Protech Pulse - February
In the upcoming week, we are going to celebrate Valentines' Day (February 14) and the Lantern Festival 元宵節 (on 15th Day of the Lunar New Year). We are wishing our Protech Readers and their families a fantastic week of love and romance, spending beautiful time with all your special ones.
In This Issue's Newsletter:
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- Curated Articles:
- Ontario's science advisers say easing restrictions will increase COVID-19 cases
- Solutions for preventing the next pandemic
- Anxiety, feelings of depression and loneliness among Canadians spikes to highest levels since spring 2020
- Canada needs national standards to tackle kid's mental health challenges: experts
- 福特省长转变态度：不会再封城，学会与病毒共存
- The pandemic kickstarted benefit programs like paid sick days and COVID leave. Why are so many essential workers still falling through the cracks?
- Ontario eyes creation of a 'portable' benefits program for workers who might otherwise be shut out
- What is Canada's legal system saying about workplace vaccine mandates?
- 加拿大疫苗令没有强迫接种 不算侵犯人权 Do vaccine mandates violate Canadians' charter rights?
- Whose freedom is the 'freedom convoy' fighting for? Not everyone's
- Lifting COVID-19 restrictions could cause anxiety for many as unknowns persist, experts say
- Toronto scientists are trying to crack one of COVID's biggest mysteries: Its impact on the brain
- Dismantling racial disparities in healthcare: the Black Scientists’ Task Force on Vaccine Equity
- Mexico went all in on ivermectin — a disproven COVID cure. Now there's a fight over 'false and misleading science' and claims of 'colonialist' politics
- Community Stories
- 护理院长者疫境身心受困扰 华裔工作者受访说端详
- Foreign student in Manitoba stuck with $38K hospital bill after mental health crisis
- Most Black nurses in Ontario deal with racism. This task force of nurses has a way forward
Project Protech PACER Training Update
Many of us are at increased risk of mental health problems, and front-line workers are also struggling in their efforts to respond. PACER Training is here to help. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have completed 26 cohorts and more than 350 service providers and affected community members. We are currently started a new cohort last week, and planning on two new PACER Training Cohorts starting in February and March. Space is limited. Please pre-register early by filling up the online-eligibility questionnaire at our PACER page.
While the current wave of COVID-19 appears to have peaked, Ontario's reopening will increase the spread and put already stressed hospitals under further pressure, according to new projections from the province’s science panel. The provincial government, however, says it has anticipated the increases and that its health system can handle the load. Click here for more information.
Curated Articles: Solutions for preventing the next pandemic
A study published in Science, "Ecology and Economics for Pandemic Prevention," found that the costs of preventing future zoonotic outbreaks like COVID-19—by preventing deforestation and regulating the wildlife trade—are as little as $22 billion a year, 2% of the economic and mortality costs of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, which some economists predict could reach $10-20 trillion. The paper, co-authored by our Director Dr. Aaron Bernstein, outlines how stimulus funding should be used to reduce the risk of disease spillover from animals to humans. Continue your reading here.
Curated Articles: Anxiety, feelings of depression and loneliness among Canadians spikes to highest levels since spring 2020
Adult Canadians are reporting levels of moderate to severe anxiety, loneliness and feelings of depression as high as early in the pandemic, according to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health's (CAMH) ninth survey of Canadians’ pandemic health and substance use, conducted in collaboration with research technology and consumer data collection company Delvinia. This final survey of the series was completed by 1,004 Canadians between January 7 and 11, 2022. Read the full analysis here.
Curated Articles: Canada needs national standards to tackle kid’s mental health challenges: experts
Concern about the mental health challenges of young Canadians has been growing during the nearly two years of disruptions and repeated isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. But experts say we do not have the tools to properly assess the toll that the pandemic has taken on the mental health of Canadian kids. Creating standards for how mental health is measured could help grasp the scale of the problem. Access your reading here.
Curated Articles: 福特省長轉變態度：不會再封城，學會與病毒共存 Premier Ford reiterates goal to move past lockdowns
在安省宣布部分解封後，福特省長似乎突然對COVID-19封鎖的看法有了轉變，安省反對黨領導人似乎也支持這種轉變。福特在周一的一份書面聲明中說：所有安省人都應團結一致，希望將這場流行病拋在腦後，讓我們回到我們在COVID-19之前所過的生活裡去。福特省長最近的評論與安省首席衛生官 Kieran Moore博士的說法一致。 Kieran Moore也表示現在是時候"學會與COVID-19一起生活了"。 Moore認為COVID-19疫苗和新的抗病毒藥物是安省現在需要轉變思維方式的主要原因。點擊這裡閱讀全文。For the English version, click here.
Curated Articles: The pandemic kickstarted benefit programs like paid sick days and COVID leave. Why are so many essential workers still falling through the cracks?
Advocates say insufficient and complicated federal benefits programs is patchwork for systemic issues like labour market inequity. In north Toronto, an employee of a large food manufacturing plant used all three of her paid sick days after testing positive for the Omicron variant and was contemplating using the last three of her 10 annual paid vacation days to continue staying home. Click here to read more.
