are volunteering for phase three for Abdala, a vaccine named after a poem by José Martí, the island’s official “national hero”.

Running alongside the clinical studies is an “interventional study” in which 150,000 health workers in Havana are now being vaccinated.

Cuba’s “Biological Front” was established in 1981 – just five years after the incorporation of the world’s first biotech company, Genentech. At the heart of today’s drive for a vaccine are the island’s top scientists, many of whom were trained in the former Soviet Union. These internationally mobile polyglots have every opportunity to emigrate (and many do); those who chose to work on the island are almost invariably old school believers.

© Photograph: Yander Zamora/EPA Havana, Cuba.

At a recent press conference Dr Vérez explained what drives him by quoting Ernesto “Ché” Guevarra. “The true revolutionary,” he said, “is guided by a great feeling of love”.

Dr Gerardo Guillén, who heads up development of two vaccines at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, is a chocoholic who has had to do without his favourite fix for over a year (there is none in the shops). His £200 a month salary is a hundred times less what he could earn abroad.

“We do have offers,” said Dr Mitchell Valdés-Sosa, a Chicago-born neurologist who sits on the country’s Coronavirus Task Force. “But we prefer to stay because we feel a commitment to the development of our country. We’re not working to make some CEO obscenely rich; we’re working to make people healthier.”

Such idealism is no protection from bitter geopolitical realities.

Related: Cubans lose access to vital dollar remittances after latest US sanctions

The US embargo on Cuba restricts the medical equipment the island can import. The different Cuban research teams working on the vaccines share just one spectrometer – a machine essential for quality control – powerful enough to analyse a vaccine’s chemical structure. But since the spectrometer’s British manufacture, Micromass, was bought out by an American firm, Waters, they haven’t been able to buy spare parts directly.

While UN human rights rapporteurs called on the US to lift sanctions on the island during the pandemic, over the last twelve months the embargo has been ramped up.

And since the outgoing Trump administration put Cuba on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism in January, just finding a bank willing to process payments has become a major problem.

“The US is trying to starve Cuba into submission,” said Valdés-Sosa. “It’s not only that it’s difficult to buy things directly from the US. It’s also that all these sanctions that the Trump administration put in place have dried up many sources of revenue.”

Cuba reported 12,225 confirmed cases and 146 deaths last year – among the hemisphere’s lowest case and mortality rates. But in November came a blunder when commercial flights finally resumed after seven long months, for a few weeks the government did not require visitors to take PCR tests before boarding planes. The effect was lethal: thousands of Cuban Americans came from Covid hotspots like Florida to hug, kiss and dance with their families over the Christmas period, leading to a surge in cases.

More cases were reported January alone than in the whole of 2020, and the island is now averaging 1,000 confirmed cases a day.

With around 100,000 Cubans having received the jab so far, the island is behind the average Latin American vaccine rollout of 12% of people having received at least one dose. And with no vaccine yet fully approved for use by the island’s regulator, critics say the Communist party’s decision not to join Covax, the UN-backed mechanism to distribute Covid-19 doses fairly around the world, was arrogant and has left them needlessly exposed.

Cuba aims to manufacture 100m doses of Sovereign 2 this year – enough for the population with a surplus to export.

If and when production hurdles are cleared, the logistics of distribution should be a strong point: the island has a well-developed infrastructure of local community clinics, and the highest doctor to patient ratio in the world.

Cuban scientists are confident the widespread vaccination will be attained this year, and say Cuba will be among the first countries in the hemisphere to achieve this.

“When you have everything, you don’t have to think so much.” said Dr Guillén, “But when you have difficulties, you have to think up new ways to innovate.”

Not available in Canada: A look at COVID-19 vaccine tech from China, India and Cuba

Emily Chung 

CBC 

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU

© Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/Reuters A healthcare worker prepares a dose of China's Sinovac Biotech vaccine for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a drive-thru vaccination station, as a mass vaccination program continues in Jakarta, Indonesia, April 30, 2021. I

COVID-19 vaccines developed in China are already being used in several countries around the world. And some developed in India, Kazakhstan and Cuba have been in use domestically for their own populations even before completion of Phase 3 trials.

Vaccines being made in some of those countries (including the Serum Institute of India's Covishield version of the AstraZeneca vaccine) use the viral vector technology or mRNA technologies used to inoculate Canadians. But other vaccines developed domestically are quite different.

Here's a closer look at two kinds of COVID-19 vaccines —inactivated and conjugate protein vaccines — developed in middle-income countries and not available in Canada.
Inactivated Vaccines

Vaccines of this kind have been developed by , headquartered in Shanghai China and , in Beijing, China, in Hydrabad, India and in Zhambyl, Kazakhstan.

This is a tried and true strategy used in many vaccines against diseases including hepatitis A and rabies. It involves growing up whole viruses — in this case, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 — and then inactivating them so they can't cause infection. For SARS-Cov-2, the inactivation is typically done with a chemical called beta-propiolactone. The virus is injected with an adjuvant, typically aluminum-based, to boost immune response. Unlike mRNA vaccines, these vaccines also don't require ultra-cold storage. A regular fridge will do.

