#chi20during

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CMAJ NEWS -- Parents on the front lines of COVID-19 face tough choices 

BY CATHERINE VARNER (CHI ‘20) -- Front-line health care workers with children are grappling with difficult decisions about how to protect their families as Canada’s coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak worsens. Many were already managing a precarious work–life balance and complex child care arrangements before the pandemic. But COVID-19 has brought new challenges and anxieties. READ MORE. 

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HEALTHY DEBATE --  Separating fact from fiction: McMaster students, Toronto physician earn international praise for online tools

BY CATHERINE VARNER (CHI ‘20) --  Separating facts and sound advice from lies and conspiracy theories has become a non-stop challenge for health care workers on the COVID-19 frontline. READ MORE. 

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CMAJ NEWS --  Pandemic advances alternatives to hallway medicine

BY CATHERINE VARNER (CHI ‘20) --  Efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Canadian hospitals have produced a surprising change in emergency departments: an abrupt end to hallway medicine. Hospital corridors are no longer overflowing with stretchers. Instead, social distancing in waiting areas, virtual emergency department visits, and a clear sight-line along every hallway have become the new normal. READ MORE. 

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HEALTHY DEBATE --  Rolling out the welcome mat: Hospitals making visits less intimidating

BY CATHERINE VARNER (CHI ‘20) --  The bustling main floor of Canada’s big hospitals, with their unfettered entryways, coffee shops and fundraising tables, are now places of the past. In the pandemic, they feel more like fortresses, guarded by screeners in masks and an array of rules sure to intimidate patients and visitors. READ MORE. 

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CMAJ NEWS --  Vaccination debates may obscure access issues

BY SANDANI HAPUHENNEDIGE (CHI ‘20) -- The uptake of a future vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 will depend on more than winning over the “vaccine hesitant.” Just as important, but often overlooked in heated debates about vaccination, are the people who are willing but unable to vaccinate their families. Efforts to boost immunization rates in recent years have tended to focus on countering the small but vocal anti-vaccination movement through education campaigns and strengthening immunization requirements for school children. READ MORE. 

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THINK GLOBAL HEALTH -- Coronavirus in Toronto—Lessons Lost on a Second SARS

BY ALLISON DANIEL (CHI ‘20) --  when COVID-19 first reached Toronto in January 2020, Canada’s infectious disease and public health experts were quick to recount the lessons they had learned from the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) seventeen years earlier. Thanks to modern air travel and the accidental import of cases from Asia, Toronto saw a large outbreak of SARS in 2003, and few places should have been as well equipped to apply those hard lessons as Canada’s largest city, said Vivek Goel a physician and public health specialist who is now a special advisor for the University of Toronto’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. READ MORE. 

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CMAJ NEWS --  Rehab facilities preparing for COVID-19 crunch as more patients recover 

BY ALLISON DANIEL (CHI ‘20) --  Rehabilitation centres have undergone dramatic transformations over the past three months to accommodate patients recovering from COVID-19. An estimated 1 in 20 patients with COVID-19 require critical care during their illness and are likely to need extensive physical and pulmonary rehabilitation after the fact. READ MORE. 

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THINK GLOBAL HEALTH --  Coronavirus in Malawi

BY ALLISON DANIEL (CHI ‘20) --  Malawi has a unique claim to COVID-19 fame: it is the only country in the world to announce a lockdown, and then cancel it before the restrictions came into force. President Arthur Peter Mutharika declared a state of emergency on March 20 before health authorities reported any cases in the land-locked southeast African country. Three weeks later, with sixteen confirmed cases and two deaths recorded, Mutharika announced a twenty-one-day lockdown, starting on April 18. The new rules were to include shuttering central food markets and non-essential businesses, restricted hours for farming, and public transit only for hospital staff and emergencies. READ MORE. 

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HEALTHY DEBATE -- The end of hallway medicine?

BY CATHERINE VARNER (CHI ‘20) -- As the number of patients visiting emergency rooms approaches pre-pandemic levels, a debate has erupted over whether COVID-19 has changed emergency medicine in Canada forever. READ MORE. 

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HEALTHING --  Dropping vaccinations spark outbreak fears

BY SANDANI HAPUHENNEDIGE (CHI ‘20) --  Fears are growing that doctors’ offices and hospitals could be swamped later this year by outbreaks of measles, whooping cough and other infectious diseases. The reason? Fewer people, especially children, are being vaccinated. READ MORE. 

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HEALTHING --  COVID-19 survivors: The long road of rehab

BY ALLISON DANIEL (CHI ‘20) -- Thousands of patients across Canada are now recovering from COVID-19. But for many, the ordeal is far from over.For survivors who have left hospital, a long road of rehabilitation lies ahead to address problems that linger long after the virus is gone. Rehabilitation takes many forms, such as physical therapy to regain the strength to walk, occupational therapy for daily life at home, and treatment for speech and cognitive impairments. READ MORE. 

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THE CONVERSATION -- Race-based health data urgently needed during the coronavirus pandemic      

BY KATE MULLIGAN (CHI ‘20) -- A one-size-fits-all approach to COVID-19 does not work. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, recently said the province will not collect data on race and other indicators of who is being hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, saying, “regardless of race, ethnic or other backgrounds, they’re all equally important to us.” Williams says he’s following the guidance of the World Health Organization (WHO) and he’s not alone. READ MORE.                                                                                         

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THE CONVERSATION -- Coronavirus: How medical experts are deciding which treatments should be used for COVID-19

BY CATHERINE VARNER (CHI ‘20) --  Ontario doctors and scientists have formed two high-powered committees to sift through the mountain of often conflicting and even dangerous scientific studies on how best to treat patients with COVID-19. READ MORE.                                                                                      

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HEALTHY DEBATE -- There are many reasons why obesity puts people at risk of becoming critically ill from COVID-19 

BY ALLISON DANIEL (CHI ‘20) -- People living with obesity are emerging as one of the groups most at risk of critical illness if they contract COVID-19. Data collected by researchers at New York University indicate that, apart from seniors over 65 years of age, obesity is the leading risk factor for hospitalization and need for critical care due to COVID-19. READ MORE.

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NATIONAL POST --  Alison Thompson on COVID-19: The dark side of antibody testing

BY ALISON THOMPSON (CHI ‘20) --  In the rush to get the economy off life support, a deceptively simple idea has emerged: test citizens for antibodies to the coronavirus and issue them so-called “immunity passports,” so they can return to their daily lives. Yet this may create more problems than it solves. READ MORE. 

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CMAJ NEWS --  Why are parents in Canada less likely to breastfeed than those in poorer nations?

BY ALLISON DANIEL (CHI ‘20) --  No countries fully meet internationally accepted recommendations for breastfeeding of infants. But wealthy nations like Canada are further from achieving these goals than many poorer countries. READ MORE.