It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, June 15, 2022
New poll suggests Liberal, NDP voters prefer Charest and Brown over Poilievre
OTTAWA — New polling suggests Liberal and New Democrat voters think Jean Charest or Patrick Brown would make the best leader of the federal Conservative party.
Jean Charest
The data released by the research firm Leger is based on an online survey it did of 1,528 Canadian adults last weekend using computer-assisted web interviewing technology.
It cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples.
The survey asked respondents which of the six candidates in the running they believe would make the best leader of the party, which will unveil its new leader Sept. 10. Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque says one of the issues they come across when they poll Canadians about a party leadership race is that roughly one-third appear indifferent.
The data suggests 58 per cent of respondents answered they didn't know or picked none of the above when questioned on which candidate would make the best Conservative leader. When it came to Conservative voters, the polling suggests 23 per cent of respondents said they didn't know and only eight per cent selected none of the above.
Of Tory voters who responded to the survey, data suggests 44 per cent of them believe Pierre Poilievre, the longtime Ottawa-area MP known for his attacks on the government and Bank of Canada over inflation, would make the best party leader.
Charest, Quebec's former premier, came in a distant second at 14 per cent among Conservative voters, according to the survey's findings, while the four other remaining candidates ranked much lower. Looking at respondents who back other political parties, Leger's data suggests 25 per cent of both federal Liberal and NDP voters feel Charest would make the best Conservative leader.
It also suggests 11 per cent of both Liberal and NDP would select Brown, who is mayor of Brampton, Ont., and formerly led Ontario's Progressive Conservatives.
By contrast, the data suggests only six per cent of Liberal and NDP supporters feel Poilievre would be the best pick.
The findings come as one of the main tasks facing Conservative leadership contenders, if they win, will be to grow support for the party ahead of the next federal election, particularly in seat-rich Ontario.
"The only way they can win back Ontario and do better in Quebec is to actually move voters away from the Liberal party and away from the NDP," Bourque said.
Leger's data also suggests 57 per cent of respondents who support the more right-wing People's Party of Canada feel Poilievre should be the next Conservative leader.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2022
WHITE SUPREMACIST COPS
Toronto police use more force against Black people with little explanation, data shows
CBC/Radio-Canada - TODAY
An expansive Toronto police report released Wednesday confirms what many racialized people in the city have long said: Black, Indigenous and other diverse groups are disproportionately affected by use of force and strip searches by officers.
At a morning news conference, interim Toronto Police Chief James Ramer said the force needs to do better.
"As an organization, we have not done enough to ensure that every person in our city receives fair and unbiased policing," he said.
"For this, as chief of police and on behalf of the police, I am sorry and I apologize unreservedly," Ramer continued.
"The release of this data will cause pain for many. We must improve and we will do better."
The apology was not welcomed by Beverly Bain from the group No Pride in Policing, which describes itself as a coalition of queer and trans people formed in support of Black Lives Matter Toronto and focused on defunding police.
In a tense moment during the news conference, Bain slammed Ramer's response to the data.
"Chief Ramer, we do not accept your apology," she said, putting a point on an impassioned speech about how Black, Indigenous and other racialized groups have had to deal with police in the city.
Bain called Ramer's apology a "public relations stunt" that is "insulting" to Black and Indigenous people.
"This is not about saving our lives. What we have asked for you to do is stop. To stop brutalizing us. To stop killing us," she said. Police used more force against Black people more often: data
The never-before-seen statistics released today were drawn from records of 949 use of force incidents and 7,114 strip searches over the course of 2020. The granular analysis, compiled by the force's Equity, Inclusion and Human Rights Unit alongside outside data experts in concert with a 12-member community panel, examines a wide range of questions.
Among its findings was that Black, Indigenous and Middle Eastern people were all overrepresented in the number of "enforcement actions'' taken against them relative to their total population in Toronto. For Black residents, it was by a factor of 2.2 times.
Similarly, Black, Latino, East/Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern people were overrepresented by factors of 1.6 times, 1.5 times, 1.2 times and 1.2 times, respectively, when it came to use of force.
Police also tended to use a higher degree of force against racialized groups compared to white people, especially when it came to officers drawing their firearms.
Black, South Asian and East/South Asian people were considerably more likely than white people -- 1.5 times, 1.6 times and two times, respectively -- to have an officer point a firearm at them during an interaction.
Ontario requires the public sector to collect race-based data as part of the Anti-Racism Act, and in 2019 the Toronto Police Services Board approved a data policy that would start with use of force and later extend to other police processes such as stops, searches, questioning and the laying of charges.
The use of force data was taken in part from reports that officers submit to the Ministry of the Solicitor General after interactions that necessitate medical attention for community members, as well as any time an officer draws or uses a firearm or Taser, or uses another weapon such as their baton or pepper spray.