© CBC News How inactivated vaccines for COVID-19 are made and how they work.

The frontrunners are the Chinese inactivated vaccines, already approved for emergency use and being used in mass vaccination in dozens of countries around the world on nearly all continents. They were being evaluated by the World Health Organization for Emergency Use Listing this spring. Bharat Biotch released interim Phase 3 results for its Covaxin vaccine in March and April, and the vaccine has been in use in its home country since January, when it was approved for emergency use there. Similarly, the Research Institute for Biological Safety Problems rolled out its vaccine QazVac on April 23, about halfway through the completion of its Phase 3 trials.

None have released final results of their Phase 3 trials, but all results so far surpass the World Health Organization's minimum of 50 per cent efficacy:

Sinopharm has said its vaccine has a 79 per cent efficacy, and the U.A.E. said its trials of the vaccine showed it had 86 per cent efficacy.

Bharat Biotech has reported interim efficacy as 79 to 81 per cent.

© Anupam Nath/The Associated Press People wait to receive Bharat Biotech's COVAXIN vaccine for COVID-19 at an indoor stadium in Gauhati, India, Thursday, April 22, 2021. The inactivated vaccine has been in use in India since January. It released interim results of Phase 3 trials in March and April.

Colin Funk, an adjunct professor with Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., and biomedical consultant with Vancouver-based Novateur Ventures co-authored a paper in the journal Viruses earlier this year comparing all the frontrunning vaccines around the world, including Sinovac's and Sinopharm's.

"They are working, but not as well for sure as the mRNA vaccines," he said. Pfizer and Moderna both reported efficacy of more than 94 per cent. Funk said it's been difficult to get reliable information as the Chinese companies haven't published their final results. Since they're in use in many countries, though, he added that it should become clear in a few months how well they work.

While officially these vaccines' efficacy is lower, they do have an advantage — fewer side effects, especially fever. That's the side effect which can cause the most concern, said Craig LaFerriere, head of vaccine development at Novateur Ventures, who co-authored the paper with Funk. Fever appear in less than two per cent of those vaccinated with inactivated vaccines, compared to 15 per cent of those who receive mRNA and viral vector vaccines.

Conjugate vaccines

There are at least two Cuban vaccines of this type, billed as the only COVID-19 vaccines of their kind: Soberana 02 (the name means "sovereignty"), made by the Finlay Institute of Vaccines in Havana; and Mambisa, developed by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB).

Conjugate protein vaccines are a special type of protein subunit vaccine made with an antigen (a substance that can cause an immune response) from the target disease bound to a strong antigen from another disease to boost the immune response. A common one that you have probably been vaccinated with is Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib), a standard childhood vaccine against meningitis, which includes the sugar coating or polysaccharide from Hib linked to a diphtheria, meningococcal or tetanus protein. In the case of Soberana 02, the receptor binding domain from the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 is bound to a tetanus toxoid, Cuban doctors reported in global healthcare journal BMJ . A second Cuban conjugate vaccine, Mambisa, contains the same coronavirus protein and a Hepatitis B protein. Protein-based vaccines can be stored in a regular fridge.

© CBC News How conjugate vaccines for COVID-19 work and how they're made.

Soberana 02 is one of two Cuban vaccines listed by the World Health Organization as being in late-stage Phase 3 clinical trials right now (The other is Abdala a traditional protein subunit vaccine with an aluminum-based adjuvant). It's already being used in Havana as part of an "interventional study," that doesn't involve double-blind testing or placebos. Mambisa, designed to be administered as a nasal spray instead of an injection, started Phase 1 trials in March.

We don't know. Data from the trials have not been released or published, although there are some preclinical results published on a preprint server. Vicente Vérez Bencomo, director-general of the Finlay Institute told the journal Nature in April that Phase 1 and 2 trials of Soberana 02 showed 80 per cent of people who received two doses had an antibody response. Some were given an additional booster in the form of Soberana Plus, a version of the vaccine targeted at those who have previously had COVID-19 and 100 per cent of them showed an antibody response, he added.

 Ramon Espinosa/Pool Photo/The Associated Press Healthcare workers run testing on volunteers of the Soberana-02 COVID-19 vaccine as part of Phase 3 of one of two experimental Cuban vaccines in Havana Wednesday, March 24, 2021.

But Cuba has successfully made a Hib vaccine based on this technology, and has decades of experience with it, said Helen Yaffe, a lecturer in economic and social history at the University of Glasgow who has studied Cuba's state-owned biotechnology industry. "I think most of the world takes Cuba's biotech products very seriously," she said. Funk of Queen's University agreed that Cuba does very good research, and said of Soberana 02, "For sure I think that would be a candidate that might advance and could be used in certain countries around the world," Funk said. "We'll just have to see."

US fights new deadline for rare plant protections in Nevada

Mon., May 3, 2021, 



RENO, Nev. — The Biden administration says a U.S. judge exceeded his authority when he gave federal wildlife officials a May 21 deadline to decide whether to formally propose endangered species protections for a rare desert wildflower at the centre of a fight over a proposed lithium mine in Nevada.

