The pandemic’s mental health toll is not distributed equally. Its impact is disproportionately felt by racialized groups, Indigenous Peoples, people with disabilities and those experiencing poverty.
Participants attend a vigil for COVID-19 victims at the Orchard Villa long-term care home in Pickering, Ont. in June 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
COVID-19 has shown that what’s known as financialization in seniors housing has intensified the profit-seeking approach of private owners, with harmful outcomes for residents and workers alike.
Workers assemble personal protective equipment for frontline health staff at a factory in Accra commissioned by the government.
Photo by Nipah Dennis/AFP via Getty Images
The post-pandemic office will be a lot more flexible but still will be necessary to help build relationships among colleagues, according to three scholars.
There are functional tests for coronavirus, but not enough of them are being done.
AP Photo/Paul Sancya
Zoë McLaren, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Ideally everyone could get tested frequently for the coronavirus. No state is close to achieving this, but some are doing better than others. What are the challenges in meeting demand for testing?
Lowering urban density to protect against the coronavirus would be a misguided response. Density is not a key driver of infection, and keeps people active and healthy.
Temperature checks will miss children who are asymptomatic, which we know many kids with COVID-19 are. And the thermometers used aren’t necessarily the most reliable in the first place.
Further tests are needed but a trial showed that, when compared against placebo treatment, those given the drug had a 79% lower risk of developing severe disease.
The hard lockdowns of whole blocks have been challenging for many residents due to their histories of trauma, their housing conditions and a lack of communication and understanding from authorities.
Aged care homes need to have protocols in place to prevent COVID-19 infection in the first instance. But in the event an outbreak does occur, they need to be well prepared.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand