COVID-19

Martha Fulford

Schools should not be closed due to COVID-19 because children are at low risk of serious harm from the disease and do not spread it to others to a significant degree. In fact, closing schools causes far more harm to children than it prevents.

Jennifer Grant

Closing schools violates two rights safeguarded in the Convention on the International Rights of the Child. By infringing these rights, we have caused serious harm to our kids, despite the fact that schools never posed a serious danger to kids or the community at large.

Vaccines: A Christmas wish for our children

Many parents are hesitant to vaccinate their children. But choosing not to get a vaccine is not a risk-free choice, but rather a choice to take another, more serious risk. In fact, it could be one of the most important health decisions parents will make.

As the pandemic landscape shifts, what about the children?

Life hasn’t gone back to normal – it’s moved to another new normal. So how can we support our kids in this new phase of the pandemic? One way is to ease up on academic pressures. Instead of getting our kids caught up, we need to catch up with our kids.

A shortcut to immunity: St. Joe’s clinic saving lives through early-stage COVID-19 treatment

Could monoclonal antibody therapy help shore up health-care system capacity by stopping COVID-19 in its tracks among the unvaccinated and immunocompromised? A pilot program is hoping to do just that.

Children’s visits to emergency departments surge as winter looms

Pediatric emergency departments are seeing record numbers of visits since some families can’t see their family doctors or go to walk-in clinics. More patients mean longer waits, hindering care for some children with emergency conditions.

Kali Barrett

Vaccines must be mandatory in all health-care settings in order to protect patients, protect health-care workers and prevent future health-care worker shortages. Furthermore, hospitals are temples of science, and we need to make decisions based on science – such as mandating vaccination.

Allison McGeer

Vaccine mandates will lead good health-care workers to be fired, thereby exacerbating systemic inequities – and all for a rationale that appeals to patient safety but which does not always stand up to scrutiny. We also can't allow vaccine mandates to send the message that we no longer need to use multiple complementary infection-control measures.

Amit Arya

Vaccinations should be mandatory for all health-care workers because they will keep vulnerable patients safe. We know this from our experience successfully mandating vaccination among staff in long-term care. Furthermore, vaccine mandates should not be blamed for staff shortages in the health-care system.

Stefan Baral

Mandating COVID-19 vaccines amounts to a passive and insensitive infection-control measure that does not address the real drivers of COVID-19 infection. Moreover, it deviates from the core principles of public health, eroding trust between public health and those it serves.

Secondary losses: The impact of the pandemic on Canadians with cancer

We're only beginning to understand the "secondary losses" of the pandemic. The immediate future of health care will likely be defined by the appearance of illnesses that flourished among the forgotten, patients who were inadvertently neglected.

Vaccination among the pregnant lagging despite growing evidence of safety and efficacy

Despite data showing the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine for pregnant women, uptake is still lagging. Here are some of the reasons why.

‘For the virus, one person is the entire environment’: The emergence of Omicron

Some virologists hypothesize that Omicron and other variants of concern emerged after mutating within an immunosuppressed person. The solution, they say, is to get vaccines to under-vaccinated countries.

We’re not safe until we’re all safe: Canada must live up to global vaccine commitments

Global vaccine inequity is not just wrong, but also dangerous. As Omicron is showing us, we aren’t safe until we’re all safe. Here's how Canada can contribute to global vaccine equity now.

The “best years of our lives”

When asking adults about the best years of their lives, I bet they don't bring up their marks in chemistry, but the memories, mistakes and friends they made during the times they weren’t studying for that upcoming trig 2 test. The best years of their lives are the years that me and my fellow seniors will never get back.

Looking on the bright side

I took this time to realize what self-care actually is. From the beginning of the pandemic all the way until September 2020, I grew as a person. Being away from people allowed me to focus on myself. Since I barely had anything to do, I picked up a handful of different hobbies, which before I could never see myself doing.

Blank 67

It’s been over 500 days since I held someone and not just someone; anyone / this world filled with change / and I'm having a hard time catching up / faces behind masks hiding away from the pain of our reality yet we grow older / grow bolder / and grow in our separate ways without growing apart

Did I just have a dream?

Spring’s the season, but grey’s the hue, / It feels like animals trapped in a zoo! / Stuck in our homes just like glue, / We shall live through history, who knew?

Self-reflection during COVID-19

I now look back at COVID and look at it in a more positive light. I reconnected with some old friends of mine that I would've never stayed in contact with, my mental health improved and I learned a lot about myself. I now appreciate the little things a lot more.

Passing seasons

While news reports blared the newest case counts and the lives lost, I was trying to gain traction in the ever-deteriorating and demanding world of online learning. From “you’re muted” to “sorry, my wifi cut out,” I realized that this was the new “normal.” With no recovery in sight, I realized the things I missed the most, were the ones I cherished the least.