Inexplicably Serendipitous

"Originally, we were told she'd be in an induced coma for three days. Then they said they needed a few more days, then a few days more. Now they've started to wean her off [sedation] so they can see if she's stable enough that she can start to wake up."

"Every day she shows a little bit more progress. We're at the risky point right now when they're going to have to start waking her up because the longer they keep her under, the more chance there is that it could cause more damage."

"It was incredible [the realization that Serene Summers was attempting,through her coma, to communicate]. Initially she started signing 'T-H-R-O-' and we said, 'Throat?' and she gave us the thumbs-up. We started asking questions and said if she was able to answer them she should squeeze our hand."{

"I asked if she was in pain and she squeezed my hand. I said, 'Serene, do you understand what's going on?' and she signed 'Why?' and started pointing to the tubes and the bed. There's delirium too because she's under heavy medication and she gets scared and confused."

"She's not really awake. Every now and then she'll start moving around and start panicking. She can't speak. Can't make any noise. But my mom's been really good about being at her bedside and coaching her and trying to calm her down."

"My mom asks questions that require a hand squeeze. It's not a lot, but the progress she's making is amazing."

Matthew Boutros, Ottawa, brother of Serene Summers

Serene Summers, 13, is in critical condition after a hit-and-run. Photo by Supplied /Family photo

On February 13, a Sunday afternoon, thirteen-year-old Serene Summers and a friend had gone along to an area store to buy some Valentine's Day cards they meant to hand out to their classmates at Merivale High School in Ottawa. As the girls prepared to cross a street, a westbound Honda Civic, driven by an unknown person, struck the young girl, and failed to stop, leaving Serene critically injured.

At the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Serene underwent emergency surgery that same evening. She had been placed into a coma to limit damage, as her brain had continued swelling and bleeding. That swelling went on for five days. In that medically induced coma, on a ventilator, ten days following having been struck by a hit-and-run driver, a nurse tending to Serene noticed something peculiar.

The young girl was unable to communicate verbally, no sound emitted from her; she was, after all, still in that medically-induced coma. What drew the nurse's attention, however was the girl's right hand, signalling 'Pain', and then signing, 'Why?'. Serena, years earlier had been taught, for no particular reason,  how to sign the alphabet, by her mother, Anita Armstrong.

What had once been a casual diversion in learning something new and different long ago, suddenly became a miraculous mode of communication when normal communication was not possible. Serene was sufficiently intrigued and invested in sign language that she undertook on her own initiative to expand her vocabulary. As she did she taught herself many other gestures and signs of American Sign Language.

Her brother Matthew, 25, speaks of his young sister with her two brothers and three older half-siblings as tough and athletic. That she aspires in the future to become a pediatric surgeon. "She's an extremely ambitious little girl. She's also very tough. Very strong, very sporty. She's not a dainty little fragile thing. She had two older brothers so she's into rough-housing with us", he explained.

The Ottawa Police Service is actively searching for the driver of the vehicle that struck Serene. Blurry images of the vehicle were released this week, images of a black, two-door Honda Civic coupe, model  year 2006-11. Possibly with front-end damage, conceivably, windshield damage as well.

"It's kind of uncertain what type of therapy and rehabilitation she's going to need. But the doctors and surgeons have said she could be in hospital for months."

"We really don't know the extent of her brain injury, but the doctors have said she's going to require quite a lot of rehabilitation."

"It's still quite early. She's not able to speak and we're not able to see what's going on in her brain until she's awake. Then we can figure out what's going to happen."

Matthew Boutros

Serene Summers and her brother, Matthew Boutros. Serene, 13, was struck by a hit-and-run driver on Meadowlands Drive on Feb. 13. Photo by Photo supplied /Photo supplied

Orwellian DoublespeakMeets Russian Resistance

"My country is committing a horrible crime in Ukraine that can have no justification."

"We all bear a part of responsibility. There is no good way out of that."

Sergei Utkin, head, strategic assessment, Institute of World Economy and International Relations 

"President Putin has made a decision to launch a special military operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine in order to liberate it from this yoke so that Ukrainians can be free in making choices about their future."

"[This is a limited military operation not to target civilians with aims to] liberate [Ukrainians from their pro-Western government."

  Vladimir Putin & Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov

Sergey Lavrov, Russian foreign minister

"No one is going to occupy Ukraine. [Ukrainian troops must surrender and rid themselves of] this gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis that holed up in Kyiv."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

"Hitler was saying in 1941 that he was also out there to liberate people of the Soviet Union from the junta of Communists."

