Saturday, September 25, 2021

Oregon school board ban on anti-racist, LGBT signs draws ire

By ANDREW SELSKY
yesterday

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Cherice Boch, left, and her son Espen take part in a protest on Aug. 24 2021, in Newberg, Ore., against a new school policy that bans Black Lives Matter and Pride flags across Newberg School District facilities. The policy has prompted a torrent of recriminations and threats to boycott the town and its businesses. (Jozie Donaghey/The Oregonian via AP)

NEWBERG, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon school board has banned educators from displaying Black Lives Matter and gay pride symbols, prompting a torrent of recriminations and threats to boycott the town and its businesses.

Newberg, a town of 25,000 residents situated 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Portland in gorgeous wine country, has become an unlikely focal point of a battle between the left and right across the nation over schooling.

The City Council has condemned the action by the Newberg School Board. So did members of color of the Oregon Legislature and House and Senate Democrats. The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon is threatening to sue. The Oregon State Board of Education called on the school board to reverse course, saying student identities should be welcomed and affirmed.

But the four conservative members of the seven-member board are digging in their heels. Member Brian Shannon, who proposed the ban, said lawmakers from Portland should keep out of the school district’s business and instead focus on Portland, where homelessness is an issue.

Opponents say the board has emboldened racists. On Sept. 17, a special education staffer at a Newberg elementary school showed up for work in blackface, saying she was portraying anti-segregation icon Rosa Parks in order to protest a statewide vaccine mandate for educators. She was immediately placed on administrative leave.

The same week, word emerged that some Newberg students had participated in a Snapchat group in which participants pretended to buy and sell Black fellow students. Newberg Public Schools Superintendent Joe Morelock said there will be an investigation and disciplinary action meted out.

Underscoring how deeply the board’s action has cut, raw emotion was on display during a virtual public hearing of the board Wednesday night. Some speakers said the board’s action is harmful. Others said the signs have no place in schools, saying they’re political.

Local resident Peggy Kilburg said they should be banned from schools, as well as signs supporting any political position, like National Rifle Association posters.

Robert Till, who is gay and a sophomore at Newberg High School, said he is embarrassed to live in Newberg. He cited an estimate from the Trevor Project, a group that aims to end suicide among LGBTQ young people, that at least one LGBTQ person between the ages of 13–24 attempts suicide every 45 seconds in the U.S.

“A simple pride or BLM flag in a classroom shows the love and acceptance that we need,” Till said, his voice shaking with anger. “Pride flags can literally save someone’s life, and you’re just going to take that away?”

School board chairman Dave Brown, who voted for the sign ban, declared in an earlier Zoom meeting that “I’m not a racist.”

“I work with and will always accept those around me no matter what,” Brown said, an American flag pinned behind him. “I don’t care if they’re gay. I don’t care if they’re white or brown or Black. I work with everybody.”

Shannon defended the ban, which hasn’t been imposed yet.

“I don’t think any of us can deny the fact that these symbols are divisive,” Shannon said. “They’ve divided our community and gotten our attention away from where it needs to be, just teaching the basic fundamentals of education.”

Opponents of the ban say it is the board that is being divisive and distracting from the challenges as educators begin in-person instruction with safety protocols after a year of remote teaching because of COVID-19.

“It has been difficult to see a community divided. You can see the anguish on both sides. It makes being an educator harder than it already was,” said a faculty member at Newberg High School.

Speaking on condition she not be named for fear of being harassed online, she said more students than ever are displaying gay pride and Black Lives Matter symbols on lockers, water bottles and laptops since the board took its vote in August. The ban does not apply to students.

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Protesters against a new school policy that bans Black Lives Matter and Pride flags across Newberg School District facilities wave at cars entering and leaving Newberg, Ore., on Aug. 24, 2021. The policy has prompted a torrent of recriminations and threats to boycott the town and its businesses. (Jozie Donaghey/The Oregonian via AP)


Alexis Small, a 15-year-old high school junior who is Black, believes the members who endorsed the ban simply don’t approve of people who aren’t like them.

“The message that I feel is hate,” Small said in a telephone interview. “I mean, I can’t say that this decision was made out of love or made out of what’s best for people. I genuinely think that they did this out of hate.”

In June 2020 — as Black Lives Matter protests roiled the nation after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis — the board took a completely different stance, condemning racism and committing to being an anti-racist school district. But conservatives gained a majority in school board elections last May amid a light turnout, and everything changed.

Tai Harden-Moore, a Black candidate who lost, recalls a nasty election. Comments on social media supporting her opponent called Harden-Moore un-American and claimed she hated whites, she said. Her campaign signs were ripped from the ground or left in place — with tree branches placed on top.

“My sign, I’ve got my face on it, and so for them to put the branches on it, it was like this weird link to lynching for me,” Harden-Moore said.

Harden-Moore has joined a group called Newberg Equity in Education, which is advocating for inclusion and equity in Newberg schools.

The Chehalem Valley Chamber of Commerce told the school board that it has received numerous phone calls and emails from people saying they will boycott Newberg, the valley’s main town.

“As business leaders and owners, we are very concerned about the impact this has on our businesses and on the reputation of our community,” the chamber said, the Newberg Graphic newspaper reported.

Newberg Mayor Rick Rogers told the four conservative board members their actions can hurt the town, which features a dozen wine tasting rooms and a university founded by Quakers.

“While you may believe your actions only affect the school district, please know in truth your actions impact us all. To thrive, Newberg must be welcoming to all,” he wrote.

___

Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky


100 YEARS AGO OREGON HAD A LIMITED PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM IT WAS THE KKK THAT PETITIONED AND MOBLIZED AND GOT OREGON TO ADOPT AN 'AMERICAN' (WHITE PROTESTANT) PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM IN ORDER TO HALT STUDENTS FROM ATTENDING CATHOLIC SCHOOLS
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British Columbia

Homes near fracking sites in B.C. have higher levels of some pollutants, study finds

The fracking process includes injecting fluids deep underground to release natural gas

Hina Alam · The Canadian Press · 

A new study has found homes close to where fracking was used to extract natural gas in British Columbia have higher
levels of certain organic pollutants, which may lead to short- and long-term health effects.

