Metrolinx says a limited number of GO bus trips are expected to be cancelled Monday as a number of employees who have not complied with its vaccination policy will be out of work.
Metrolinx employees are required to be fully vaccinated or provide proof of a medical exemption by Nov. 1. Those who do not comply with the policy will be placed on unpaid leave.
The transit agency says most of its employees are fully vaccinated, but the number of employees who remain unvaccinated or have not disclosed their status is enough to cause disruptions, particularly on its bus network.
According to Metrolinx, 97.1 per cent of its 4,600 employees have submitted their vaccination attestation as of Oct. 29, and of those, 95. 4 per cent are fully vaccinated.
With the vaccination numbers it has, the agency says it will be necessary to cancel about six per cent of its 1,417 daily bus trips. The agency added that there may also be intermittent train trips cancelled.
"We expect the impact to be minimal as we are working hard to strategically choose a variety of trips across the region that have low ridership and have other bus and rail options available for customers," Metrolinx said in a statement.
"Our priority continues to be to ensure our service can get people to where they need to go safely and to minimize any impact to their schedules."
Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said the agency does not know which trips will be affected as it does not have the final number of employees who will be placed on unpaid leave.
However, Aikins noted that cancellations will be spread out across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area," so no particular customers will feel all the impact of it."
"Customers are encouraged to plan ahead, check the website for service updates before leaving home and sign up for On The GO alerts," the Crown agency said.
"We will communicate any impacts to services regularly with customers."
We're preparing for operational impacts tomorrow to our #GOBus service that will result in the cancellation of some trips. We're doing our best to minimize the impacts to service. We'LL send updated messages to any routes with cancellations. Follow us @GOtransitBus for updates.
TORONTO --
New research into the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 booster shot suggests getting a third dose significantly reduces the risk of disease-related hospitalization and death.
Conducted by Israel’s Clalit Research Institute in collaboration with researchers at Harvard University, the study compared data from 728,321 individuals age 12 and older who received a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine with the same number of people who received only two doses at least five months prior.
According to the study, receiving the Pfizer booster shot reduced COVID-related hospitalization by 93 per cent, COVID-related death by 81 per cent, and severe COVID-19 illness by 92 per cent, compared with receiving just two doses.
“These results show convincingly that the third dose of the vaccine is highly effective against severe COVID-19-related outcomes in different age groups and population subgroups, one week after the third dose,” said Ran Balicer, senior author of the study and director of the Clalit Research Institute, in a press release.
The study took place in Israel from July 30 through Sept. 23. Researchers looked at the number of COVID-19-related hospital admissions, deaths and severity of disease based on criteria from the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The study also found that a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine reduced the risk of COVID-19 infection by 88 per cent.
“To date, one of the main drivers of vaccine hesitancy has been a lack of information regarding the effectiveness of the vaccine,” said Ben Reis, director of the Predictive Medicine Group at Harvard Medical School and the Boston Children's Hospital Computational Health Informatics Program, in the press release. “This careful epidemiological study provides reliable information on third-dose vaccine effectiveness, which we hope will be helpful to those who have not yet decided about vaccination with a third dose.”
Researchers, however, do note that the rate of COVID-19 hospitalization and severe disease among those age 16 to 39 was too small to determine the booster’s effectiveness. The study also did not include health-care workers, those living in long-term care facilities or people medically confined to their homes. These groups are often more vulnerable to contracting the disease, and likely to be targeted early to receive a booster shot.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization suggested on Oct. 29 that provinces offer mRNA vaccine booster shots to Canadians who are aged 70 and up, along with people who received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine or one dose of the Janssen vaccine and adults in First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities, at least six months after their primary vaccine course. Provinces across Canada have already begun outlining their third-dose policy for immunocompromised people.
American Airlines cancelled hundreds of flights Sunday for a third straight day as it struggled with staffing shortages and upended weekend plans for tens of thousands of travellers.
By late afternoon Sunday, American had canceled more than 900 flights -- one-third of its schedule for the day -- after scrapping nearly 900 flights over the previous two days, according to tracking service FlightAware.
A spokeswoman for American said the airline expects considerable improvement starting Monday, although there will be "some residual impact from the weekend." By Sunday afternoon, American had already canceled more than 100 Monday flights, according to FlightAware.
American's troubles began Thursday and Friday, when high winds at times shut down its busiest hub, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and prevented the airline from using all runways there. That made it difficult for American to get crews in position for upcoming flights, and caused disruptions. The number of canceled and delayed flights grew larger in number and geographic sweep throughout the weekend.
"To make sure we are taking care of our customers and providing scheduling certainty for our crews, we have adjusted our operation for the last few days this month by proactively canceling some flights," David Seymour, the airline's chief operating officer, said in a note to employees on Saturday.
About two-thirds of Sunday's cancellations were due to a lack of flight attendants in the right places, with almost all the remaining cancellations due to a shortage of pilots, according to internal figures seen by The Associated Press.
