During an interview on SiriusXM’s Canada Talks Wednesday, Trudeau told host Peter Mansbridge he wished he had handled some things in the early days of the pandemic differently, but when he closed the border wasn’t one of them.
“China eats weird animals disease”
Ontario budget 2021: New cash handouts for businesses, parents and deficits until 2029
TORONTO — The Ford government is continuing with increased healthcare spending and cash grants to businesses and parents as its pathway out of the pandemic will be paved with more than $100 billion in new debt and deficits that are not likely to end before 2029.
The deficit for 2021-2022 is projected at $33.1 billion, down from $38.5 billion last year, with deficits of $27.7 billion and $20.2 billion projected for 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Pandemic UK: Food banks outnumber McDonald’s restaurants
More people than ever in the United Kingdom are suffering from food poverty, with even working families turning to charities for help, aid agencies say.
In a damning statistic issued in December 2019, fact-checker FullFact said there were more food banks in the UK than outlets of the fast-food chain McDonald’s.
“It is true that there are now more food banks in the UK than there are McDonald’s,” Liam Evans of food aid provider turn2us told DW. He says there are at least 2,000 food banks and around 1,300 McDonald’s branches across the UK.
Thanks Due Justin Trudeau’s Vaccine Rollout Fiasco: Third wave of COVID-19 infections will be worse than the first two, expert says
…There are many factors propelling surges, but Sharkawy points to the slow vaccine rollout and variants being the main drivers of the third wave.
“What we’re witnessing now is a bit of a perfect storm,” he said, adding that complacency with some of the public health restrictions isn’t helping.
Fact-Checkers Are Not Going to Like This MIT Story About Origins of That Virus From You-Know-Where
…In an article titled “Did the coronavirus leak from a lab? These scientists say we shouldn’t rule it out,” MIT Technology Review reports that “A group of 26 scientists, social scientists, and science communicators… have now signed their own letter arguing that WHO investigators lacked ‘the mandate, the independence, or the necessary accesses’ to determine whether or not SARS-CoV-2 could have been the result of a laboratory incident.” The letter was in response to a letter from 27 other scientists published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, insisting that SARS-CoV-2 had a natural origin, and dismissing any alternate theories as conspiracy theories that create “fear, rumors, and prejudice.”
Ontario reports 1,571 new Covid cases … Is there a vaccine for a Pandemic budget?
Ontario is reporting 1,571 cases of #COVID19 and nearly 52,000 tests completed. Locally, there are 459 new cases in Toronto, 309 in Peel and 143 in York Region.
As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 1,676,150 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) March 24, 2021
Doug Ford’s Tories set to unveil a ‘pandemic budget’ for Ontario
Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives are set to table a big-spending provincial budget aimed at tackling the health and economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy — Ford’s third treasurer in three years — will release the fiscal blueprint Wednesday at Queen’s Park.
“I will not hesitate to spend whatever it takes to protect people’s lives,” Ford said Tuesday.
Health Canada says AstraZeneca vaccine safe, effective but will add warning on clots
Health Canada is in the process of adding a warning about a rare possible side-effect of blood clots from the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine but is still certain the vaccine is safe and effective against COVID-19.
The department’s chief medical adviser Dr. Supriya Sharma says the warning comes on the heels of a similar warning in Europe last week but doesn’t change Health Canada’s analysis that the vaccine’s benefits outweigh its risks.
British university scientists say common cold could provide protection against COVID-19
Could the common cold actually play a role in helping mankind ward off COVID-19? Researchers from a British university said this week that it appears that could be the case.
One year on, poll suggests Canadians still deeply wary about allowing U.S. visitors
A new poll suggests Canadians remain deeply wary about the prospect of allowing visitors from the United States.
The online Leger poll was conducted last week for the Association for Canadian Studies to mark one full year of restricted travel at the Canada-U.S. border.
It found 70 per cent of 2,200 Canadian respondents were either very or somewhat worried about allowing cross-border travel.
Well this is the worst thing I’ve ever watched
Well this is the worst thing I've ever watched pic.twitter.com/mf7OlQYfUq
— Ben McDonald (@Bmac0507) March 23, 2021
Social Distancing and Wearing Masks Could Last ‘Years’, Says Govt Scientist
Wearing masks and social distancing could go on for “years”, says Public Health England’s chief of immunisation.
Dr Mary Ramsey claimed on Sunday that social distancing and other practices like wearing a face-covering would go on for “quite a long period of time”.
“People have got used to those lower-level restrictions now, and people can live with them, and the economy can still go on with those less severe restrictions in place.
Krispy Kreme receives backlash for giving away free doughnuts to people with COVID-19 vaccination
“Starting today, guests who show a valid COVID-19 vaccination card at any Krispy Kreme shop in the US can receive a free doughnut—anytime, any day, even every day—through the remainder of 2021,” the company wrote in a press release on Monday 22 March. Although many reacted positively to the announcement, some Twitter users have already blasted Krispy Kreme for “selling poison to people.” How will the offer work exactly and why is the company already receiving backlash?
CDC ignores inquiry into increasing number of deaths, injuries reported after COVID vaccines
Data released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the number of injuries and deaths reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) following COVID vaccines showed 38,444 reports of adverse events since Dec. 14, 2020.
Toronto doctor shares images of lungs to show how COVID-19 is ‘brutalizing’ young people
A Toronto emergency room physician is sharing images of lungs filled with fluid to show the devastating toll COVID-19 is taking on some young people.
In two images shared, both showing the lungs mostly in white, Dr. Kashif Pirzada said patients in this state would have enormous trouble breathing.
Ontario reports 1,546 new Covid cases … and is Astra Zeneca fudging efficacy results?
Ontario is reporting 1,546 cases of #COVID19 and nearly 32,600 tests completed. Locally, there are 465 new cases in Toronto, 329 in Peel and 161 in York Region.
As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 1,603,699 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) March 23, 2021
AstraZeneca may have used ‘outdated information’ in its COVID-19 vaccine efficacy trial
AstraZeneca may have used “outdated information” in the results of a large-scale COVID-19 vaccine trial, a U.S. health agency said on Tuesday, casting fresh doubt on the shot, its potential U.S. rollout and plunging its developers, once again, into controversy.
The highly unusual rebuke from federal health officials comes just one day after interim data from the drugmaker showed better-than-expected results from the U.S. trial which had been seen as a scientific counter to concerns that have dogged the shot since late last year.