Elyse Caron-Beaudoin, lead author and a professor in the department of health and society at the University of Toronto,
Scarborough, said researchers took water and air samples from the homes of 85 pregnant women in the Peace River area of B.C. for one week.

Pregnant women were recruited for the study because of the potential negative health effects of living close to natural gas wells using fracking, including higher rates of pre-term births, low birth weight and heart malformations, she said.

Fracking is a process that injects fluids deep underground to release natural gas.



The study, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment this week, measured a number of different chemicals in the homes of the pregnant women and compared the results with the general Canadian population to see if there were any differences, she said.

Researchers found that the amount and proximity of natural gas wells to the home were linked to higher levels of certain chemical contaminants, they said a news release.

Caron-Beaudoin said results showed that air samples in homes near the natural gas well sites had higher levels of chemicals used in fracking, such as acetone and chloroform, and those same contaminants were found in their study subjects.

"We cannot say that hydraulic fracturing activity was causing the levels of acetone and chloroform in those residences, but we can say that they were associated with each other,'' she said in an interview.


The study says there is a need to assess health risks associated with fracking given the documented effects of prenatal exposure to volatile organic chemicals used in these operations, and the growing evidence suggesting associations with poorer birth outcomes.

Caron-Beaudoin said the study also found higher levels of chemicals in the homes of Indigenous study participants than others.

While researchers are unsure why levels were higher in Indigenous homes, she said it could be associated with ethnicity and socioeconomic status all being linked to heightened health risks from industrial activities.

"There seems to be a disproportionate environmental burden towards Indigenous [people],'' she said.

B.C. has about 10,000 active wells, and the study says the area could potentially see an increase in their number to more than 100,000.

The B.C. Oil and Gas Commission said in an email response about the study that it is committed to protecting public safety and the environment in the area where oil and gas activities take place.

It said it would thoroughly review the study to understand the findings.

"Within northeast B.C., there are both fixed monitoring stations recording air quality data and ambient air monitoring equipment deployed in the field,'' the statement said.

"In response to health concerns, the Ministry of Health led a three-phase human health risk assessment exploring concerns about human health risks relating to oil and gas activities. The project began in 2012 and all phases have been completed.''

Caron-Beaudoin said Canada is one of the largest producers of natural gas in the world, yet there are virtually no studies on the potential health impacts of the industry.

"So, I think is quite interesting and worthy of attention.''
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A Canadian COVID-19 study that turned out to be wrong has spread like wildfire among anti-vaxxers

Study falsely showing 1 in 1,000 risk of heart inflammation after mRNA vaccines 'weaponized' online


Adam Miller · CBC News · Posted: Sep 25, 2021
Experts say an erroneous study from researchers at the Ottawa Heart Institute has been 'weaponized' by the anti-vaccination movement at a time when concern over COVID-19 vaccine side effects are top of mind for parents whose kids may soon get the shot. 
(Matt Rourke/The Associated Press)

This is an excerpt from Second Opinion, a weekly roundup of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers every Saturday morning. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here.

An inaccurate Canadian study suggesting an extremely high rate of heart inflammation after COVID-19 vaccines has been retracted due to a major mathematical error — but not before it spread like wildfire on anti-vaccination websites and social media.

The preprint study, which was released by researchers at the Ottawa Heart Institute last week but has not been peer-reviewed, looked at the rate of myocarditis and pericarditis cases after Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccinations in Ottawa from June 1 to July 31.

The study identified 32 patients with the rare side effects out of a total of 32,379 doses of mRNA vaccines given in Ottawa in the two-month period, finding an inordinately high rate of close to 1 in 1,000 — significantly higher than other international data has shown.

But the researchers made a critical error that experts say caused the study to be "weaponized" by the anti-vaccination movement at a time when concern over COVID-19 vaccine side effects are top of mind for parents whose kids may soon get the shot.

Black Creek Community Health volunteer Jasleen Kambo, 18, gets her first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic run by Humber River Hospital at the Yorkgate Mall, in Toronto, on Apr. 14, 2021. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

Risk of heart inflammation after shot 'not correct' in study

The researchers mistakenly failed to record the accurate number of vaccinations given out during that two-month period, despite the data on total doses being publicly available, and the figure turned out to be astronomically higher than what was presented in the study.

Instead of 32,379 mRNA vaccine doses administered in June and July, as the study suggests, there were actually more than 800,000 shots given out at that time, according to Ottawa Public Health.

That means the true rate of side effects is closer to 1 in 25,000 — not 1 in 1,000.

"We recalculated the rate, and the rate is not correct in that paper," said Dr. Peter Liu, scientific director of the Ottawa Heart Institute and a co-author of the study, in an interview with CBC News.

"We were doing this on the run, in a way, and we were getting kind of the preliminary vaccination rate data, and so it turns out that that number was not complete."

Dr. Andrew Crean, co-director of the cardiac MRI service at the Ottawa Heart Institute and the study's lead author, confirmed to CBC News in an email Thursday that the preprint was being retracted.

Late Friday night, the study was officially marked as "withdrawn" on the medRxiv preprint server, with a link to a statement citing "a major underestimation" of the rate of occurrence

.

COVID-19 mRNA vaccines may be 'new trigger' for heart inflammation, CDC group says, but benefit outweighs risk

"In order to avoid misleading either colleagues or the general public and press, we the authors unanimously wish to withdraw this paper on the grounds of incorrect incidence data," the statement read.

"We thank the many peer reviewers who went out of their way to contact us and point out our error. We apologize to anyone who may have been upset or disturbed by our report."