The nature of the debacle -- starting with bad weather in part of the country before spinning out of control -- was similar to disruptions at Southwest Airlines in early October. Together, the twin failures raised ominous questions about whether major airlines are prepared for the busy upcoming holiday travel period.
American says it will be.
Seymour said that nearly 1,800 flight attendants will begin returning to their jobs starting Monday and at least 600 new hires will be on board by the end of the year. He said the airline is also hiring pilots and reservations agents in time for the holidays.
Airlines were barred from laying off workers during the pandemic as a condition of billions in federal pandemic relief -- American temporarily furloughed 19,000 workers when the money lapsed last year, but reversed the furloughs when aid was restored. That, however, didn't stop the airlines from persuading thousands of employees to accept cash incentives and quit voluntarily. American, Southwest and others are now hiring employees to replace some of those who left in 2020.
American's labor unions have warned for months that the airline was scheduling more flights than its pared-down work force can handle, leaving employees spread too thinly when bad weather snarls air travel.
Dennis Tajer, an American Airlines pilot and spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, said the union had not seen such a high level of cancellations after storms had passed.
"Since the spring we have been warning of these post-weather management failures to recover, and it's just getting worse," he said. "We continue to be very concerned about the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming winter holiday travel season."
American planned about 2,600 flights Sunday, not counting regional affiliates that fly as American Eagle. That number is scheduled to jump to more than 3,000 flights on eight days around Thanksgiving and early December, according to aviation-data firm Cirium.
Earlier in October, Southwest canceled well over 2,000 flights after disruptions started with weather problems in Florida and were compounded by staffing shortages. Southwest's chief operating officer said the airline was pursuing "a very aggressive hiring plan" but was "still not where we want to be with staffing," especially pilots.
An IT systems outage is causing problems with a number of health-related services across Newfoundland and Labrador, causing delays, cancelled appointments and issues with COVID-19 testing.
In a news release Sunday evening, the Department of Health said it continues to assess the outage; however, the impacts to service vary by region.
In the Eastern Health region, all non-emergency procedures scheduled for Monday will be rescheduled for a later date. Patients travelling into the Eastern Health region for appointments should call 1-833-777-1276 to determine if your appointment is being rescheduled.
All appointments at Central Health facilities on Monday will be cancelled. Central Health patients with questions regarding appointments, procedures and surgeries scheduled for Monday may call 1-844-651-6214.
Telehealth and virtual appointments scheduled with Eastern Health and Central Health providers or services, like cancer care, will not proceed on Monday.
Chemotherapy appointments at Western Memorial Regional Hospital in Corner Brook, Sir Thomas Roddick Hospital in Stephenville and Dr. Charles L. LeGrow Health Centre in Port aux Basques will not proceed on Monday.
Routine laboratory and diagnostic imaging appointments on Monday in the Labrador-Grenfell Health region will be cancelled and rescheduled at a later date.
None of the province's regional health authorities are able to send or receive emails.
Some health services continuing
In-person dialysis, community-based services, mental health and addictions counselling services, vaccination clinics and maternal-fetal assessment unit appointments in the Eastern Health region will go ahead.
In-person dialysis will proceed at James Paton Memorial Regional Health Centre in Gander and Central Newfoundland Regional Health Centre in Grand Falls-Windsor.
In the Western and Labrador-Grenfell Health regions, clinical services and scheduled surgeries will continue as planned.
Western Health appointments for blood collection will proceed as scheduled.
COVID-19 documents impacted
Processing for COVID-19 forms and applications will continue — albeit on paper — including the travel form required for visitors, the form for COVID-19 testing and test results and the forms used to submit out of province vaccination documents.
The department first announced the outage Saturday night, as several parts of the province's online COVID-19 hub were first affected.
In a statement sent to CBC News on Saturday, the department said travellers arriving in the province with completed travel forms can provide the reference number from their documents, along with identification, when they arrive. If a form is not already completed when they arrive, travellers can use a paper copy.
Those who require COVID-19 testing should call 811, the department said.
The system that provides access to medical images like X-rays is also impacted by the IT outage affecting Newfoundland and Labrador's health authorities. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
The outage is also affecting operational, clinical and administrative systems used by the province's health authorities.
In a news release Saturday, Eastern Health said Meditech, the main information system used to manage patient care and finance information, is affected, as well as PACS, the system that provides access to medical images like X-rays.
Central Health said there could be delays in emergency services related to the outage, while Western Health said patient Wi-Fi is also affected.
Both the Health Department and the health authorities are working with the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information and Bell Aliant to try and resolve the issue.
The Department of Health did not respond to requests for interviews from CBC News on Sunday.
The department said Health Minister John Haggie and Eastern Health CEO David Diamond will provide a live-streamed update at 11 a.m. Monday.
