4. The Politics of Health: Public Health & Misinformation

As the virus accelerates its evolution, humans retrogress

This week Pfizer released a new stack of documents related to the Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, with >80,000 pages of material released. Here is a link to the documents.In the past couple days there is a viral claim circulating social media that this data dump revealed the actual efficacy of this vaccine was 12%, not 95% as reported, purporting a massive conspiracy. Here are some active tweets repeating this claim:These tweets and accompanying threads lack documentation of where exactly in the do

Specific mutations hide the COVID-causing variant from the immune system and give it a new route into more cells

An updated study shows that number of children orphaned globally by Covid-19 is estimated to have increased dramatically from approximately 2.7 million in April 2021 to 5.2 million in October 2021.

In just one year, the Twitter account has helped steer the outrage machine at the center of right-wing messaging and legislation.

Age is a risk factor for SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe disease. Here the authors perform DNA methylation analyses in whole blood from COVID-19 patients using established epigenetic clocks and telomere length estimators, and describing correlations between epigenetic aging and the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe disease.

Millions of people are still mourning loved ones lost to COVID, their grief intensified, prolonged, and even denied by the politics of the pandemic.

The verdict is in on the nation’s light touch approach. More died. Herd immunity proved a mirage.

The virus is now embedded in our world. But there are steps we can take to keep it at bay while we continue to live our lives, says Edinburgh University’s Prof Devi Sridhar

HONG KONG — A simple stool test can tell recovered Covid-19 patients their risks of suffering the effects of long Covid with 90 per cent accuracy, researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) have found.

Doctors used to swear by the slow recovery period known as convalescence. Some experts say embracing it again could offer benefits for an array of long-term illnesses and injuries.

Historians of the 1918 influenza pandemic discuss lessons for what the future of COVID might look like

The SARS-CoV-2 Assessment of Viral Evolution (SAVE) programme provides a real-time risk assessment of SARS-CoV-2 variants with the potential to affect transmission, virulence and resistance to infection- and vaccine-induced immunity.

Our analysis of hacked donor data, from foreign interference to ‘blessings.’

The psychologist Joseph Manson analysed data on a sample of Americans from April of 2020. He found that both right and left-wing authoritarianism predicted support for lockdowns and other restrictions.

Early in 2020 and late in 2021, the Wet’suwet’en First Nation faced down police forces as they tried to protect their homelands in northern British Columbia. The province and the federal government had no difficulty in sending in the RCMP to mete out justice. No mercy has been given to the First Nations when they protest. Oka, Ipperwash, Gustafsen Lake, logging standoffs and oil and gas standoffs, including the Tiny House Warriors standing against the Trans Mountain pipeline, were all met with unwavering police forces. The last confrontation in Wet’suwet’en had First Nations from other provinces joining in solidarity. Enter Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and his anti-protest legislation. Kenney quickly enacted Bill 1 to protect “critical infrastructure” and to fine those driven to protest.

Distinguishing excessive doubt from excessive belief can help inform how to bring a conspiracy theorist back to reality.

Kulvinder Gill and Ashvinder Lamba sued over comments accusing them of spreading COVID-19 misinformation

The premier has been making like Santa Claus with election goodies after letting Trudeau take the heat for convoy blockades

The influence of U.S. money and misinformation campaigns on social media are a harbinger of what to expect next time Canadians go to the polls

According to the leaked data, $8.4 million had been raised from 92,844 donors, with the majority of funds being raised in Canada and the United States, including large donations from business owners and financial backers of the Republican Party.

There are already 127 confirmed cases across almost half of the U.S. of a new Covid subvariant that's even more contagious than omicron.

Ontario's top doctor wants to end workplace COVID-19 vaccination policies by early next month.

Dr. Kieran Moore told CBC Radio's Metro Morning that key metrics including wastewater data and the rate of hospitalizations are showing a "profound decline."