The 949 use of force instances reported in 2020 account for 0.2 per cent of the 692,937 recorded police interactions with the public. Firearms were pointed in 371 of those encounters and used in four, two of which were fatal, according to police. TPS concedes it has 'misused' race-based data before
The release of the data comes in the wake of several recent reports from human rights and police complaint watchdogs that called for major reforms within Toronto police.
The OHRC reported that between 2013 and 2017 in Toronto, a Black person was nearly 20 times more likely than a white person to be shot and killed by police.
Any identifying information for both members of the public and officers was stripped from the data used in the use of force and strip search analysis, police said. Reforms led to dramatic fall in strip searches
The research released Wednesday also looked at whether any racial groups were disproportionately represented in strip searches.
The results show Indigenous people were 1.3 times overrepresented relative to their presence in arrests. Meanwhile, Black and white people were 1.1 times overrepresented.
Toronto police overhauled their procedures for strip searches in October 2020, leading to a dramatic decline in how many were conducted from that point onward.
Before the changes, about 27 per cent of all arrests in that year included a strip search. That fell to four roughly five per cent afterward.
The policy modifications included that all strip searches be authorized by a supervisor and audited by upper-level management.
The reforms helped to end overrepresentation of Indigenous people in strip searches in 2021, the analysis concluded. But racial discrepancies remained for Black and white residents who were arrested.
The report released this morning also includes 38 actions the force says will help to address racial discrepancies in use of force incidents and strip searches. During a briefing for the media on Tuesday, a police official said a public-facing online dashboard will keep track of the force's progress in implementing the actions in coming months and years. Black people greatly over-represented in Toronto enforcement population, use of force and strip search data
Toronto police apologize for disproportionate use of force against racialized communities | FULL
Streamed live 3 hours ago
Global News
Toronto Police Interim Chief James Ramer apologized on Wednesday to the city’s racialized residents after the release of Toronto police statistics that showed racialized groups were disproportionately affected by enforcement actions and use of force by police officers.
New statistics released by Toronto police show Black people faced a disproportionate amount of police enforcement and use of force in 2020 in comparison to their representation in the overall population, and were more likely to have an officer point a gun at them than white people in the same situation, according to police data.
Middle Eastern people were also overrepresented when it came to enforcement action and use of force, while other groups — such as Latino and East and Southeast Asian residents — experienced less enforcement in comparison to their representation in the overall population but saw more use of force when they did interact with police.
Indigenous people faced more enforcement, but proportionately slightly less use of force in those interactions, according to the same data.
Police statistics show white people faced proportionately less enforcement and less use of force in comparison to their representation in the overall population.
Congressional subcommittee: EPA must cancel popular Seresto collar over link to pet deaths
Johnathan Hettinger - USA TODAY
One of the most popular flea and tick collars in America poses “too great a risk to animals and humans” and should be removed from the market, a congressional subcommittee recommended in a report released Wednesday ahead of its hearing titled “Seresto Flea and Tick Collars: Examining Why a Product Linked to More than 2,500 Pet Deaths Remains on the Market.”
Since it entered the U.S. market in 2012, Seresto has been linked to at least 98,000 adverse incidents and 2,500 pet deaths – the most of any such product regulated by the EPA.
The House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, which is a part of the House Oversight Committee, the main investigative body in the U.S. House of Representatives, said the hearing will probe the Environmental Protection Agency’s “failure to regulate the Seresto collar as well as Elanco’s refusal to take action to protect pets and their owners from the collar’s harm.”
Owners of deceased pets are scheduled to testify at the hearing, which is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Eastern today, as well as a former EPA staffer and other experts. Jeffrey Simmons, the president and CEO of Elanco, which manufactures Seresto, is also expected to testify, the committee announced.
Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-ILL., launched an investigation into the collar in March 2021, after reporting by Investigate Midwest and USA TODAY revealed the high number of incidents related to the collar, as well as the EPA’s inaction despite knowing about the issue for nearly a decade.
“It is unacceptable that the EPA has been aware of the Seresto collar’s safety concerns for years and has continued to allow Americans to unknowingly put their pets in danger by using a product they have been led to believe is safe,” Krishnamoorthi told Investigate Midwest and USA TODAY in a statement.
Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-ILL., launched an investigation into the collar in March 2021.
Since it entered the U.S. market in 2012, Seresto has been linked to at least 98,000 adverse incidents and 2,500 pet deaths – the most of any such product regulated by the EPA and the source of internal alarm among some agency employees, records previously obtained by USA TODAY and Investigate Midwest show.
Elanco said it “unequivocally” stood behind the safety of the collar.
“Numerous studies and the incident report data for Seresto demonstrate the product does not pose an unreasonable risk and has a strong safety profile, which is why the American Veterinary Medical Association opposed canceling Seresto’s EPA registration,” said company spokeswoman Keri McGrath Happe in a statement Wednesday.