General view of the Rogers Building, quarters of Rogers Communications in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 22, 2021. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio/File Photo
Oct 30 (Reuters) - In mid September, Rogers Communications Inc CEO Joe Natale called his then finance chief Tony Staffieri, who was discussing a secret plan to shake up Canada's biggest telecom company's board and senior management, including Natale.
Staffieri accidentally answered Natale's call.
That left the line open for 21 minutes as Natale listened to Staffieri detail the big upcoming management reshuffle which ex-chairman Edward Rogers had plotted, according to an affidavit filed by Rogers Chairman John MacDonald.
MacDonald's affidavit follows an Oct. 26 submission by Edward Rogers to the Supreme Court of British Columbia as the two factions fight for control of Rogers Communications' board. A hearing is due on Monday.
Soon after the call Natale convened a meeting with independent directors to discuss what he had overheard. He told them he had lost confidence in Staffieri and sought his termination.
Less than two weeks later, Staffieri left the company, even as Rogers was navigating its biggest ever M&A, the C$20 billion ($16.1 billion) bid for smaller rival Shaw Communications (SJRb.TO).
Staffieri's departure did not stop Edward, the only son of the company's late founder Ted Rogers, from pursuing his plans. In the ensuing battle, the board of directors, including his mother and two sisters, voted to remove Edward as chairman and replace him with lead independent director MacDonald, who backed Natale as CEO. read more
The details and the timeline revealed in MacDonald and Edward's affidavit capture the turmoil gripping Rogers Communications, and the wide rift and lack of trust within the family.
Differences within company boards and wealthy families are not unusual, but such a spat playing out in the open is rare in Canada and has caught investors and analysts by surprise and attracted the attention of regulators.
It has also weighed on Rogers shares, which are down 2.9% this year, compared with 17% gains for BCE Inc (BCE.TO) and a 12.6% rise for Telus Corp (T.TO) in the same period.
S&P Global Ratings said the distractions could hinder Rogers' ability to raise capital while also navigating regulatory hurdles before it can complete the Shaw deal.
Responding to his removal as chairman, Edward used his position as chair of the family-owned Rogers Control Trust, which owns the majority of voting shares in the company, to constitute a new board, which recognized him as chairman. He then petitioned the Supreme Court of British Columbia, where the company is incorporated, to legitimize the new board.
The sequence of events outlined in court filings differ, but the common thread is Edward apparently falling out with the family's matriarch, Loretta Rogers, as well as with his sisters Melinda Rogers-Hixon and Martha Rogers.
Spokesmen for Edward Rogers and other family members declined to comment, while Rogers Communications was not available for immediate comment.
In his affidavit, Edward said Natale had failed to turnaround the business and that the board agreed to replace Natale as CEO. Loretta Rogers said her decision initially to support Edward was based on wrong and incomplete information provided by Edward, and that she changed her view on learning additional facts and continues to back Natale.
In MacDonald's affidavit he said the board and family members had not voted to terminate Natale, and that instead they believed he had "exceeded his goals" as CEO.
(This story has been refiled to add editing credit)
OTTAWA --
While Canada is likely still several weeks away from rolling out a COVID-19 vaccine for kids between 5 and 11, there are growing calls already to add the COVID-19 shot to the list of mandatory immunizations in schools.
There is no firm date yet, but with a Health Canada review underway for a vaccine safe for children, it's expected they'll be rolling up their sleeves before the end of the year.
"We're at the state where most public health units are already well into planning for administering these vaccines," said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, infectious diseases physician.
"This vaccine will help reduce transmission and viral loads in kids, big improvement and big step forward," added Dr. Ronald St. John, former federal manager to the SARS response in Canada.
The Pfizer formula could get the green light as early as mid-November but experts say the uptake will be critical to a successful inoculation campaign of younger Canadians.
"There's probably about 25 per cent of people who will likely get vaccinated but still have questions or wanna see more time before they get vaccinated and then, of course, there's going to be people who choose to not get their kids vaccinated," said Dr. Bogoch.
With projections of a November authorization, there are calls already to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of mandatory immunizations in Ontario's schools.
In a letter to the province, the Ontario Public School Board's Association said, "We encourage the government to move forward on making this important change as soon as possible."
Locally, the Ottawa Carleton District School Board sent its own letter, making the same request.
"For the past 18 months, the impact of COVID-19 has affected the safety and wellbeing of Ontario students and their families as well as their access to education, to devastating effect," said the letter from the OCDSB.
"I would suggest that we encourage people as much as possible to have their children vaccinated," said Dr. St. John.
"When we talk about mandates it's always a bit of a sticky issue, especially with paediatric vaccines. This will likely be on the list of mandated vaccines sometime in the future, it isn't this year," added Dr. Bogoch.
The province has said it won't make the vaccine mandatory yet, instead it will put the emphasis on education and accessibility.
In the capital, Ottawa Public Health continues to push for parents to get their kids immunized as soon as they're eligible.