Lawyers for the Interior Department filed an emergency request in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas last week asking Judge James Mahan to reconsider his order regarding the fate of the only Tiehm’s buckwheat plants known to exist in the world — about 220 miles (354 kilometres ) southeast of Reno.

The department says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service intends to comply with the order to reach a finding by May 21 on whether the flower should receive protections under the Endangered Species Act.

But it says it will be impossible to decide by then whether to designate critical habitat that conservationists want for the plant in an area where Australian mining company Ioneer Ltd. wants to dig for lithium and boron.

The judge on Friday granted the government’s request to block his order until he can rule on the merits of the arguments. Mahan ordered the Center for Biological Diversity, which sued over the plant, to respond by Tuesday and the government to reply by Thursday. He expects to issue a formal ruling on May 17.

The Fish and Wildlife Service was supposed to decide last October whether to list the plant as endangered. It had said staff and budget constraints would prevent it from deciding until Sept. 30, 2021. Environmentalists first petitioned for the listing in 2019.

Mahan said in his April 21 ruling that “more than enough time has passed” to complete the required yearlong review.

“By its own admission, FWS has violated the ESA by failing to issue a timely 12-month finding as to whether it intends to list Tiehm’s buckwheat as an endangered species,” he wrote. “This court finds no reason to grant additional time for FWS to make its admittedly overdue finding.”

Patrick Donnelly, the Center for Biological Diversity's Nevada director, said the government’s emergency motion is its latest attempt to stall while it tries to reach a conservation agreement with Ioneer. He said wildlife officials are “spending more energy fighting our litigation than they are protecting” the plant.

“They have the gall to claim that their appeal of a ruling they consider unfavourable constitutes an emergency, while Tiehm’s buckwheat is out here hanging by a thread, with Ioneer’s destructive mine looming over it,” he said.

Government lawyers said in the emergency motion last week that Mahan’s order requires the Fish and Wildlife Service to effectively skip a step in the listing process — the completion of a 12-month finding — and immediately proceed to another step — proposed rules — without first determining whether it's warranted.

“Not only does this put the cart before the horse, but it also constrains FWS’s discretion to only one substantive outcome at the 12-month finding stage — i.e., listing is warranted,” the motion says.

Government attorneys said that while it is possible the Fish and Wildlife Service may ultimately reach that outcome “based on its review of the best available science," the Endangered Species Act “provides for three possible outcomes" after the yearlong review and gives the agency the power to make that choice “based on its own expert judgment.”

Scott Sonner, The Associated Press

Liberals' sweeping budget bill includes $15 minimum wage and election-law changes

Mon., May 3, 2021



OTTAWA — The federal Liberals' bill to enact parts of their budget includes changes to emergency aid, taxes and a $15 national minimum wage alongside other items such as an election-law amendment.

The change to the Canada Elections Act would specify that it is illegal to "knowingly" make false statements about a candidate or party leader.

There are also provisions in the bill to give the National Research Council a mandate to produce "drugs and devices" to protect or improve Canadians' health.

Other measures in the bill were supposed to have been in an implementation bill last year, but weren't when the Liberals eschewed tabling a budget due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among those measures are changes to the Social Security Tribunal that adjudicates Canadians' appeals of rulings on their requests for employment insurance and Canada Pension Plan benefits.

Another such change is easing access to a benefit for parents of murdered or missing children, and doubling to 104 weeks the leave available to them under the Canada Labour Code.

A spokeswoman for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said all the measures in the legislation were detailed in the April 19 budget. Katherine Cuplinskas said in a written statement that the government hoped other parties would back the bill.

The fate of the minority Liberal government rests on getting support from one major party in the House of Commons, without which the government would fall and trigger a process that would likely lead to an election campaign.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said there were several measures in the bill that were positive, pointing to the $15 minimum wage that his party had pushed for during the 2015 federal election before Singh became leader.

At the time, the Liberals under Justin Trudeau panned the New Democrat proposal because it left out the majority of workers whose hourly wage floor is set by provinces.

The bill would set the minimum wage at $15 per hour, or the corresponding provincial minimum if it is higher, with annual increases to keep up with inflation.

But Singh noted it wouldn't come into effect for six months until after the bill becomes law, which he called an unnecessary delay.

He also said he was concerned that the bill didn't address issues around paid sick leave that experts have cited as a key measure to slowing the spread of COVID-19 through workplaces.

"In general, this is what we've seen with the Liberal government: They signal some right, good things and then say some good announcements, but when it comes down to the actual work being done, they're not doing the work necessary," Singh told reporters on Parliament Hill.

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole called the budget a "major letdown" that didn't deal with the issues of the pandemic, including work on funding for provincial health-care systems.

He also said the budgetary plan "spends in a way that is threatening the future prosperity of Canadians."

Budget forecasts estimate the national debt will rise to $1.4 trillion on the back of consecutive deficits over the next five years.

"We will continue to examine the budget and the implementation act, hold the government to account on it and propose alternatives to secure a future for Canadians," O'Toole said during a news conference.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2021.

Jordan Press, The Canadian Press