Crean said the authors uncovered the "significant error" days after posting it to the server, finding a "substantial overestimate" of the risk of heart inflammation after vaccination, then moved quickly to get the study withdrawn.

"As you know, preprints are not full peer-reviewed publications," he said. "The peer-review process worked quickly and efficiently to detect our error and we were happy to retract this data once the error was confirmed."

And Crean is absolutely right — this is exactly how the process is supposed to work.

CBC EXPLAINSWorried about heart inflammation and COVID-19 vaccines? Here's what we know

Preprints are traditionally a way for academics to share early information on important subjects before the data is peer-reviewed and published, said Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch, a website that tracks errors in science journals.

"If in fact this is retracted quickly and withdrawn quickly based on what seems to be a pretty significant error, then it's actually science doing what it should," he said.

"The problem is not the preprint server, the problem is that nobody ever provides any context around it."

Side effect remains rare, treatable

The Ottawa Heart Institute issued a tweet late Wednesday night, a week after the study was released, saying the authors "have requested the retraction of the preprint" due to "incorrect data" that "vastly inflates the incidence of post-vaccine myocarditis."

"We are sorry a preprint paper citing incorrect data led to misinformation on the incidence of post-vaccine myocarditis," a spokesperson for the institute said in a followup statement to CBC News on Friday morning.

"COVID-19 vaccines are safe and have been proven effective against the disease. We invite anyone who has not yet received the shot to please get vaccinated."

Heart institute seeing patients with rare condition possibly linked to mRNA vaccines

While some real-world data has shown an increased risk of heart inflammation after COVID-19 vaccines among younger age groups, it's important to remember the side effect is rare.

"Even if you took the worst-case scenario, it doesn't happen in 99.9 per cent of cases," said Montreal cardiologist and epidemiologist Dr. Christopher Labos. "So the vast majority of people, even young people, are going to get vaccinated and not have an issue with myocarditis."

A small proportion of people who do experience the side effect will experience mild symptoms that are treatable without hospital care, Labos said, and don't appear to cause "any major heart damage."


3 months ago News

A small number of cases of heart inflammation — specifically, myocarditis and pericarditis — have occurred in teens and young adults following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, but experts say the benefits of a vaccine far outweigh the risk. 2:00

"So it looks as if this is a relatively mild side effect that should not dissuade anybody from getting vaccinated," he said. "Because the benefits really outweigh the risks."

One study from Israel published in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this month showed a slight increased risk of myocarditis after vaccination — but the researchers stressed that COVID-19 is more likely to cause the side effect than the shot.

Despite this reassuring conclusion, experts say the speed in which preliminary data is being uploaded, manipulated and disseminated in the pandemic means one error can cause a lot of damage.

"Mistakes happen; I have no major criticisms to level against anybody here. They did exactly what they're supposed to do: When you make a mistake — you fix it," said Labos.

"The real problem here is that I worry that people are going to keep using the wrong version of the study to advance their agenda."
Cherry-picking 'rotten' data

Despite not getting any mainstream media coverage in Canada or anywhere else at the time it was published, the study quickly spread around the world on social media and anti-vaccination websites, where it was incorrectly claimed as evidence of the damage COVID-19 vaccines cause.

The preprint has been shared on Twitter more than 11,000 times in the week since it's been published, according to Altmetric, a company that tracks where published research is posted online. That's in the top five per cent of all research it's ever tracked.

One particularly damaging tweet that gained a massive response came from Robert Malone, an infectious-disease researcher and accused spreader of anti-vaccination misinformation who calls himself the "inventor" of mRNA vaccines despite evidence to the contrary.

The study also showed up on numerous anti-vaccination websites, misrepresented as evidence that the rate of myocarditis had been intentionally underestimated and that thousands of children could be at risk of heart failure after vaccination in the future.

Timothy Caulfield, Canada Research Chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta who has studied the challenges with preprints in the pandemic, says the way in which the erroneous study has been shared widely online to promote an anti-vaccination agenda is "incredibly frustrating."

"First of all, the topic is so sensitive with parents, with young adults. When people are doing this risk-benefit calculus and they see a study like this, even if it just crosses their radar on social media, it can have an impact on their intentions," he said.

"So a mistake like this can do real, serious harm — and I think it probably already has, unfortunately."

Scientists cut peer-review corners under pressure of COVID-19 pandemic

The error highlights the challenges with preprints, Caulfield said. On the one hand, they can create an open dialogue with academics and get research into the public domain quickly on important topics, but on the other hand, they can do irreparable long-term damage.

"Preprints can quickly be weaponized by activists when the data seems to bolster their ideology, and they lend credibility to claims that might otherwise appear non-scientific," added Jonathan Jarry, a biological scientist with McGill University's Office for Science and Society in Montreal.

"And when a preprint gets retracted because it was fraudulent or just simply incorrect, that bell is hard to un-ring in the public square that is the internet."

Reports of heart inflammation among small number of children that got Pfizer vaccine
4 months ago

A small number of children who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have reported swelling in the heart. Researchers and officials are tracking the phenomenon closely, but so far they've found no cause for alarm. 2:03

Caulfield said that once an inaccurate preprint gets released, it can "take on a life of its own."

"And that's exactly what has happened here," he said. "I can guarantee that you are going to continue to see references to this version of the paper for a long time to come."

These so-called "zombie papers" are often intentionally shared within anti-vaccination circles long after they're retracted or corrected in order to disingenuously influence public opinion and fuel misinformation, said Caulfield.

"It's extreme cherry-picking," he said. "And the cherry is rotten."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam Miller
Senior Writer
Adam Miller is a senior health writer with CBC News. He's covered health, politics and breaking news extensively in Canada for over a decade, in addition to several years reporting on news and current affairs throughout Asia.
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N.S. parents and teachers call on government to release info on COVID-19 exposures at schools


Heidi Petracek
CTV News Atlantic Reporter
Published Friday, September 24, 2021 


A volunteer group, ‘Nova Scotia Parents for Public Education’, began compiling the information being sent to them by parents and teachers when it saw government wasn’t making such details public.


