Vaccine passports can and have been used to increase surveillance by governments. Transparency and accountability are crucial for protecting the privacy of civilians.
Reason is not the only factor that guides vaccine decisions. Understanding human decision-making is the first step in changing behaviour.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
Vaccine hesitancy is often met with one of two responses: Ridicule, or factual information. Both assume a failure of reason, but human behaviour is more complex than reason, so both responses fail.
The psychosocial impact of the pandemic and responses to it have been immense, but the Canadian government’s approach to COVID-19 remains divisive.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Canada’s ‘us against them’ COVID-19 strategy is amplifying social division, creating major psychosocial impacts, and has resulted in a significant decrease in trust toward authorities.
English printmaker James Gillray’s ‘The Cow-Pock.’
(The Cow-Pock/James Gillray)
Stories build powerful emotional attachments. We root for heroes, boo their opponents and get anxious for the fictional problem to be solved. Facts have very little to do with it.
Bringing vaccine manufacturing closer to Africa to speed up supply is important for building capacity in the region.
Guerchom Ndebo/Getty Images
Emerging evidence suggests the highly infectious Omicron variant has the ability to escape the protection two vaccine doses offer.
A person holds a sign for the “freedom convoy” a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, as people rally against COVID-19 restrictions on Parliament Hill.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Instead of a self-serving, diesel-stinking, neighbourhood-clogging mob that negatively impacts the freedom of others, the convoy should consider going home and learning about different perspectives.
It’s too soon to recommend booster shots for younger children. But we can watch what’s happening in the US, where children as young as 12 are receiving theirs.
A ‘Freedom Convoy’ has been protesting vaccine mandates at Parliament Hill, but most Canadians don’t share their views on COVID-19 restrictions.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Most Canadians support government measures to help control the spread of COVID-19, according to a public opinion study. But they’re growing weary of the pandemic.
The arrival of the highly infectious Omicron variant has changed the COVID landscape in Australia. We asked 5 experts whether it’s time to rethink vaccine mandates for dining, fitness and events.
New Zealand’s system of managed quarantine at the border may soon be less important, but we could well need to stand it up again quickly if a new COVID-19 variant emerges.
A woman stops to take a photo of signs attached to the fence around Parliament as the trucker protest continues in Ottawa.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
GoFundMe claims it won’t fund campaigns that promote hate or misinformation. So why is it backing the so-called freedom convoy that’s currently causing so much incendiary disruption in Ottawa?
Health-care workers watch from a window as demonstrators gather outside Toronto General Hospital in September 2021 to protest against COVID-19 vaccines, mandates and restrictions.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
The antagonism driven by political interference in COVID-19 vaccination is fuelling hesitancy. Mass vaccination campaigns require public buy-in via trusted health-care providers and community leaders.
With a COVID-19 booster shot, vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization goes up to 90%.
FatCamera/E+ via Getty Images
Variant-specific vaccines would undoubtedly increase immunity. But waves of new variants would engulf the population faster than these vaccines could ever be deployed.
The list of SARS-CoV-2 variants – each with its own unique qualities that give it an edge – just keeps growing.
Matt Anderson Photography/Moment via Getty Images
People are buzzing with questions about the omicron variant and whether it could help usher in herd immunity. A team of virologists deciphers the latest findings.
People gather to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates and masking measures during a rally in Kingston, Ont., in November 2021. Ottawa’s proposals to bypass publishing vaccine mandate guidelines goes against the principles of good governance.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg
In a time-honoured tradition of Canadian democracy, government regulations become public when they appear in the Canada Gazette. That’s why Ottawa’s proposal to bypass that step is so troublesome.
Around the world, from Italy to Québec, authorities are using everything from mandates to incentives to try to get people vaccinated. Here’s why mandates aren’t always effective, are difficult to enforce and often lead to protests like the one seen here in Rome.
(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Having exhausted policy tools to convince vaccination holdouts to change their minds, it seems little can be gained from additional vaccine mandates than further weakening social cohesion.
Paediatrician at the Royal Childrens Hospital and Associate Professor and Clinician Scientist, University of Melbourne and MCRI, Murdoch Children's Research Institute