In its own emailed statement, EPA spokeswoman Melissa Sullivan said that the EPA is conducting a review of the product, with assistance from the Food and Drug Administration, which it expects to wrap up in fall 2022.
“Upon completing its analysis and assessment, EPA will determine whether these pet collar registrations can still be used safely according to the instructions on the label or if additional safety measures or cancellations are needed for these products,” she said.
The EPA did not answer a question about why it does not have anyone scheduled to speak at today’s hearing.
Elanco has repeatedly defended the collar, which is its top product, accounting for 8% of revenue annually. The company said the rate of complaints is a fraction of the overall sales – which have surpassed 33 million in the past decade – and that the rate has declined over the years. It also said that most incidents are classified as “minor” or “moderate” and that the pet did not suffer “any significant or permanent harm.”
Elanco – which bought the entire Bayer Animal Health unit, including Seresto, from the German pharmaceutical giant in 2020 for $7.6 billion – has said its own extensive studies into the product show that the incidents of harm reported by pet owners are likely related to other factors and not the collar itself.
But the subcommittee’s investigation casts doubts on those claims. In a 22-page report that heavily cites reporting and documents published by Investigate Midwest and USA TODAY, as well as never-before-released information, the subcommittee reveals new details about how Seresto “may be the most dangerous flea and tick product on the market” and that the EPA has known it for years.
For example, as early as 2015, EPA discovered that Seresto had the highest rate of total incidents as well as death or major incidents of any such product the agency regulates. “Compared to the second most dangerous product, Seresto had nearly three times the rate of total incidents, and nearly five times the rate of ‘Death’ or ‘Major’ incidents," the report said. "Compared to the third most dangerous product, the Seresto collar had nearly 21 times the rate of total incidents, and over 35 times the rate of ‘Death’ or ‘Major’ incidents."
The report also details how, in determining whether to approve the sale of Seresto in its own country, Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) reviewed data on roughly 1,000 of the most serious death and major pet incidents linked to the collar and found that it “probably or possibly caused 77% of these incidents.” This led the agency in 2016 to deem the collar too dangerous to sell, and PMRA rejected the product’s application even as sales of Seresto continued in the United States.
Among the cases that PMRA linked to Seresto, the congressional report noted, pets experienced symptoms including skin problems, “lethargy, abnormal behavior, excessive grooming and vocalization, vomiting, diarrhea, and anorexia.” More than a third involved problems in “multiple organ systems,” with some experiencing “convulsions, muscle tremors, and loss of control of bodily movements.” Ten percent of those pets died or were euthanized after wearing the collar.
Pet owners, too, experienced adverse effects after coming into contact with the collar, according to the congressional report. Symptoms included hives and dermatitis, but also more serious problems like “respiratory, neurological, and digestive effects, with throat irritation, breathing difficulty, dizziness, and nausea.”
“Notably, these observed effects on humans were consistent with clinical studies into Imidacloprid –one of the collar’s main active ingredients,” the congressional report said.
The Canadian agency also factored in Seresto’s sales data and found that its collars had an incident rate of 36 to 65 incidents per 10,000 collars sold. PMRA considers one incident per 10,000 collars sold as indicative of a potential problem, the report stated. By comparison, 15 pet collars sold in Canada at the time averaged 0.07 incidents per 10,000 collars sold.
“Seresto’s incident numbers were also trending in the wrong direction: PMRA expressed ‘additional concern’ over the fact that Seresto’s total incident numbers had nearly doubled every year since 2013,” according to the congressional report.
The EPA’s own peer review of Canada’s analysis “found an even stronger connection between Seresto collar use and deaths,” the report said. The Canadian agency had examined 251 pet deaths linked to Seresto and determined that 33% of them were “probably or possibly” caused by the collar. When the EPA independently reviewed the same 251 pet deaths, it “concluded that 45% – or 113 – of the deaths were probably or possibly caused by the collar.”
Yet the EPA did nothing to warn the public and did not require Bayer — and later Elanco — to do anything differently to make its product safer or place a warning label on the packaging as countries like Colombia and Australia had required, the congressional report noted.
For example, the EPA proposed in 2019 that Bayer separate its registrations for the collar so that there was one for cats and one for dogs. The rationale being that the EPA could better analyze incident data for the different products. Bayer rejected this proposal, citing the administrative burden it would cause. The EPA thanked the company for its consideration and backed down, according to the congressional report.
The EPA also asked Bayer to update Seresto’s warning label as it had done in other countries. Germany’s label, for example, notes the collar poses neurological risks; Colombia’s label calls it highly toxic; Australia’s label simply says “POISON.” Bayer, and later Elanco, refused this proposal, and the label remained unchanged, the report said.