Ontario wants to expand workers' access to health care benefits through a new system that will make affordable medication and other supports available, even when employers do not provide insurance, Labour Minister Monte McNaughton says. Access the full article here.
Curated Articles: What is Canada's legal system saying about workplace vaccine mandates?
Legal challenges of employer vaccine mandates and health measures are being tossed out as arbitrators in Canada largely side with the need to maintain safe workplaces during a pandemic, legal experts say. Most of the cases with rulings so far involve employee grievances in unionized workplaces, which have an expedited decision-making process compared with the courts, they say. Get more information here.
Curated Articles: 加拿大疫苗令没有强迫接种 不算侵犯人权 Do vaccine mandates violate Canadians' charter rights?
最近，不少加拿大人对一些与接种疫苗有关的规定，深感不满，比如接种疫苗才能开展非必要业务，参加某些活动和乘坐飞机和火车等。最近，从全国持续的自由卡车车队事件，就能看出来这些人的态度。这些抗议者表示，他们担心自己的权利和自由受到侵犯。他们认为疫苗令违反了《加拿大权利和自由宪章》，具体条目在第7节:“人人享有生命、人身自由和安全的权利，并有权不被剥夺，除非符合基本正义的原则。”点击这里阅读原文。For the English version, please click here.
Curated Articles: Whose freedom is the 'freedom convoy' fighting for? Not everyone's
The so-called "freedom convoy" has captured worldwide attention as a minority of truckers and their supporters have asserted their right to assemble and oppose COVID-19 protocols imposed by the federal, provincial and territorial governments. No problem there. The problem lies in what's not being said or acknowledged. Finish your reading here.
Curated Articles: Lifting COVID-19 restrictions could cause anxiety for many as unknowns persist, experts say
As provinces begin lifting COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, psychology experts expect stress and anxiety to run high among those who remain wary of letting their guards down. It will take time for many to adjust, they say, but the quick approach some provinces are taking could make the transition more jarring. Read more information here.
Curated Articles: Toronto scientists are trying to crack one of COVID’s biggest mysteries: Its impact on the brain
For Susie Goulding the term "brain fog" doesn't begin to cover it. That makes it seem like she's missed her morning coffee. But she compares the intense and often debilitating memory, focus and concentration issues she's faced over the past nearly two years to living with dementia. "It's completely flipped my life upside down," said the 54-year-old Oakville resident. Read the full article here.
Curated Articles: Dismantling racial disparities in healthcare: the Black Scientists' Task Force on Vaccine Equity
In the fall of 2020, the Black Scientists' Task Force on Vaccine Equity was assembled upon recommendation by the City of Toronto to address the stark inequalities in COVID-19 vaccination rates and barriers to vaccine uptake in Black communities, addresses the concerns underlying vaccine hesitancy in racialized communities and promotes dialogue in culturally sensitive spaces. Finish your reading here.
Curated Articles: Mexico went all in on ivermectin — a disproven COVID cure. Now there's a fight over 'false and misleading science' and claims of 'colonialist' politics
Paper claiming good results for disproven medication draws a lot of controversy — after it drew a big audience online. Philip Cohen says he wasn't looking for controversy, just compiling an annual report. He runs a pre-print server — an open archive where social-science researchers share preliminary versions of manuscripts. He thought he'd see what the most viewed paper of the year was. He didn't like what he found. "I had a look at it, and it was troubling." Finish your reading here.
Community Story: 护理院长者疫境身心受困扰 华裔工作者受访说端详
新冠肺炎疫情持续，长期护理院院友的情况一直备受关注，省府曾一度对护理院实施限制探访等措施，令院友失去了与家人沟通的机会。自上年年底Omicron变种病毒肆虐，护理院的防疫措施再度收紧，面对持续不断的疫情，长者们究竟受到多大的影响？长期护理院个人支援人员（PSW）杨霏儿接受星岛A1 中文电台《A1出击》记者冯凯欣访问时，道出了长期护理院在疫情期间如何照顾院友的身心情况，同时又会遇到什么限制。點擊 這裏閱讀故事的全文。
Community Story: Foreign student in Manitoba stuck with $38K hospital bill after mental health crisis
Throughout the pandemic, hospitals across the country have been seeing people who are in the midst of a mental health crisis. Among them was Ella, a foreign student from Nigeria studying science at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. Access the full story here to see how the giant bill is generated.
Community Story: Most Black nurses in Ontario deal with racism. This task force of nurses has a way forward
"The whiteness of our profession is blinding," RNAO president Doris Grinspun said, noting the lack of diversity is especially pronounced in leadership. Nurse practitioner Corsita Garraway still thinks about a patient she had years ago who lost her foot. She was an older, Black woman who had been in the hospital due to complications with diabetes and developed gangrene. But it went overlooked until the only solution was to amputate. Read the full story here.
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