In a statement to CTV News OPH said, "When we talk about mandates it's always a bit of a sticky issue especially with paediatric vaccines. This will likely be on the list of mandated vaccines sometime in the future, it isn't this year."
"With the FDA's acknowledgment that it's safe to use, I think we have to explain to people why that is. The safety profile of this reduced dose by Pfizer is very good," said Dr. St. John.
In the U.S., the Pfizer vaccine for kids has FDA authorization and is now waiting for the CDC to sign off. Its expected shots could be going into children's arms there as early as mid-next week.
Hospitalized patients who weren't vaccinated but previously had COVID were about five times more likely to test positive than people who had been vaccinated, the study found
Author of the article:
Bloomberg News
John Tozzi
Publishing date:
Oct 29, 2021 • 20 hours ago • 1 minute read • 354 Comments
The study of 7,000 adults hospitalized with COVID-like symptoms compared how many tested positive for the virus with rates of vaccination and prior infection.Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images/File
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A new study offers more evidence that COVID-19 vaccines provide stronger protection against hospitalization than immunity from an earlier infection, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
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Hospitalized patients who weren’t vaccinated but had been previously infected with COVID were about five times more likely to test positive for the infection than people who had been vaccinated, according to the CDC study.
The CDC has long recommended that people get vaccinated even if they have already had COVID-19.
Article content
“We now have additional evidence that reaffirms the importance of COVID-19 vaccines, even if you have had prior infection,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. “This study adds more to the body of knowledge demonstrating the protection of vaccines against severe disease from COVID-19.”
The Toronto Transit Commission's Wheel-Trans online booking portal, trip-planning apps and other communications systems continue to be down after the transit agency was hit by a ransomware attack on Thursday.
“Unfortunately, there is no update really to speak of,” TTC Spokesperson Stuart Green told CP24 Saturday morning. “We continue to have issues, we've got our internal staff as well as some external cybersecurity experts that we've called in to help with this.”
The TTC first learned about the hack Thursday night when an IT employee found “unusual network activity,” according to a statement issued Friday evening.
The TTC said the attack was initially “minimal” but then became progressively worse by mid-Friday.
Hackers also knocked down the TTC’s Vision System, which is used to communicate with vehicle operators.
In the meantime, the TTC is using radio backup to speak with its staff.
“We think we've managed to sort of isolate things and stabilize our network…We've got sort of a hierarchy of things that we need to get back online first. The first of which would be our Vision System that allows full communication with our operators in the field,” Green said.
As for the TTC’s Wheel-Trans online booking portal, Green said customers who pre-booked a ride will still get service, and customers who want service can make a request by calling the TTC.
Other services disrupted include the ‘Next Vehicle Information System’ on platform screens, the TTC website and the TTC’s internal email service.
“So if you're trying to use one of the apps on your phone, and you're waiting at a bus stop you will not see the next vehicle arriving or you may see something but it won’t be accurate, as well as the internal emails that are down so we have no network service,” Green said.
The TTC said that there were no major service interruptions caused by the attack and that there is no risk to employee or customer safety.
Green, however, said it is unknown if any employee or customer information has been compromised.
The transit agency has called in law enforcement and cybersecurity experts, including the City of Toronto’s IT department, to fix the issue and determine the cause of the attack.
Green said the TTC identified the attack early and is updating its system to prevent these attacks from happening again.
“We obviously have done everything we possibly could and humanly could. You know, we identified the threat early. But as anyone who has been a victim of these things knows, and many large organizations have been victims of these things, they move very, very quickly. We are in the process of upgrading our systems.”
There is no timeline yet for when services will be up and running.
“It's really just a matter of time. We'll continue to advise customers through our social media channels when we have any updates. It’s going be inconvenient for customers, unfortunately, and, of course, we have to apologize for that.”
The TTC cancelled its planned subway closure on Saturday between St. Clair and College stations to focus on addressing the attack.
Social media users in Israel are mocking Facebook's company name change to Meta, as it sounds similar to the Hebrew word for "dead."
Many Twitter users scoffed at the social media company's rebrand -- revealed by founder Mark Zuckerberg earlier this week -- using the hashtag #FacebookDead. "Somebody did not do their #branding research," one post read.
Dr Nirit Weiss-Blatt, author of The Techlash and Tech Crisis Communication, tweeted: "In Hebrew, *Meta* means *Dead* The Jewish community will ridicule this name for years to come."
"Grave error?? Facebook's new name Meta means dead in Hebrew. Hilarious. #FacebookDead" another user tweeted.
Zuckerberg's efforts to revamp Facebook come as the company faces what could be its most potent scandal since it launched in 2004.
The social media giant is under the spotlight following the publication this week of "The Facebook Papers," a series of internal documents obtained by 17 news organizations, including CNN, that underpin whistleblower Frances Haugen's claims the company is riddled with institutional shortcomings.