The congressional report also states that documents obtained by the subcommittee “show that Bayer and Elanco relied on dubious justifications to explain adverse incidents caused by the Seresto collar” and called into question its claim about the “Weber effect.”
The Weber Effect is a theory that “the number of incidents linked to a product will peak at the end of the second year after regulatory approval, followed by a steady decline as the market becomes familiar with the product,” the report states. But when Bayer continued to use this justification during a July 2019 meeting between the company and the EPA, reported animal deaths had continued to climb each of the seven years the collar had been on the market.
But Elanco said in a statement to USA TODAY and Investigate Midwest that the rate of incident reports has been decreasing. According to the company's own numbers, McGrath Happe said, the rate was was 17.26 per 10,000 collars sold in 2021.
"That’s less than a fifth of 1% reporting rate across-the-board," she said. "More than 93% of incident reports received for Seresto pet collars in the U.S. from January 2013 to December 2021 are classified after careful analysis as 'minor' (70.65%) or 'moderate' (22.59%), with the vast majority being redness or irritation at the site of the collar. In analyzing all reports, the data show no established link between the active ingredients in Seresto and pet death."
In addition to its demands that Elanco voluntarily recall its collar and the EPA cancel the product’s registration, the subcommittee also recommends that the EPA change the way it collects incident data and allocates necessary resources to investigate these incidents.
“Following the Subcommittee’s disturbing findings,” Krishnamoorthi said, “I believe the EPA must expand its data collection standards and more strictly follow its scientific review process to ensure that dangerous products are not permitted to stay on the market and threaten the welfare of pets that so many Americans view as family.”
A sister airline of British Airways struck a deal to buy 10 helium airships.
Air Nostrum signed the deal with a British company called Hybrid Air Vehicles.
The helium-filled airships could be transporting passengers in Spain as soon as 2026, the firm said.
Passengers in Spain could soon be boarding airships instead of jets for short-haul flights.
Air Nostrum, an airline owned by the same company as British Airways, ordered 10 helium airships to be used for regional travel.
It is the first order for the Airlander airships that will be made by Hybrid Air Vehicles, a British company part-backed by Iron Maiden frontman and qualified commercial pilot Bruce Dickinson.
Production of the 100-seat Airlander 10, which can spend up to five days aloft, is due to start in northern England later this year.
The airships could start flying passengers on routes such as Barcelona to the Mediterranean island of Mallorca as soon as 2026.
The Airlander 10 has a helium-filled hull and uses combustion engines that burn jet fuel, but the company said it planned to switch to electric engines to reduce carbon emissions by 2030.
Trips on the airships would be considerably slower than on passenger jets, but be much greener.
Air Nostrum's president, Carlos Bertomeu, said the deal was struck on the basis that the airships would "drastically reduce emissions."
A prototype of the Airlander has flown on six test flights, but it crashed in 2016 on its second outing and two people were hurt when it broke free from its moorings the following year.
However, its design has been approved by European regulators.
Teslas using driver-assist systems were involved in 273 crashes over the past 9 months, according to NHTSA
Matt McFarland - CNN
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released on Wednesday nine months of crash data from vehicles using driver-assist technologies like Tesla Autopilot as well as fully autonomous vehicles like Waymo’s robotaxis.
NHTSA broke crash data into two categories based on the level of the autonomous systems: driver-assist systems – which offer speed and steering input – and fully autonomous technologies, which are intended to one day safely function without human intervention. NHTSA found that there have been 367 crashes in the last nine months involving vehicles that were using these driver-assist technologies. 273 of the incidents involved a Tesla system, either its “full self-driving” software or its precursor, Tesla Autopilot.
There were 130 crashes involving fully automated driving systems, 62 of which were Waymo crashes. Transdev, a shuttle operator, reported 34 crashes, and Cruise, which offers robotaxis for General Motors in San Francisco, reported 23.
The data lacks critical context like fleet size or the number of miles traveled, making it impossible to fairly compare the safety of the different technologies. Not all relevant crashes may be included in the data set, NHTSA said, because crash data recording may vary widely among manufacturers.
“I would advise caution before attempting to draw conclusions based only on the data we’re releasing. In fact, the data alone may raise more questions than they answer,” NHTSA administrator Steven Cliff told reporters in a briefing Tuesday.
Two of the technologies with the most reported crashes are also two of the most commonly used systems. Tesla Autopilot, for example, comes standard on all of its vehicles, unlike competing driver-assist systems from other automakers. Drivers describe using Autopilot regularly because they say it can make them feel less fatigued after long drives. Waymo, the other company with the most total crashes, operates the most extensive robotaxi service in the country, with operations in much of metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona and San Francisco.
