Author: Blazingcatfur

Premier Doug Ford is slamming the federal government’s decision to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to some inmates before inoculating all long-term care home residents, as part of a pilot program starting this week.

Ford made the remarks on Wednesday during his first COVID-19 press conference of the year at Pearson Airport.

“Let’s not give the most dangerous criminals in our country the vaccine before we give it to our long-term care patients, most vulnerable and other elderly people,” Ford said.

With no robust system to identify genetic variations of the coronavirus, experts warn that the United States is woefully ill-equipped to track a dangerous new mutant, leaving health officials blind as they try to combat the grave threat.

The variant, which is now surging in Britain and burdening its hospitals with new cases, is rare for now in the United States. But it has the potential to explode in the next few weeks, putting new pressures on American hospitals, some of which are already near the breaking point.

The United States has no large-scale, nationwide system for checking coronavirus genomes for new mutations, including the ones carried by the new variant. About 1.4 million people test positive for the virus each week, but researchers are only doing genome sequencing — a method that can definitively spot the new variant — on fewer than 3,000 of those weekly samples. And that work is done by a patchwork of academic, state and commercial laboratories.

‘SPOTS TAKEN’: Warning about vaccine queue jumping sent to University Health Network staff

Individuals associated with University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto attempted to jump the COVID-19 vaccine queue by inappropriately accessing an online scheduling tool, a notice to staff says.

“Unfortunately, we have learned that in spite of very clear messaging, some staff and learners have provided access to the COVID-19 vaccine scheduling tool and posted links to the tool on social media and via email,” a notice sent out to staff last week by the vaccination committee says.