The documents reveal how Facebook has propelled misinformation, struggled to eliminate human trafficking-related content on the site, and tried to increase its teenage audience, despite internal research suggesting that its platforms, especially Instagram, can have an adverse effect on their mental health.
Facebook isn't the first company to be ridiculed after its branding didn't translate abroad.
In 2019, Kim Kardashian West was accused of cultural appropriation after debuting her shapewear brand, which she initially named Kimono. Kardashian even appeared to have trademarked the word "kimono," a decision that the mayor of Kyoto, Daisaku Kadokawa, criticized in an open letter on Facebook.
"We think that the names for 'Kimono' are the asset shared with all humanity who love Kimono and its culture therefore they should not be monopolized," Kadokawa wrote.
Kardashian changed the name of her brand to Skims later that year.
In 2017, McDonald's name change in China raised eyebrows. Customers were left confused when the company swapped Maidanglao, a Chinese iteration of the English name, to Jingongmen, which loosely translates to "Golden Arches." One customer said it "sounds like a furniture store."
And when the Nissan Moco was launched in the early 2000s, Spanish-speaking customers may have looked twice, as the word "moco" translates to "bogey." Needless to say, the name was only used in Japan.
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.
Canada's vaccine advisory committee has given advice that's repeatedly been proven right throughout the pandemic — in the face of limited data and vocal criticism — and saved lives.
But multiple medical experts say the failure to do so quickly and transparently threatens to undermine public confidence on key vaccine issues and forces provinces to make crucial decisions on their own.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) released new guidelines on booster shots Friday — after weeks of deliberation — strongly recommending them for those over 80 and leaving the door open to others at risk of lowered vaccine protection.
But the NACI recommendations came after a handful of provinces and territories across Canada already announced their own plans for booster shots, calling into question the speed in which the committee can react to emerging evidence and issue national advice.
"It's fair to say that NACI has come up with some excellent recommendations," said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases physician and member of Ontario's COVID-19 vaccine task force.
"But it would be very helpful to have these recommendations faster."
Provinces, territories 'jump the gun' on NACI
B.C. pre-empted NACI on Tuesday, rather than wait any longer for the committee's highly anticipated guidance to be released, announcing its own plan to roll out boosters for everyone in the province by May 2022 that goes far beyond the committee's approach.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said in a phone interview the reason B.C.'s booster guidance came days earlier than NACI's is because she wanted the province to have a "simple, longer term strategy that people will understand."
"What we're seeing now on the ground here is breakthrough [infections] in the older people who went first," she said. "So that's why we needed to be more proactive to try to get out booster doses to those people right away."
WATCH | Breakthrough COVID-19 infections cause confusion, concern:
They only account for roughly 30 per cent of COVID-19 cases, but breakthrough infections are happening. The situation is confusing to the fully vaccinated who got the virus, and experts say the cases may be a worrisome signal. 4:13
The Northwest Territories offered boosters to everyone over the age of 18 on Thursday, and the Yukon will soon make them available to those over 50. Saskatchewan expanded boosters to Indigenous people over 50 and anyone over 65 and Alberta did the same for Indigenous people over 65 and anyone 75 or older earlier this month.
But this isn't the first time NACI has been beaten to the punch.
NACI previously recommended third doses for severely immunocompromised people who don't generate strong initial responses to the vaccine — a different matter than booster shots that top up declining antibody levels — but even that guidance was pre-empted by some provinces.
Ontario and Alberta began offering third shots for certain vulnerable groups including transplant recipients, cancer patients, immunocompromised individuals and long-term care residents weeks before NACI's guidance finally came out in mid-September.
Bogoch says there's "no reason" why NACI shouldn't be able to release recommendations sooner, but they need more resources to stay on top of emerging data and to avoid "bureaucratic hurdles." (It can take NACI a week to translate and upload its guidance online.)
"It would be very helpful if they had additional support, so that they can continue to do the excellent work that they do in a timely manner," said Bogoch.
"That way, you could avoid having provinces jump the gun and we can avoid a situation where we have 10 provinces and three territories doing things differently."
Lack of transparency ahead of 'hot-button issues'
Another key area experts say NACI is falling behind on is transparent, open communication with Canadians and the media — especially as guidelines for sensitive topics like COVID-19 vaccines for children are expected to be released in the coming weeks.
Unlike the U.S., where vaccine advisory committee meetings on key issues like booster shots and vaccines for kids are live-streamed online with questions from the public addressed, NACI meetings are held behind closed doors without public input.
Helen Branswell, an infectious diseases journalist with STAT, said the U.S. approach of holding advisory committee meetings in public helps journalists and the public "understand what the concerns are" and "the thinking behind the decisions that are being made."
"It's absolutely possible to have a more open process, but I think that people were not ready to try that in the middle of a pandemic," Quach said in a phone interview.
"After the pandemic it's possible that something more open will come, but it's just that changing everything in the middle of a crisis is never the best idea."