For the first time, automakers and robotaxi operators have had to report to NHTSA data about crashes involving these vehicles. NHTSA says it will use the data to identify safety issues and intervene as necessary. Pony.ai, which is testing robotaxis in California, recalled three of its vehicles this year following data NHTSA gathered from this process.
Of the 497 crashes total, 43% occurred in California. The state is home to Silicon Valley, making it a hotspot for testing new technologies.
NHTSA found that of the 367 driver-assist crashes reported, there were six fatalities and five serious injuries.
The safety risks of these new technologies have drawn the attention of safety advocates for years. There are not specific regulations for driver-assist systems, leaving automakers to market and describe the systems as they so choose.
Tesla’s Autopilot and “full self-driving” software have been especially controversial. NHTSA’s investigation into Teslas rear-ending first responders’ vehicles was expanded last week and could lead to a recall.
The National Transportation Safety Board has investigated fatal crashes involving Autopilot and called for the automaker to make changes, such as developing technology to more effectively sense the driver’s level of engagement and alert them when their engagement is lacking.
Tesla has released data since 2018 claiming that Autopilot has a lower crash rate per mile than typical driving. But safety experts caution that Tesla’s analysis compares apples to oranges, as most Autopilot driving takes place on highways, where crash rates per mile are much lower than all driving.
Tesla states that drivers using Autopilot must remain alert and be prepared to take full control of the vehicle at a moment’s notice. However, drivers using technologies like Autopilot risk becoming distracted, experts say.
A 2021 MIT study found that Tesla drivers looked away from the road more frequently while using Autopilot than when driving without the driver-assist system.
NHTSA said that its investigation into Teslas rear-ending emergency vehicles while using Autopilot found that in 37 of 43 crashes with detailed car log data available, drivers had their hands on the wheel in the last second prior to the collision.
For years, Tesla detected torque on the wheel to determine if a driver was engaged. It’s begun to use an in-car camera for detecting distraction, which many safety experts say is a superior method, as cameras can track eye movement.
“We see value in having nationally standardized and uniform crash reporting during this early stage of the development and deployment of autonomous driving technology, and there’s public benefit in NHTSA sharing its findings,” Waymo said in response to the data. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
Why we may never stop getting COVID: What we know about reinfections and immunity
Sharon Kirkey -NATIONAL POST
Many Canadians are wondering if we will ever see an end to COVID-19. Experts say there are various factors that keep the virus coming back.
“I feel okay,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assured Canadians Monday while sharing his second COVID-19 positive test since January, joining growing numbers reporting repeated tangles with COVID. “He’s not alone,” said Dr. Catherine Hankins, co-chair of Canada’s Immunity Task Force. Nearly nine million adults in Canada had been infected with “parental” Omicron, BA.1, by mid-March, according to task force-funded research published in the New England Journal of Medicine. “Most people who got BA.1 might have thought, ‘I’m good now for a bit.’ But it depends on what the virus throws at us,” Hankins said, and SARS-CoV-2 has proven gifted at reinfecting people by mutating and darting around immunity from vaccines and previous infections. COVID infections also don’t always jog the immune system. Another study funded by Hankins’ group found that one in eight people with COVID did not develop detectable antibodies. The only predictor of an inability to create antibodies? No fever or chills. “We will probably never stop getting COVID,” said Matthew Miller, holder of the Canada Research Chair in viral pandemics at Hamilton’s McMaster University. How often we get reinfected will depend how quickly SARS-CoV-2 mutates in the future and how long immunity lasts, he said. “Both issues are a little bit uncertain at the moment,” though it’s possible to make some reasonable predictions, he said. The National Post’s Sharon Kirkey spoke with Miller, Hankins and London, Ont., infectious diseases physician Dr. Sameer Elsayed about how long reinfections are expected to keep happening.
Why are people reporting second, third, even fourth COVID infections?
“Viruses like smallpox and polio (which can be eliminated) do not generate ‘variants’ capable of escaping immunity in the same way as coronaviruses,” said Miller.
Alpha, Beta, Delta and then the remarkably contagious Omicron. The rapid-fire emergence of new variants has largely been driven by the “massive number of infections that have happened globally over the past couple of years,” Miller said.
Heavily mutated Omicron was more transmissible than Delta, and its subvariants BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5, appear more efficient spreaders still. The recent sixth wave was propelled by the BA.2 subvariant, and BA.1 infections didn’t entirely prevent people from getting reinfected with BA.2. “When BA.2 came around, it did evade immunity in some people,” Hankins said, including hybrid immunity — a past infection, along with two or three shots. “That’s why you have these one-after-the-other infections.” (Trudeau has received three vaccine doses.)
Unlike the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine that tends to be durable for life, antibodies induced by COVID-19 vaccines drop off. “There’s not a magic number; people round things up to three months, six months,” said Elsayed, a professor at Western University and a physician with London Health Sciences Centre. “You need more boosters to get your immune system strong and able to fight some of these variants that the vaccines weren’t initially made for.”
“We’re not necessarily recommending that everyone get fourth boosters or fourth doses,” he said. We’re hitting the tail end of Omicron, and, theoretically, too many boosters could over activate the immune system. “I don’t want people to misinterpret what I’m saying — we 100 per cent support vaccination,” Elsayed said. “But there’s a limit to how many boosters one should get.”
Evidence from South Africa suggests the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants, the fastest growing strains in the United States, the United Kingdom and other parts of the world, are able to dodge immunity from BA.2 infections. “We’re not seeing a lot of it yet (in Canada), so we’ve got our fingers crossed,” said Hankins, an epidemiologist and professor of public and population health at McGill University. “But for people who think, ‘It’s a done deal now, I’m giving up.’ This is not the time to give up. We still have quite a lot of the population that hasn’t been infected,” Hankins said. “You do not want to get an infection.” Statistics Canada reported a jump in excess deaths in January, and nobody wants to get long COVID if they can avoid it. “And every infection means the potential to transmit to other people who may be potentially more vulnerable than you to develop a severe outcome,” she said.
Are repeat infections less severe?
“People are trying to get a feel for that,” Hankins said. Reinfections “only rarely land people in hospital, but the experience can nonetheless be miserable and disruptive,” University of Arizona immunologist Dr. Deepta Bhattacharya wrote in The New York Times this week. Omicron and its subvariants tend to infect the upper respiratory tract, rather than deeper in the lungs, making symptoms less severe, and less serious still, even “nonexistent,” for the vaccinated and boosted.
“I think it’s reasonable to expect that, in general, infections will be much less severe than we observed early in the pandemic, because even if our immune responses do not provide perfect protection against reinfection, they do protect very well against severe illness,” Miller said. “As more people are vaccinated, infected, or combinations thereof, we will be increasingly protected as a population.” During the Omicron wave, the unvaccinated with a previous infection had a higher chance of getting reinfected, compared to the vaccinated.
There are still questions to be answered about long COVID and whether repeat infections increase the risk. It likely depends more on the severity of the infections rather than necessarily how many, Elsayed said. Whether re-infection can cause a rebound of long COVID in some people also isn’t entirely clear.
“Trudeau is isolating himself appropriately, and he sent the proper messaging, from an infection control point of view,” Elsayed said. “He has a mild illness not requiring hospitalizations.” Reinfections tend to feel like a mild cold, he said. “Now, I know people who’ve been triple vaccinated who have been much sicker than Trudeau who had to stay home. But in terms of people coming to hospital, being admitted to hospital, that’s very, very rare for an otherwise healthy person who is fully vaccinated. It’s not uncommon for someone who isn’t vaccinated.”
Could some people keep getting infected every few months?
“It depends on the exposure. There’s not a lot of Omicron circulating around now compared to before,” Elsayed said. Omicron, which is transmitted through the air, is 100 times more contagious than the other virus everyone is talking about, monkeypox, which is not thought to be airborne. Hankins said it’s about living with COVID smartly: Assess the situation you’re in, decide when to wear a mask, when to avoid a crowded, poorly ventilated place. “Use your own judgment, and when you’re eligible for a dose of vaccine, get that vaccine because it will boost your immunity.”
“I think we should expect that evolution of new variants to slow down as the virus becomes endemic,” Miller said. “As rates of infection decline, the opportunity for new variants to emerge will also decline, which should prolong protection our immune system offers from re-infection.”
COACHING IS ABUSE
Minister St-Onge announces creation of Sport Canada athletes commission
Yesterday The Canadian Press
Canada's sport minister Pascale St-Onge emphasized once again that the athlete voice is critical in changing the sports culture in this country.
St-Onge announced a couple of safe-sport initiatives on Sunday, including the creation of an athlete advisory committee within Sport Canada to amplify athlete voices.
The minister said participation with the new Office of the Integrity Commissioner (OSIC), which will become operational on Monday, will gradually become mandatory for all national sport organizations.
St-Onge also plans to review Sport Canada's funding agreements with NSO's to "ensure that the standards in matters of governance, accountability and security are reached."
"We're all working towards breaking that culture of silence," St-Onge said. "So let's make sure that the athletes can speak out and feel free to do it. There's no reason to keep them from talking about their situation and what they're going through."
St-Onge spoke at the culmination of the Canadian Olympic Committee's annual session in Montreal. The COC announced a day earlier that it's investing $10 million into safe sport initiatives amid what St-Onge has called a safe sport "crisis" in Canada.
Hundreds of athletes in gymnastics, boxing, and bobsled and skeleton have called for independent investigations into their sports in recent weeks.
