COVID News - November 30th
Vaccines in sight

• Recovery and recurrence: Untangling the risk of COVID-19 reinfection. Canadian researcher Dr. Caroline Quach-Thanh and her team are using Canadian data and data from around the world to gain more insight into re-infection rates.
• How the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiological (PURE) study is gaining insights into COVID-19. For the last 10 years, 200,000 adults have been volunteers have been involved in a study looking at health risk factors. The McMaster University researchers have been able to draw on the collected data and the volunteers to examine the risk factors for COVID-19.
• How Canadian Expertise Aided a Speedy Vaccine. Vancouver based Acuitas Therapeutics developed the tool to help deliver the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine into cells.
• Homegrown: Working toward a made-in-Canada vaccine against COVID-19. Dr. John Lewis from the University of Alberta was able to re-purpose his work on treating cancer to tackle the challenge of developing a COVID vaccine.
• UCalgary lab helps support timely COVID-19 test results for international travellers. A molecular test developed at the University of Calgary will be part of the pilot program to test travellers of COVID-19.
• UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery. We have learned a lot over the last 10 months beyond the biology of COVID-19. The pandemic has reveled cracks in our health systems, policy failures, and economies that can quickly crumble. Canada played a role in the collaboration of organizations and experts from around the world. 

 

• The coronavirus pandemic increased the visibility of women in the media, but it’s not all good news. According to the Gender Gap Tracker, women are being quoted more frequently about the pandemic because of their roles as health professionals and because of the way the pandemic is affecting them.
• Moderna asking US, European regulators to OK its virus shots. The vaccine results are in and look promising. The next challenge is for regulators to review the data and make a decision on whether it warrants emergency use.
• How does Oxford University’s coronavirus vaccine work and does it differ to Pfizer and Moderna’s? Oxford's vaccine uses the conventional approach of a weakened form of the virus, while the other 2 are very different mRNA vaccines. The Evening Standard does a good job explaining the difference.
• When states mandate masks, fewer people catch COVID-19. The data is there and it is solid. Only 14 U.S. states and 1 province in Canada are shying away from mask mandates.
• Using mRNA to develop vaccines wasn't 'on my radar,' says Moderna co-founder. A Canadian was a co-founder of Moderna, one of the company's with a vaccine showing significant promise. In this short segment from CBC Radio's Cross Country Checkup he talks about how the company began using mRNA.
• Schools are not spreading covid-19. This new data makes the case. Rather than being a source of COVID-19 transmission, school may just be a mirror of the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community.

 Myths and Misinformation

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• Beware of COVID-19 scams as vaccine approaches FDA approval

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• Watch: Ask an Expert. CBC Edmonton's Nancy Carlson talks with University of Alberta Health Law professor and myth debunker, Tim Caulfield.
• Health Canada warns against UV products that falsely claim to kill COVID-19 virus.
  There is no evidence that you can use ultraviolet lights at home to kill SARS-CoV-2, but that has not stopped marketers from preying on our anxieties.
• EXPLAINER: What’s with the confusion over masks? Wearing a mask reduces the infection risk for you and for people around you. If both of you are wearing a mask there is a huge jump in the level of protection.
• Covid-19’s known unknowns.Conveying certainty, respecting uncertainty, and acknowledging conflicting evidence will help us better understand what is happening during the pandemic.

 Resources

 

• COVID Poops 19. No, that is not a typo. COVID can be detected in wastewater and you can look at a map with details of active monitoring sites around the world.
• Explore CanCOGeN. The Canadian COVID-19 Genomics Network (CanCOGeN) is a Genome Canada led cross-agency initiative for large-scale SARS-CoV-2 and human host sequencing to track viral origin, spread and evolution, and characterize the role of human genetics in COVID-19. The new website will keep you up-to-date on the activities of the network.
• Essential Vocab For COVID-19: From Asymptomatic To Zoonotic. This is a handy guide to help you not only understand what you are reading in the news, but to help you talk about the pandemic.
• What does vaccine effectiveness mean. The phrase is all over the news and social media so it doesn't hurt to know exactly what it referring to.
• COVID-19 Interactive Dashboard. Johns Hopkins University has created a breakdown of the numbers by country and region, confirmed cases, deaths, active cases, etc. Updated daily.
• Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): Epidemiology update. Government of Canada information updated daily.

 

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 This is a COVID tracker from Bing.com which is updated throughout the day.