But the independent advisory committee did ultimately opt to change its communication strategy in the middle of the pandemic — making it less accessible to the media, and less visible to the public as a result.
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has since taken over all of NACI's media duties, with interview requests and questions for NACI forwarded directly to PHAC media relations staff and press briefings held by Dr. Theresa Tam and Dr. Howard Njoo on NACI's behalf.
"In principle, I have no problem with the decision to pass the communications mandate back to PHAC," said Dr. David Naylor, who led the federal inquiry into Canada's national response to the 2003 SARS epidemic and now co-chairs the federal government's COVID-19 immunity task force.
"In practice, however, I don't think this approach is working optimally. And that's a worry because we have some hot-button issues coming up fast."
Dr. David Naylor says there are 'strong feelings' on upcoming issues like vaccines for children and booster shots for the broader Canadian public, in addition to 'gaps in the evidence' that could lead to a 'very polarized debate.' (Jae C. Hong/Associated Press)
Naylor says there are "strong feelings" on upcoming issues like vaccines for children and booster shots for the broader Canadian public, in addition to "gaps in the evidence" that could lead to a "very polarized debate."
"Whoever handles the communication on these fronts in the next few days and weeks needs to be fully committed and well prepared."
WATCH | How communities work to get parents on board with COVID-19 vaccines for kids:
Communities work to get parents on board with COVID-19 vaccines for kids
3 days ago
Community groups are using some of the lessons they learned in overcoming COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in adults to help parents on board with vaccinating their children. 2:05
Public spotlight 'not sustainable' for NACI
NACI is now far less open to discussing and explaining the reasoning behind its recommendations with the press and the public than it has been in the past — and that may be in part due to a change in leadership.
Unlike Quach, who is a professor of infectious diseases, immunology, microbiology and pediatrics at the University of Montreal with a somewhat flexible schedule, current chair Dr. Shelley Deeks is also Nova Scotia's public health surveillance medical officer of health.
"Vaccines have been politicized at times," said Naylor. "And it's possible that one factor in the change is that having a very senior provincial official as chief spokesperson for a federal panel could be a bit awkward at times."
A woman receives a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Penn., on Aug. 14. (Hannah Beier/Reuters)
Quach says that once Deeks took over the role as NACI chair, the two of them agreed that keeping up the previous level of public press conferences and media interviews was "not sustainable."
"That flexibility wasn't there anymore and so that's really when NACI asked the Public Health Agency of Canada to take back all the press, all the communications," Quach said.
"I like giving media interviews — I don't think Dr. Deeks likes it that much — and you can't force her. She's doing an amazing job as a chair of the committee but being a spokesperson was not part of her job description when she signed up for it."
When asked by CBC News why questions from the press must now be forwarded to PHAC, instead of being answered directly by the NACI chair like the many times it had done so in the past, Deeks responded by forwarding the question to PHAC.
A spokesperson for PHAC said the interest from the general public and the media in the "rationale, data and evidence" of NACI's recommendations has increased throughout the pandemic, which is why NACI began participating in press briefings in the first place.
"However, NACI is a committee that is comprised of volunteers whose time is very limited during a pandemic response," the PHAC spokesperson said.
"In order to allow NACI to focus on its important deliberations and advice to public health decision-makers and healthcare providers, PHAC is responsible for conveying this advice to the Canadian public and media."
Sabina Vohra-Miller, a pharmacologist and science communicator who co-founded Unambiguous Science and the South Asian Health Network, says NACI could benefit from a communications expert who could convey its recommendations to the public in a clear-cut way.
"The kind of support they need is not silencing them. I don't think their voice should be silenced. They have a very strong, very needed voice here in Canada," she said.
"We need to have that trustworthy, consistent voice speaking to the public. And frankly, I haven't even seen that coming from the Public Health Agency of Canada either."
WATCH | PHAC says booster shots not needed for general population yet:
Tam says COVID-19 booster shot not required for general population right now
23 hours ago
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, says there is no evidence at this time of any widespread reduction in protection for those who have received their COVID-19 vaccines. 2:04
Independent directors at Rogers offered to step down from telecom’s board, but decided resigning would have been disruptive to the company and its acquisition of Shaw Communications.CARLOS OSORIO/Reuters
John MacDonald, who was elected to replace Edward Rogers as chair of the board of Rogers Communications Inc. last week, says he and other independent directors offered to step down several times in recent weeks over their concerns with Mr. Rogers’s conduct and his “disregard of good governance practices.”
However, Mr. MacDonald and the other directors ultimately decided that such a move would be highly disruptive to the company and could jeopardize its $26-billion acquisition of Shaw Communications Inc., he said in a court filing Friday.
“We believed in good faith that we would better serve the interests of the company by defending good governance protocols and remaining on the board until a shareholders’ meeting is convened or our terms come to a proper end,” Mr. MacDonald said in an affidavit filed with the B.C. Supreme Court.