"The biggest theme is that athletes feel unheard and unseen. And so even as a starting point being asked what our experiences are, what our perspectives are, what our ideas are for change is critically important," said Rosie MacLennan, a two-time Olympic trampoline champion and chair of the COC's athletes commission.
"None of us want to see this system fail. We're all truly passionate about the sport system. We all truly love it … but, the theme has been that athletes feel unheard and unseen. And I'm excited that that is now shifting."
Earlier in the week, bobsled and skeleton athletes raised the issue of non-disparagement clauses in the athlete agreements they're required to sign. St-Onge had told The Canadian Press that NDAs are contrary to the very principles of safe sport.
She said Sunday that NDAs will be part of the conversation ahead of the next funding agreement with NSOs, and that they are "a preoccupation by the athletes that I heard quite clearly."
Asked about athletes who are required to sign NDAs before then — Canada's bobsled and skeleton athletes must sign athlete agreements to report for training camps in early July — St-Onge said "it's time that athletes and the NSOs have conversations about this and that they can clear the air. If some are signing new contracts right now, let's try to change that."
"We shouldn't be afraid of what athletes have to say," the minister said. "Because every time that (athletes speak out), it's an opportunity to make changes and to be better, and to ensure the safety and bring the trust back in the system, and making sure that parents trust us to send their kids to practise sport.
"Because it's so important in one person's development, whether it's for a psychological reason or physical health. We need sport in life. So we can't fail (in) this."
The Canadian gymnasts who requested an independent investigation in late-March — an original group of 70 that has grown to more than 400 in recent weeks — said Sunday's announcements don't go far enough in addressing their concerns.
"Everything discussed today means that abuse will have already happened and the burden rests with the athletes to see a complaint through a difficult process," the group, operating as Gymnasts for Change Canada, said in a statement. "We still have 1,000-plus Canadian athletes waiting for resolution to existing problems that won't and can't be address by a process that is only looking forward.
"If we don't examine the past, there is no opportunity to make amends, assist with healing, and … be very clear on how to recognize the signs so the culture of abuse that so many of us have experienced does not re-emerge. Ever."
While Sport Canada only oversees national organizations that receive federal funding, St-Onge plans to hold discussions about safe sport with provincial and territorial federations at the Canada Summer Games in August.
David Shoemaker, the COC's CEO and secretary-general, said Canadian sport has never been about winning at all costs.
"For the Canadian Olympic Committee, it's always been about winning the right way," he said. "We believe that we can relentlessly pursue Olympic and Paralympic performance, to get athletes and Canadian teams on podiums and, at the same time, relentlessly pursue a safe and healthy sport culture in Canada.
"What's at stake for us here is a country that can be proud of the athletes that represent it on the world stage."
Erin Willson, the president of AthletesCAN, the association representing Canadian athletes, called the weekend's meetings an "encouraging step."
She acknowledged there's concerns about the backlog of cases OSIC could face once it starts receiving complaints later this month. But she thought the creation of the athletes commission was a positive step.
"It really signifies this idea that athletes are having a more formalized voice in the system," she said. I think that has been something that we've learned this weekend, it's really, really been missing."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2022.
Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said national sport organizations will have to participate in OSIC by April 1, 2023. In fact, participation will become mandatory on a gradual basis and not by an April 1, 2023 deadline.
High school students across Canada to be trained on how to administer naloxone
Yesterday The Canadian Press
MONTREAL — Hundreds of thousands of high school students in Canada will be given training on how to respond to someone overdosing on opioids, including on how to administer naloxone — a drug used to reverse the effects of overdoses. The Advanced Coronary Treatment Foundation is announcing Tuesday that its new training program will be added to the CPR and automated external defibrillator training it offers for free in high schools across the country. Each year, in addition to learning how to administer naloxone, about 350,000 students will learn about opioids and how to identify when to call 911, when to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation and when to give naloxone. The training will first be deployed in Quebec, Alberta, Ontario, and British Columbia before expanding to other provinces.
“The (opioid) crisis is very real,” Jocelyn Barriault, the medical director of the foundation, said in a recent interview. The Public Health Agency of Canada reported more than 5,386 deaths related to opioids between January and September 2021. The majority of the deaths — 94 per cent — were accidental.
"Cardiac arrests … it doesn't happen to young people that much," Barriault said. "But with opioids, there's a lot of chance that it's a peer … that it happens at school or at a party.
If a young person is confronted with someone suffering from heart failure, Barriault said, he or she will be trained on how to administer naloxone nasally. "And we hope it's going to work; but if we don't do anything, it's clear it won't."
Barriault said the training, which was developed after a successful pilot project in Ottawa involving 186 students and 15 teachers in 2019, will be an opportunity to teach young people how to react in emergency situations and on the risks of opioids. Carole Nadeau, who is leading the training program in Quebec, said between 1,000 to 1,500 Quebec teachers will be trained on how to teach the program to about 70,000 students each year in the province.
