COVID vs. flu — is it a fair comparison?
CBC
As COVID-19 restrictions end and New Brunwickers try to find the way back to "normal," the message from politicians and health authorities has often been this: We're going to have to learn to live with it.
After all, some say, we've learned to live with the flu.
But that comparison worries Colin Furness.
COVID-19 and flu are not the same, said Furness, an infection control epidemiologist from Ontario who has been watching New Brunswick's experience with the pandemic.
"There's an enormous danger to treating COVID like a respiratory virus and then holding it up against the flu," he said.
"I really do blame governments, and to some extent public health authorities for not being clear about the nature of the dangers posed by COVID," said Furness.
"And it's frustrating to me that your average Canadian sees COVID as a moderate-risk respiratory virus. That couldn't be further from the truth."
While COVID-19 has a respiratory phase, it is not a respiratory virus and it can cause serious long-term — even permanent — damage.
Scientists are still working to understand the lingering effects of the disease, including the loss of brain tissue and damage to vital organs.
"Flu is none of that," said Furness. "Flu is a respiratory virus. And if it doesn't kill you, it disappears completely."
Influenza statistics don't come close to what New Brunswick is seeing with COVID. The most recent statistics available from the Department of Health are for Week 10, which was March 6 to 12.
In that week, there were no cases of influenza reported and not a single hospitalization due to the flu. The same goes for week 10 last year. In fact, there have only been 18 influenza cases reported so far this flu season.
In 2020, just before the pandemic was declared, Week 10 saw 228 new cases of the flu and 28 new hospitalizations. In 2019, Week 10 brought 102 new cases and 18 new hospitalizations.
As of March 12, there have been no deaths reported from the flu in the current flu season. The same goes for the same period in 2021. By this time in 2020, there were six deaths, and in 2019, there were 20.
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.
The toxic drug crisis has taken more than 47,000 lives in Canada since 2016 and the synthetic opioid fentanyl has become a household name. But now, what's believed to be an even more potent class of synthetic drugs is showing up in drug busts across the country: nitazenes.
The Liberal government and the NDP have agreed to introduce a two-month GST vacation on certain items before the holiday season, Radio-Canada has learned.
Veterinarians are warning Londoners to make sure their dogs are vaccinated and keeping clean after a deadly virus outbreak was declared in London this week.
Registered nurses rallied in St. John's Wednesday as part of a week-long convention, again calling on the Newfoundland and Labrador government to create permanent solutions to staff shortages and workplace violence.