The court will hold a hearing on Monday to consider a dispute over control of the Toronto-based telecom giant.
Edward, the son of company founder Ted Rogers, is asking the court to sanction his move to replace five directors with his own candidates for the board seats. Mr. Rogers’s attempt to reconstitute the board is part of a power struggle within the upper ranks of the company and within the Rogers family itself.
Mr. Rogers attempted to oust several executives, including replacing CEO Joe Natale with the company’s then-chief financial officer, Tony Staffieri, but met resistance from some board members and from his mother, Loretta, and sisters Martha and Melinda.
A spokesperson for Mr. Rogers declined to comment.
The conflict boiled over last week when the board met to replace Mr. Rogers as chair – though he remains the chair of the family trust that controls the telecom company. Mr. Rogers subsequently held another meeting, which his mother and two sisters called “invalid,” at which he was reinstated as chair of the company’s board.
Mr. Rogers said his concerns about Mr. Natale stemmed from the company’s lagging performance relative to competitors, its “stagnated” share price and budget targets that had been missed in the past two years.
Mr. Rogers contends that his position as chair of the Rogers Control Trust, which controls 97.5 per cent of the company’s voting shares, gives him the authority to reconstitute the board through a written resolution.
But in another court filing on Friday, Loretta Rogers countered that a memorandum of her late husband’s wishes specified that the chair of the family trust must face “the ‘public gauntlet’ of a shareholders’ meeting” in order to do so.
In his own court filings, Edward Rogers said that while his father stressed “the importance of consultation and discussion,” Ted Rogers also provided “ultimate authority” to the chair to act on the trust’s behalf. Mr. Rogers also said he consulted with members of his family and certain board members about his concerns regarding Mr. Natale’s performance, and his plan to replace him as CEO.
In the filing on Friday, Mr. MacDonald said he does not agree with “many” of the statements in Mr. Rogers’s affidavit, and said that Mr. Rogers was “acting on his own initiative” in firing Mr. Natale and attempting to remove five members of the company’s board without holding a shareholder meeting. He also said that the attempt to oust Mr. Natale happened “without input from, or the approval or knowledge of, the board.”
In his own court filings, Edward Rogers says that while his father stressed 'the importance of consultation and discussion,' Ted Rogers also provided 'ultimate authority' to the chair to act on the trust’s behalf.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Mr. MacDonald said the first time that Mr. Rogers told him that he had lost confidence in Mr. Natale was during a call on Sept. 15. During the call, Mr. Rogers also said that he had full confidence in Mr. Staffieri and that he planned to make other management changes, Mr. MacDonald said.
“Up until that time, there had been no discussion at the board or, to my knowledge, any of the board’s committees regarding the replacement of Mr. Natale with Mr. Staffieri,” Mr. MacDonald said in his affidavit.
“The board, which oversaw the establishment of the chief executive officer’s performance objectives and the assessment of his performance against those objectives, was of the view that Mr. Natale had met the requisite performance criteria and exceeded his goals,” Mr. MacDonald said.
A number of independent directors were prepared to resign over Mr. Rogers’s conduct, Mr. MacDonald said. At a board meeting on Sept. 22, several of them “spoke out forcefully and at length” against Mr. Rogers for sidestepping the board when deciding to oust Mr. Natale, he added.
“To be clear: at no time did I, or other members of the director group, approve the termination of Mr. Natale’s employment. That had already been done by Edward,” Mr. MacDonald said. “We also understood that Mr. Staffieri had in effect already been anointed by Edward without any search committee or process being undertaken,” he added.
Mr. MacDonald said the situation was “symptomatic of a pattern of behaviour” by Mr. Rogers, who had also bypassed the board when he terminated a previous CEO, Guy Laurence, in 2016.
John Clappison, the previous lead independent director, resigned in January, 2021 over Mr. Rogers’s “repeated efforts to override board-approved policies and practices,” Mr. MacDonald said. (Mr. Clappison was recently reappointed to the board.)
Mr. Rogers also “constantly interfered in the chief executive officer’s decisions to hire or fire company executives,” Mr. MacDonald added. “Put simply, Edward tried to operate as an executive chairman when the board had specifically provided in the position’s job description that that was not the role.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday paved the way for children aged five to 11 to get Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine.
The FDA cleared kid-size doses — just a third of the amount given to teens and adults — for emergency use, and up to 28 million more American children could be eligible for vaccinations as early as next week.
One more regulatory hurdle remains: On Tuesday, advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will make more detailed recommendations on which youngsters should get vaccinated, with a final decision by the agency's director expected shortly afterwards.
"Vaccinating younger children against COVID-19 will bring us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy," Dr. Janet Woodcock, the acting FDA commissioner, said in a statement.
"Our comprehensive and rigorous evaluation of the data pertaining to the vaccine's safety and effectiveness should help assure parents and guardians that this vaccine meets our high standards."