HALIFAX -- As parent Brittany Snow peruses a list of Nova Scotia schools affected by COVID-19 exposures, she worries what it means for the safety of her children, who are too young to be vaccinated.

“I’m definitely concerned,” says Snow. “I think it’s really important for parents and the community to protect those who are most vulnerable.”

That list of affected schools – which includes 19 so far – is being compiled not by the provincial government, but by a concerned group of parents. While Snow is happy someone is making the information available, she feels government should be doing the job.

“I think it adds to the lack of trust towards the government, and I think it's important to be transparent so people can respond accordingly.”

A volunteer group, ‘Nova Scotia Parents for Public Education’, began compiling the information being sent to them by parents and teachers when it saw government wasn’t making such details public.

Group moderator Stacey Rudderham, who is also a parent of school-aged children, says only verified information, such as a letter or email from an official school source or Nova Scotia Public Health, is used.

“We are the only place where they are able to get information about existing school cases,” says Rudderham.

Rudderham says she’s hearing from many parents and staff members about schools affected by potential COVID-19 exposures and cases.

She is also hearing from people who didn’t know there was a case at their school at all.

“We're hearing from them that they've not been informed and that they found about the case from our list, on social media,” says Rudderham.

Nova Scotia’s Department of Education wouldn't give CTV News a list of affected schools in the province today.

According to the department, principals are supposed to notify the wider school community of any potential exposures.

The province’s chief medical officer of health says there's been no evidence the virus being transmitted at schools and says schools continue to be safe.

Dr. Robert Strang says anyone at a school who may have been exposed to a case is being notified, and that parents should trust Public Health.

“If their child might have been exposed, they will be notified,” said Strang. “And keep following the basic precautions.”

Strang does say public health may start reporting some school-related data soon.


“We are looking at starting to report in total as part of our weekly epidemiological summaries specific to schools.”

In a message sent to teachers late Friday and obtained by CTV, the regional executive director of the Halifax Regional Centre for Education, Elwin LeRoux, sought to address concerns “from a staff member yesterday asking about a COVID-19 case connected to their school,” and “why it took so long for staff to be notified when the information was shared on social media.”

In the message, LeRoux states Public Health’s approach to COVID cases connected to schools is “different from last year.”

“In the social media age, information is shared at the speed of light,” he writes, “This process isn’t that fast but we do communicate as soon as Public Health gives direction at the end of their investigation.”

The issue is one the head of the Nova Scotia Teachers’ Union says he’s raising with the province.

Paul Wozney says he’s also heard of cases instances where teachers weren't notified of a case related to their school.

Nova Scotia was listing potential school exposures as recently as the last school year.

Wozney says the province needs to start doing that again.

“It’s only Alberta, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia nationally that aren't providing this data to parents and students and staff.”

Rudderham says it’s information that is important to the whole community.

“If (students are) in the schools and there are cases there, they're also in sports, they're in clubs, they’re in church, daycares are also speaking to us,” says Rudderham. “It isn't just in the schools, if it's in the schools.”

“It's very telling that this is coming from the parents and not the government,” says Snow. She would like the province to release accurate information to keep rumors and misinformation at bay – and help parents like her make the decision needed to keep their children safe.

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Saskatchewan
Sask. no longer shares COVID-19 modelling data with its doctors

Alexander Quon · CBC News · Posted: Sep 24,2021
COVID-19 testing at Evraze Place in Regina, Sask., on Sept. 9, 2021. 
(Matthew Howard/CBC)

Something Saskatchewan's doctors suspected has now been confirmed: the province is withholding COVID-19 modelling data from them.

In the early stages of the pandemic, modelling data was provided to doctors.

Although modelling is not a crystal ball that shows the future, it does give health professionals and policymakers information that can help them inform decisions.

That transparency stopped several months ago. It was never made clear why.

More than 31,000 3rd COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in Sask.
Saskatchewan nears 80 per cent of eligible people having first doses of COVID-19 vaccine
Adult COVID-19 patients being treated in Sask. children's hospital, health authority says

Doctors were finally given an answer by Dr. Susan Shaw, an ICU doctor and a chief medical officer with the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA), during a virtual physician town hall on Thursday.

Shaw was asked about the subject by Dr. Carla Holinaty, a family doctor in Saskatoon.

Shaw confirmed that although modelling is still being produced by the province, the Ministry of Health has decided that it should no longer be widely shared with doctors in the province.

"I think it confirms what we had all been suspicious of, but it was no less disheartening to hear," Holinaty told CBC News on Friday.

Only senior officials at the SHA receive the data. It's then used for planning purposes.

Earlier this week, Premier Scott Moe said that the province's medical community should provide guidance and use their expertise to get more people vaccinated.

WATCH | Sask. COVID cases continue to rise



Sask. COVID-19 cases continue to rise
2 days ago
For the fourth straight day, COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan are on the rise. Two physicians in the province discuss the current situation, patient care and the stress on health-care staff. 9:58

Holinaty says there is a disconnect between what Moe is urging and the desire to restrict and withhold the COVID-19 modelling data.

If family physicians and other doctors had the data, it could be another tool to sway people who may be vaccine resistant or vaccine hesitant, she said.

"Without it, we just are speculating and we don't have any data to refer to, or numbers, or projections," Holinaty said. "Being able to quantify that for people in terms of what that might mean for numbers of hospitalizations, numbers of people in the intensive care unit, I think it is much more more powerful and much more concrete for people."

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The Ministry of Health did not respond to a request for comment.

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'People will suffer and will die': Emergency doctor says some health triage has begun in Alberta

Dean Bennett
The Canadian Press
Updated Sept. 24, 2021 


EDMONTON -

The head of emergency medicine for the Alberta Medical Association, Dr. Paul Parks, says major components of triage have already begun in Alberta - an assertion disputed by the province.

The dispute arose Friday as the Canadian Armed Forces prepared to bring in air transport and staff to deal with a COVID-19 crisis overwhelming Alberta's hospitals.

The province has yet to formally invoke the triage policy, which would see doctors have to make on-the-spot decisions over who gets life-saving resources.


But Parks said it has become routine in hospitals in the last two weeks to have some critically ill patients - most of them unvaccinated COVID-19 cases - kept on main wards rather than in intensive care units on ventilators because they don't have the available intensive care ward staff.

That's on top of previously announced mass cancellations of surgeries, along with patient transfers, as doctors balance medical needs with available space, he said.

“We already are in positions in many hospitals across Alberta where the doctors know that it would be best for this patient to be in ICU and be on a ventilator, but we're not providing that option until they absolutely deteriorate to the point of crashing,” Parks said Friday.

“We already are implementing some of these things that are drastic, and we wish we never would have.

“People will suffer and will die by this.”

Alberta Health Services said in a statement: “We acknowledge that we are operating at a reduced standard of care, however, safety remains at the forefront of all decisions.

“Any patient who requires mechanical ventilation is currently able to receive it.”

Parks said it's not at the point where doctors must make on-the-spot, life-and-death decisions. But he said that's not far away and, when it comes, the second stage of triage will follow quickly, including making those same decisions about children.

Alberta Health Services said triage will only be invoked if all efforts to increase intensive care capacity are exhausted.

There are 368 intensive care spaces with 304 patients, most of whom are critically ill with COVID-19, and most of them unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

Alberta normally has 173 intensive care spaces but has been converting other spaces, including operating rooms, into ad hoc critical care wards to meet COVID-19 demand.

Alberta has more than 20,000 active COVID-19 cases and is seeing well over 1,000 new cases a day.

Dr. Verna Yiu, head of Alberta Health Services, said Thursday a key reason intensive care wards have not been overwhelmed is because enough COVID-19 patients are dying to free up bed space.

The number of COVID-19 deaths has been on the rise.

There were 29 fatalities reported Tuesday, 20 more Wednesday and 17 Thursday. More than 2,600 people have died in Alberta since the pandemic began.

Premier Jason Kenney has asked other provinces and the federal government for emergency aid.

Andrew McKelvey, a spokesman with the Department of National Defence, said Friday that they have been asked to provide up to eight intensive care nurses, along with air transport for patients to other health facilities in Canada.

The air transport should be ready to go in 24 hours and the nurses within 72 hours, said McKelvey.

Parks and other physicians, meanwhile, are urging Kenney to put in a “firebreak” to reverse the slew of new infections, starting with shutting down schools and banning mass gatherings, such as sports events.

“The (political) decision-makers upstream are not doing what they need to do to stop case transmission,” said Dr. Shazma Mithani, an Edmonton emergency room physician.

“We can't keep going like this. Health care and ICU capacity is a finite resource.

“The only way to stop the influx of patients into the hospitals is to stop the cases, and that has to happen with restrictions - and it is not happening.”

Dr. Tehseen Ladha, an Edmonton pediatrician, said it makes no sense for Alberta to ask for federal help while refusing to impose serious health restrictions, particularly as cases among children rise.

“This is the worst it's ever been,” said Ladha. “We're seeing the rise in cases amongst the (age) five-to-11 group go up faster than any other age group. The curve is almost vertical.”

Dr. David Keegan, a Calgary family physician, said while critical cases grow, so does the collateral damage of thousands of delayed surgeries.

Keegan said one of his patients needs cancer surgery, but the operation has been delayed.

“It means by the time surgery happens you never know, (the cancer) may have spread,” he said.

“Suddenly we go from this person with an easily treatable removable cancer to it has spread and we're into added-on chemotherapy and potentially radiation.”

Dr. Ilan Schwartz, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alberta, said targeted public health measures and a vaccine passport may have worked a month ago.

But he said only a hard lockdown with a shutdown of schools and on-essential businesses can now stop the crisis at its source - high caseloads.

“It's absurd that we have (hospital) wards that are full, we are cancelling cancer surgeries, we're calling for the military, we're talking about transporting patients 3,000 kilometres in order for them to find an ICU bed and we still have society going on as if nothing is the matter.”


This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2021.




Alberta Children's Hospital doctors face criticism for letters opposing vaccine mandate
Author of the article:Jason Herring
Publishing date:Sep 24, 2021 • 
Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary, on Friday October 12, 2018. 
PHOTO BY LEAH HENNEL /Postmedia

Two pediatricians at the Alberta Children’s Hospital are facing criticism after recently writing letters outlining their opposition to vaccine mandates for health-care workers.

Dr. Eric Payne and Dr. Michael Vila wrote in their respective letters they are unvaccinated against COVID-19. They both characterized COVID-19 vaccines as “experimental” and call vaccine effectiveness and safety into question.

Alberta data show vaccines are safe and effective at preventing both symptomatic disease and severe outcomes from the novel coronavirus.

Both mRNA vaccines authorized for use in Canada — manufactured by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna — are more than 90 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic illness due to COVID-19, and vaccines have been 85 per cent effective against the Delta variant in Alberta.

Among the 243 COVID-19 patients currently in Alberta ICUs, only about eight per cent are fully vaccinated, despite this group making up more than 62 per cent of the province’s population. And only about one in every 2,000 Albertans who have received a COVID-19 vaccine has reported adverse effects.


Teams in a crowded Calgary ICU work on a patient on a ventilator. 
PHOTO BY SUPPLIED BY AHS

It’s inaccurate to call COVID-19 vaccines experimental, said Calgary public-health physician Dr. Jia Hu, who noted mRNA vaccines have received full Health Canada approval. He said there is data from billions worldwide who have had at least one shot of vaccine.

Hu said vaccines provide considerable health benefits in all age groups, something that is important with ongoing high levels of community virus spread in Alberta.

“There’s nothing that is perfectly safe. There’s nothing that is perfectly effective, not just in vaccine land but anywhere in the world,” said Hu. “The thing with these vaccines is, no matter how old you are, the balance of benefits over risks is so much higher for taking the vaccine than not.”

Timothy Caulfield, a Canada Research Chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta, said it is frustrating to see regulated health professionals spread what he characterized as misinformation.

“To suggest there is a lack of efficacy is patently ridiculous. At this stage, it is like denying the pull of gravity,” Caulfield said.

“The data on safety is also incredibly impressive. Not only do we have impressive clinical trials, but the vaccines have been administered to hundreds of millions of people, so we also have mountains of surveillance data.”

The doctors are cherry-picking evidence to support their views, Caulfield contended.

Payne and Vila work at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, which recently closed 75 per cent of its operating rooms due to strain on Alberta’s hospital system during the fourth wave of COVID-19.

In Payne’s letter, he wrote he and his family are otherwise fully vaccinated, and argued the risk of spreading COVID-19 to his pediatric patients and leading to severe outcomes is “minuscule.”

In a statement to Postmedia, Payne said his stance is independent of his employer. He said he has seen first-hand the impact on patient care from strains on ICUs, but said he stands by his letter and supports patient autonomy and informed consent.

“I am particularly concerned about these experimental vaccines being forced on our children as a requirement to attend school or participate in extracurricular activities. I do not feel that parents and teenagers are receiving informed consent,” Payne said.

Payne’s letter was addressed to the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA) council. In a statement, the CPSA said though the college can’t speak to specific cases, it said it is aware of a “small number” of physicians making claims that oppose current consensus on vaccines and is “very concerned” about this.

“CPSA recognizes these are trying times for front-line health-care workers. However, spreading misinformation about vaccines that goes against current evidence and advisories does not align with a physician’s professional responsibility to their patients,” the college said.

The CPSA added the college recently surveyed the profession about COVID-19 vaccination and found 96 per cent of approximately 5,100 respondents indicated they are fully immunized.

Vila wrote in his letter he is not an anti-vaxxer and he has consistently advocated for children to receive other vaccines when parents are hesitant to do so. He told Postmedia he is advocating for the best possible health outcomes for his patients.

“Should we have seen a large volume of hospitalizations within the pediatric population, or if it had been obvious and supported by the evidence that being vaccinated reduced transmissibility to my patients, I would have adjusted my decision to reflect that,” said Vila in his letter, which was sent to AHS leadership.

AHS announced Aug. 31 its staff must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 31 or risk being put on unpaid leave. The health authority said Friday the “vast majority” of health-care workers are already fully immunized, with their goal to reach 100 per cent uptake. More than 49,000 staff have already submitted their proof of vaccination, AHS said.

Hu said doctors casting doubts on vaccine efficacy and safety can provide fuel for those who oppose vaccinations.

“It’s quite dangerous when you even have a few doctors saying stuff like this, because they are really good nodes for anti-vaxxers to organize around,” he said.

“When an anti-vaxxer can hang on the words of a physician, someone with ‘MD’ behind their name saying that vaccines aren’t safe, they’re much more powerful.”



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Many hurdles for families with food challenges, poll shows
By ASHRAF KHALIL and CEDAR ATTANASIOyesterday


1 of 5
Barrios Unidos president Lupe Salazar pushes a dolly filled with canned food ahead of a food drive on Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021, in Chimayó, New Mexico.
 (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Many Americans struggling to feed their families over the past pandemic year say they have had difficulty figuring out how to get help and had trouble finding healthy foods they can afford.

A poll from Impact Genome and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 23% of Americans say they have not been able to get enough to eat or the kinds of foods they want. Most of those facing food challenges enrolled in a government or nonprofit food assistance program in the past year, but 58% still had difficulty accessing at least one service.

And 21% of adults facing challenges meeting their food needs were unable to access any assistance at all. The most common challenge to those in need was a basic lack of awareness of eligibility for both government and nonprofit services.

The poll results paint an overall picture of a country where hundreds of thousands of households found themselves suddenly plunged into food insecurity due to the economic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. They often found themselves navigating the intimidating bureaucracy of government assistance programs and with limited knowledge of local food banks or other charitable options available.

Black and Hispanic Americans, Americans living below the federal poverty line and younger adults are especially likely to face food challenges, according to the poll.

Americans who have a hard time affording food also feel less confident than others about their ability to get healthy food. Just 27% say they are “very” or “extremely” confident, compared with 87% of those who do not face food challenges.

For homemaker Acacia Barraza in Los Lunas, a rural town outside Albuquerque, New Mexico, the challenge has been to find a steady supply of fresh fruits and vegetables for her 2-year-old son while staying inside the family budget.

Barraza, 34, quit her job as a waitress before the pandemic when her son was born. She considered going back to work, but on-and-off child care shortages as the pandemic took hold made that impossible, she said. The family lives off her husband’s salary as a mechanic while receiving assistance from SNAP — the government program commonly known as food stamps.

Despite the government help, Barraza said she still scrambles to find affordable sources of fresh vegetables, actively scouring local markets for bargains such as a bag of fresh spinach for $2.99.

Extra money to help pay for food or bills
50%
39%
9%
Reliable and accessible transportation
29%
39%
30%
Enough free food to last a few days
26%
53%
19%
A free prepared meal with no prior notice
17%
51%
30%
Meals that are delivered by a community service
16%
51%
32%
Results based on interviews with 2,233 U.S. adults conducted August 5–23. The margin of error is ±3.2 percentage points for the full sample.


