Residents of group homes and long-term care are at high risk for COVID-19. But an important aspect has been left out of Public Health Ontario’s guidance for these facilities: indoor air quality.
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.
To Ono, imaginative acts were a form of survival.
Susan Wood/Getty Images
Ono’s commitment to regenerative rituals is instructive in an era of turmoil and instability.
Anti-Asian attacks killed nine people in 2021, including 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee, seen in a photo held by his daughter Monthanus Ratanapakdee.
AP Photo/Terry Chea
For many, the pandemic switched the focus away from financial gain.
New variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, arise through mutations when the virus replicates in an infected host’s cells.
(NIAID, cropped from original)
COVID-19 variants are the products of the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. They arise via mutations, but other forces also have roles to play in the generation and transmission of variants.
The film ‘Don’t Look Up’ warns of the dangers of ignoring the findings of science.
Marc Ward/Stocktrek Images via Getty Images
Whether about a comet hitting the Earth or a virus infecting the world, fear-based messages often do not succeed at changing people’s behaviors.
Students at a primary school in Nairobi, Kenya, queue to have their temperature taken when public schools fully reopened on 4 January 2021.
Gordwin Odhiambo/AFP via Getty Images
Benta A. Abuya, African Population and Health Research Center
Despite government efforts to provide digital resources for students kept out of school for most of 2020, access to these platforms was deeply unequal
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.
Researchers at Florida International University successfully trained One Betta, a Dutch Shepard, and three other dogs to detect COVID-19 on face masks. The dogs got it right 96% to 99% of the time.
Joe Raedle/Staff/Getty Images North America
Dogs have such sensitive noses that they can be trained to detect the odors of crop pests, endangered species, illegal drugs – and diseases like COVID-19.
Winter Olympians know they must be ready to perform at their best despite the cold.
(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Even with Winter Olympics for inspiration, outdoor activity in sub-zero weather can be hard to commit to. How can it be easier, safer and more fun to embrace your inner winter athlete?
Normalizing the use of masks by vulnerable people during flu season could save many lives, even after the threat of COVID-19 has receded.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
After two years of COVID-19, it’s understandable that many people are weary of infection prevention measures. But simply being tired of the pandemic is no reason to let our guard down.
Policy-makers lack an understanding of how to assess research and the quality of that research. We need to do better during the COVID-19 pandemic and during future health crises.
(Louis Reed/Unsplash)
In most countries, ignorance about how to use evidence properly to inform decision-making has led to missteps during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s how to do better.
Deputy Minister in the Presidency Thembi Siweya, left, visits homeless people at Johannnesburg’s Park Station on ‘Census Night’, 2 February.
GCIS/Flickr
The census will focus everyone in on the core challenges the country faces, where they are, and who is most affected.
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.
Blood donations have dropped at the same time that the need for blood is soaring.
ExperienceInteriors/E+ via Getty Images
Life-saving blood is needed for everything from treating cancers and chronic conditions to helping trauma victims. But blood donations have dropped to crisis levels during the pandemic.
Our healthcare system needs to respond in a more just, inclusive, caring and timely way to allow in-person final goodbyes.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
Our health-care system needs to respond in a more just, inclusive, caring and timely way to allow in-person final goodbyes from those who matter most to those at the end of life.
New research shines light on what is driving hospitality workers – like waiters and hotel workers – to abandon the industry as part of the ‘great resignation.’