Canadian decision pending
A few countries have begun using other COVID-19 vaccines in children under 12, including China, which just began vaccinations for three-year olds. But many that use the vaccine made by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech are watching the U.S. decision, and European regulators just began considering the companies' kid-size doses.
WATCH | Canadian decision not expected before mid-November:
Chief medical adviser says we are weeks away from final authorization of COVID-19 shots for children 5-11 years old
7 hours ago
Dr. Supriya Sharma, Heath Canada's chief medical adviser, says a decision is likely to come by the middle or end of November and the department does encourage children to get the flu shot. 2:15
A corresponding decision from Canadian regulators will not come before the middle or end of November, a senior official said earlier on Friday.
"I think we're still at least a few weeks away from a final decision," Dr. Supriya Sharma, Health Canada's chief medical adviser, said at a public briefing.
After the FDA announcement, Health Canada said on Twitter it was aware of the agency's move and reiterated that its review is ongoing.
Health Canada is aware that the U.S. FDA has authorized Comirnaty (Pfizer-BioNTech's <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CovidVaccine?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CovidVaccine</a>) for children aged 5-11. Health Canada’s review is ongoing and is being prioritized. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Covid19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Covid19</a>
Health Canada received Pfizer-BioNTech's submission for approval and associated data slightly later than the FDA. Canada is expecting 2.9 million child-size doses of the vaccine if it is approved, enough for every child to get their first dose.
Doctors welcome move
Pfizer plans to begin shipping millions of vials of the pediatric vaccine — in orange caps to avoid mix-ups with the purple-capped adult doses — to doctors' offices, pharmacies and other vaccination sites. Following CDC approval, eligible kids will get two shots, three weeks apart.
While children are at lower risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19 than older people, five- to 11-year-olds still have been seriously affected — including over 8,300 hospitalizations in the U.S., about a third requiring intensive care, and nearly 100 deaths since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the FDA.
With the extra-contagious delta variant circulating, the U.S. government has counted more than 2,000 coronavirus-related school closings just since the start of the school year, affecting more than a million children.
"With this vaccine kids can go back to something that's better than being locked at home on remote schooling, not being able to see their friends," said Dr. Kawsar Talaat of Johns Hopkins University. "The vaccine will protect them and also protect our communities."
The American Academy of Pediatrics also issued a statement welcoming the FDA's move.
"More than six million children have been infected with this virus since the beginning of the pandemic, and children have suffered in numerous other ways," said president Lee Savio Beers.
"Authorization of the vaccine for younger children is an important step in keeping them healthy and providing their families with peace of mind."
WATCH | Communities work to get children vaccinated:
Communities work to get parents on board with COVID-19 vaccines for kids
2 days ago
Community groups are using some of the lessons they learned in overcoming COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in adults to help parents on board with vaccinating their children. 2:05
Some propose targeted use
Earlier this week, FDA's independent scientific advisers voted that the pediatric vaccine's promised benefits outweigh any risks. But several panellists said not all youngsters will need to be vaccinated, and that they preferred the shots be targeted to those at higher risk from the virus.
Nearly 70 per cent of five- to 11-year-olds hospitalized for COVID-19 in the U.S. have other serious medical conditions, including asthma and obesity, according to federal tracking. Additionally, more than two-thirds of youngsters hospitalized are Black or Hispanic, mirroring long-standing disparities in the disease's impact.
Pfizer releases clinical trial data for COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11
7 days ago
Pfizer publicly released data from its coronavirus vaccine trial appearing to show that it's both safe and effective for children aged five to 11. But that data is now being reviewed by regulators, and parents want to carefully weigh the risks. 2:03
The question of how broadly Pfizer's vaccine should be used will be a key consideration for the CDC and its advisers, who set formal recommendations for pediatricians and other medical professionals.
A Pfizer study of 2,268 schoolchildren found the vaccine was nearly 91 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 infections, based on 16 cases of COVID-19 among kids given dummy shots compared to just three who got vaccinated.
The kid dosage also proved safe, with similar or fewer temporary reactions — such as sore arms, fever or achiness — that teens experience.
But the study wasn't large enough to detect any extremely rare side-effects, such as the heart inflammation that occasionally occurs after the second full-strength dose, mostly in young men and teen boys. It's unclear if younger children getting a smaller dose also will face that rare risk.
Some parents are expected to vaccinate their children ahead of family holiday gatherings and the winter cold season.
But a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey suggests most parents won't rush to get the shots. About 25 per cent of parents polled earlier this month said they would get their children vaccinated "right away."
But the remaining majority of parents were roughly split between those who said they will to wait to see how the vaccine performs and those who said they "definitely" won't have their children vaccinated.
The similarly made Moderna vaccine also is being studied in young children, and both Pfizer and Moderna also are testing shots for babies and preschoolers.
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