“If we don’t always have vegetables, he’s going to not want to eat them in the future. And then I worry that he’s not going to get enough vitamins from vegetables in the future or now for his growing body. So it’s really hard. It’s just really hard,” she said.

Even those who didn’t lose income during the pandemic find themselves stretching their food dollars at the end of the month. Trelecia Mornes of Fort Worth, Texas, works, as a telephone customer service representative, so she was able to work from home without interruption.

She makes too much money to qualify for SNAP, but not enough to easily feed the family.

She decided to do distance learning with her three children home because of fears about COVID-19 outbreaks in the schools, so that removed school lunches from the equation. Her work responsibilities prevent her from picking up free lunches offered by the school district. She takes care of her disabled brother, who lives with them and does receive SNAP benefits. But Mornes said that $284 a month “lasts about a week and a half.”

They try to eat healthy, but budget considerations sometimes lead her to prioritize cost and longevity with “canned soups, maybe noodles — things that last and aren’t so expensive,” she said.

Radha Muthiah, president of the Capital Area Food Bank in Washington said the struggles reflected in the poll are evidence of a new phenomenon brought by the pandemic: Families with no experience with food insecurity are suddenly in need, without knowledge of charitable options or experience navigating government assistance programs.

“It’s all new to them,” she said. “Many individuals and families — especially those experiencing food insecurity for the first time — are unaware of their full range of options.”

Many are leery of engaging directly with government programs such as SNAP and WIC — the parallel government food-assistance program that helps mothers and children. Muthiah said that reluctance often stems from either frustration with the paperwork or, among immigrant communities, fear of endangering their immigration status or green card applications.

The poll shows that overall, about 1 in 8 Americans regularly get their food from convenience stores, which typically offer less nutritious food at higher prices. That experience is more common among Americans facing food challenges, with about 1 in 5 frequenting convenience stores.

The dependence on convenience stores is a particularly troubling dynamic, Muthiah said, because the options there are both more expensive and generally less nutritious. Part of the issue is simply habit, but a much larger problem is the lack of proper grocery stores in “food deserts” that exist in poorer parts of many cities.

“Sometimes they are the only quick efficient option for many people to get food,” she said. “But they don’t get the full range of what they need from a convenience store and that leads to a lot of negative health outcomes.”

The poll shows half of Americans facing food challenges say extra money to help pay for food or bills is necessary for meeting their food needs.

Fewer consider reliable transportation or enough free food to last a few days, such as in emergency food packages, or free prepared meals at a soup kitchen or school to be necessary resources for meeting their food needs, though majorities say these would be helpful.

Gerald Ortiz of Espańola, New Mexico, bought a 2019 Chevy pickup truck before the pandemic, then lost the office job he had held for 20 years. Now he scrambles to make the $600 monthly payment and gets by through charity and by simply eating less. His unemployment payments ended this month.

“I make sure my truck payment is done,” said Ortiz, as he sat in a line of about 30 cars waiting to pick up food from a charitable organization, Barrios Unidos, in nearby Chimayó. “After that I, I, just eat like once a day,” he said, pointing to his stomach. “That’s why you see me I’m so thin now.”

He’s applying for multiple jobs and surviving on charity and whatever produce he can grow in his backyard — chili peppers, onions, cucumbers and watermelons.

“It’s been depressing. It’s been, like, stressful and I get anxiety,” he said. “Like, I can’t wait to get a job. I don’t care what it is right now.”

___

Attanasio reported from Chimayó, New Mexico. Associated Press polling reporter Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report.

___

The AP-NORC poll of 2,233 adults was conducted August 5-23 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
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WHITE HATS VS BLACK HATS
QAnon, Proud Boys: Huge hack reveals details of far-right websites' internet provider and clients

'Panama Papers of hate groups': Identities, passwords of Epik users released by Anonymous

Washington Post
Drew Harwell, Craig Timberg and Hannah Allam
Publishing date:Sep 22, 2021 •
Supporters wearing Proud Boy clothing wave to the camera during a Make America Great Again campaign rally in Tampa, Fla. on Oct. 29, 2020. 
PHOTO BY RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP


Epik has long been the favourite internet company of the far-right, providing domain services to QAnon theorists, Proud Boys and other instigators of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — allowing them to broadcast hateful messages from behind a veil of anonymity.

But that veil abruptly vanished last week when a huge breach by the hacker group Anonymous dumped into public view more than 150 gigabytes of previously private data — including user names, passwords and other identifying information of Epik’s customers.

Extremism researchers and political opponents have treated the leak as a Rosetta Stone to the far right, helping them decode who has been doing what with whom over several years. Initial revelations have spilled out steadily across Twitter since news of the hack broke last week, often under the hashtag #epikfail, but those studying the material say they will need months and perhaps years to dig through it all.

“It’s massive. It may be the biggest domain-style leak I’ve seen and, as an extremism researcher, it’s certainly the most interesting,” said Megan Squire, a computer science professor at Elon University who studies right-wing extremism. “It’s an embarrassment of riches — stress on the embarrassment.”


Epik, based in the Seattle suburb of Sammamish, has made its name in the internet world by providing critical web services to sites that have run afoul of other companies’ policies against hate speech, misinformation and advocating violence. Its client list is a roll call of sites known for permitting extreme posts and that have been rejected by other companies for their failure to moderate what their users post.

Online records show those sites have included 8chan, which was dropped by its providers after hosting the manifesto of a gunman who killed 51 Muslims in Christchurch, N.Z. in 2019; Gab, which was dropped for hosting the anti-Semitic rants of a gunman who killed 11 in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018; and Parler, which was dropped due to lax moderation related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

Epik also provides services to a network of sites devoted to extremist QAnon conspiracy theories. Epik briefly hosted the neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer in 2019 after acquiring a cybersecurity company that had provided it with hosting services, but Epik soon cancelled that contract, according to news reports. Epik also stopped supporting 8chan after a short period, the company has said.