"We have done training at 141 schools, which represents 405 teachers that are ready to teach all of their students about opioids," Nadeau said. "It's a lot of people."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 14, 2022.
Jean-Benoit Legault, The Canadian Press
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said students were being trained to inject naloxone but the drug will be administered nasally.
Natural gas plummets as Freeport delays facility restart following explosion
Pippa Stevens - Yesterday
Natural gas prices plunged on Tuesday, after Freeport LNG said its facility that had a fire last week likely won't be back up and running soon.
"[C]ompletion of all necessary repairs and a return to full plant operations is not expected until late 2022," the company said Tuesday in a statement. The facility, located in Quintana Island, Texas, had an explosion last Wednesday.
"Given the relatively contained area of the facility physically impacted by the incident, a resumption of partial operations is targeted to be achieved in approximately 90 days," Freeport LNG said.
U.S. natural gas fell about 16% to $7.22 per million British thermal units (MMBtu).
We have the supply to meet natural gas demand, the question is at what price, says EQT CEO
"The U.S. natural gas market will now be temporarily oversupplied as 2 bcf/d or a little over 2% of demand for U.S. natural gas has been abruptly eliminated," said Rob Thummel, managing director at Tortoise Capital.
"U.S. natural gas supply will likely remain at current levels as producers won't reduce production by 2 bcf/d. The result is an oversupplied U.S. natural gas market," he added.
Freeport's operation is roughly 17% of the U.S.' LNG processing capacity.
Despite Tuesday's drop, natural gas prices are still up 93% since the start of the year. Demand has rebounded as worldwide economies emerge from the pandemic, while supply has remained constrained.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine upended a market that was already tight. As Europe looks to move away from Russian energy, record amounts of U.S. LNG are now heading to the continent.
Surging prices are adding to inflationary pressures across the economy. Drivers are already grappling with record prices at the pump with the national average for a gallon of gas topping $5 over the weekend, and now utility bills are also set to rise.
Natural gas prices surged above $9 per MMBtu in May, hitting the highest level since August 2008.
After the explosion at Freeport's facility last week, the company initially said the plant would be shut for several weeks.
"The incident occurred in pipe racks that support the transfer of LNG from the facility's LNG storage tank area to the terminal's dock facilities," the company said Tuesday. "None of the liquefaction trains, LNG storage tanks, dock facilities, or LNG process areas were impacted," the company added.
The people who want to be Alberta premier: A list of UCP leadership candidates
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EDMONTON — The United Conservative Party on Tuesday announced rules for a leadership contest to be held on Oct. 6 to choose a new leader and the province's next premier. The race became necessary when Premier Jason Kenney announced last month that he was stepping down after he received 51.4 per cent support in a leadership review. Here is a list of the candidates who have so far declared they want his job:
Leela Aheer: UCP backbench member of the legislature for Chestermere-Strathmore. Was member of Kenney's original cabinet as minister for culture, multiculturalism and the status of women. Removed from cabinet in 2021 after criticizing Kenney’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Promises to restore trust in the party and to work to help the underprivileged. Brian Jean: UCP backbench member for Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche. Former Wildrose party leader and co-founder of the UCP when his party merged with Kenney’s Progressive Conservatives in 2017. Lost to Kenney in first UCP leadership race. Promises to unite the party on shared grassroots ideals and principles. Todd Loewen: Backbench member for Central Peace-Notley constituency. Sits as an Independent after being voted out of UCP caucus in 2021 for urging Kenney to resign. Promises to restore trust in party, push for greater Alberta autonomy in dealings with Ottawa. Bill Rock: Mayor of the village of Amisk in east-central Alberta. Ran unsuccessfully for Wildrose party in 2015. Running on platform to advocate for rural Albertans on issues including crime and health care. Rajan Sawhney: UCP legislature member representing Calgary-North East. Was member of Kenney's cabinet, first as minister for community and social services, then in transportation. Promises to hold public inquiry into Alberta’s COVID-19 response. Rebecca Schulz: UCP member for Calgary-Shaw. Was in cabinet as minister of children’s services. Promises to continue fight for better deal with federal government, to improve economy and to rebuild trust with Albertans and party faithful. Danielle Smith: Former Wildrose party leader who led floor-crossing to Progressive Conservatives in 2014. Has since worked in business and as a radio talk-show host. Promises grassroots participation in party and to pursue increased Alberta independence within Confederation. Travis Toews: UCP member representing Grande-Prairie Wapiti. Accountant and rancher. Had been finance minister since the start of the UCP government. Promises to heal rifts in party and restore trust with Albertans, while maintaining fiscal honesty.
Note: Sawhney, Schulz and Toews stepped down from cabinet to avoid potential conflict of interest during the leadership run.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 14, 2022.