Earlier this month, Epik also briefly provided service to the anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life, whose website, ProLifeWhistleblower.com, was removed by the hosting service GoDaddy because it solicited accusations about which medical providers might be violating a state abortion ban.

An Epik attorney said the company stopped working with TRL because it violated company rules against collecting people’s private information. Online records show Epik was still the site’s domain registrar as of last week, though the digital tip line is no longer available, and the site now redirects to the group’s homepage.



QAnon demonstrators in Los Angeles in August 2020. In January, Twitter suspended more than 70,000 accounts linked to QAnon.
 PHOTO BY KYLE GRILLOT/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Epik founder Robert Monster’s willingness to provide technical support to online sanctuaries of the far-right have made him a regular target of anti-extremism advocates, who criticized him for using Epik’s tools to republish the Christchurch gunman’s manifesto and live-streamed video the killer had made of the slaughter.

Monster also used the moment as a marketing opportunity, saying the files were now “effectively uncensorable,” according to screenshots of his tweets and Gab posts from the time. Monster also urged Epik employees to watch the video, which he said would convince them it was faked, Bloomberg News reported.

Monster has defended his work as critical to keeping the internet uncensored and free, aligning himself with conservative critics who argue that leading technology companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and YouTube have gone too far in policing content they deem inappropriate.

Monster did not respond to requests for comment from The Washington Post. But he said in an email to customers two days after hackers announced the breach that the company had suffered an “alleged security incident” and asked customers to report back any “unusual account activity.”

“You are in our prayers today,” Monster wrote last week, as news of the hack spread. “When situations arise where individuals might not have honorable intentions, I pray for them. I believe that what the enemy intends for evil, God invariably transforms into good. Blessings to you all.”

Researchrs have marvelled at Epik's apparent failure to take basic security precautions

Since the hack, Epik’s security protocols have been the target of ridicule among researchers, who’ve marvelled at the site’s apparent failure to take basic security precautions such as routine encryption that could have protected data about its customers from becoming public.

The files include years of website purchase records, internal company emails and customer account credentials revealing who administers some of the biggest far-right websites. The data includes client names, home addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and passwords left in plain, readable text. The hack even exposed the personal records from Anonymize, a privacy service Epik offered to customers wanting to conceal their identity.

Similar failings by other hacked companies have drawn scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission, which has probed companies such as dating site Ashley Madison for failing to protect their customers’ private data from hackers. FTC investigations have resulted in settlements imposing financial penalties and more rigorous privacy standards.

“Given Epik’s boasts about security, and the scope of its web hosting, I would think it would be an FTC target, especially if the company was warned but failed to take protective action,” said David Vladeck, a former head of the FTC’s consumer protection bureau, now at Georgetown University Law Center. “I would add that the FTC wouldn’t care about the content — right wing or left wing; the questions would be (about) the possible magnitude and impact of the breach and the representations … the company may have made about security.”

The FTC declined to comment.

Without Epik, many extremist communities would have had far less oxygen to spread harm

SITE INTELLIGENCE GROUP

Researchers poring through the trove say the most crucial findings concern the identities of people hosting various extremist sites and the key role Epik played in keeping material online that might otherwise have vanished from the internet — or at least the parts of the internet that are easily stumbled upon by ordinary users.

“The company played such a major role in keeping far-right terrorist cesspools alive,” said Rita Katz, executive director of SITE Intelligence Group, which studies online extremism. “Without Epik, many extremist communities — from QAnon and white nationalists to accelerationist neo-Nazis — would have had far less oxygen to spread harm, whether that be building toward the January 6 Capitol riots or sowing the misinformation and conspiracy theories chipping away at democracy.”

The breach, first reported by the freelance journalist Steven Monacelli, was made publicly available for download last week alongside a note from Anonymous hackers saying it would help researchers trace the ownership and management of “the worst trash the internet has to offer.”

After the hackers’ announcement, Epik initially said it was “not aware of any breach.” But in a rambling, three-hour live stream last week, Monster acknowledged there had been a “hijack of data that should not have been hijacked” and called on people not to use the data for “negative” purposes.

“If you have a negative intent to use that data, it’s not going to work out for you. I’m just telling you,” he said. “If the demon tells you to do it, the demon is not your friend.”  
Members of Proud Boys in front of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021 to protest against the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results. PHOTO BY JIM URQUHART / REUTERS /Reuters

Several domains in the leak are associated with the far-right Proud Boys group, which is known for violent street brawls and involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and was banned by Facebook in 2018 as a hate group.

A Twitter account, @epikfailsnippet, that is posting unverified revelations from the leaked data, included a thread purporting to expose administrators of the Proud Boys sites. One man who was identified by name as administrator of a local Proud Boys forum was said to be an employee of Drexel University; the university said he hasn’t worked at Drexel since November 2020.

Technology news site the Daily Dot reported that Ali Alexander, a conservative political activist who played a key role in spreading false voter-fraud claims about the 2020 presidential election, took steps after the Jan. 6 siege to obscure his ownership of more than 100 domains registered to Epik. Nearly half reportedly used variations of the “Stop the Steal” slogan pushed by Alexander and others. Alexander did not reply to requests for comment from the Daily Dot or, on Tuesday, from The Washington Post.

Extremism researchers urge careful fact-checking to protect credibility, but the data remains tantalizing for its potential to unmask extremists in public-facing jobs.

Emma Best, co-founder of Distributed Denial of Secrets, a nonprofit whistleblower group, said some researchers call the Epik hack “the Panama Papers of hate groups,” a comparison to the leak of more than 11 million documents that exposed a rogue offshore finance industry. And, like the Panama Papers, scouring the files is labour intensive, with payoffs that could be months away.

“A lot of research begins with naming names,” Best said. “There’s a lot of optimism and feeling of being overwhelmed, and people knowing they’re in for the long haul with some of this data.”
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