Andrei Makarevich, 68, frontman Russian rock band

"The judge [who sentenced him to 20 days in custody for resisting arrest at an antiwar demonstration in Moscow] couldn't raise her eyes to look at me when I asked."

"The police report is one big lie."

Ilya Fomintsev, founder, Moscow cancer hospital

 

"He [her son] was sent to the border and was told they would be there for a while. He has no idea where he would be deployed."

"Our boys had no idea where they were going. He thought it was just drills again."

Tatyana Denisyuk, eastern Siberia

A demonstrator wearing a face mask with a 'No to war' inscription stands in front of a line of police officers during a protest in central Saint Petersburg on Sunday. (Sergei Mikhailichenko/AFP via Getty Images)

Ordinary Russians by their thousands see through the transparent web of lies expressed by their president and his entourage, to villainize and discredit the current government of Ukraine under their president, Volodymyr Zelenski; a ruse to slander and turn Russian public opinion in favour of Vladimir Putin's punishing invasion against neighbouring Ukraine. A sudden, albeit expected yet disbelieved turn of events that shocked Russians almost as much as it did Ukrainians.

It is Ukraine that is bearing the vicious brunt of Vladimir Putin's cynical criminality; their lives and their country forced to take up arms against an enemy determined to jerk the country out of the democratic mould it has patterned itself toward, to alienate it from the West and coerce it violently back into the Russian embrace of a satellite without the power to select its own future.

The military invasion of a neighbour by a rapacious psychopathic dictator has not endeared Mr. Putin to the privileged within his own society, let alone the congregate masses. Russian officials themselves dare not express misgivings or to denounce a decision to take Russia to war against its vulnerable neighbour, but condemnation comes from younger Russians, resulting in nationwide protests and mass arrests. 

On the streets of Moscow, protesters made their voices heard against the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Sunday. (Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters)

Social media has been flooded with posts by Russians condemning their own leadership for aggression against Ukraine. Posts such as that of Liza Peskova, the cosmopolitan 24-year-old daughter of Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Kremlin, when she posted a black square, captioning it with "No to war!" on her Instagram account. The post was deleted soon afterward.

Prior to her post, the daughter of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich insisted on a social media post the war was Putin's and his alone, the Russian people had no part in it. "The biggest and most successful lie of Kremlin's propaganda is that most Russians stand with Putin", the post by 26-year-old Sofia Abramovich based in London, clarified.

Police officers detain a demonstrator in central Saint Petersburg on Sunday. Outside the upmarket Gostiny Dvor downtown department store, hundreds stood together, linking arms and chanting. (Sergei Mikhailichenko/AFP via Getty Images)

Russian tennis player, 24-year-old Andrey Rublev, wrote "No war please" after his semi-final win in Dubai. Most protesters at the antiwar rallies in Russia hard on the first day of invasion were young, speaking of their disbelief and shame that their president has brought to Russia. 1,700 protesters were detained at rallies taking place in dozens of cities across Russia. Some will continue to be held, charged with 'resisting arrest'.

 "Adolf Putin" was scrawled across buildings and underpasses in St.Petersburg. "No to War" graffiti was sprayed on walls in Moscow, including on the front door of Russia's parliament. "Putin is a Hitler with a nuclear bomb", Leonid Volkov, an ally of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, stated. Such rallies "are not allowed by law", Dmitry Peskov, said in defence of the mass arrests.

An open letter condemning the war was produced by Russian foreign policy journalists. Their protest gained them the advantage of being removed from the pool that accompanies Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on his travels abroad when state media is given access to events they witness enabling them to write stories published in Russian news outlets.

Police officers detain a man in Moscow during an anti-war protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Sunday. A monitoring group says over 2,000 were detained at protests in 48 cities across Russia that day. (Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters)

Kyiv, Fighting Back

Ukrainian servicemen walk at fragments of a downed aircraft seen in in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. It was unclear what aircraft crashed and what brought it down amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine Russia is pressing its invasion of Ukraine to the outskirts of the capital after unleashing airstrikes on cities and military bases and sending in troops and tanks from three sides. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Ratushniak)

"I couldn't imagine this would happen. We are a war with Russia for eight years already, but this? It's insane.:

"I think we will go to Poland. I already have friends there, so I will be fine. If we can make it in, that is." 

Young Ukrainian woman, name withheld, Kyiv, Ukraine

"I knew something bad was coming, ever since Putin recognized [the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics] on Monday."

"But to wake up to Russian missiles was something else."

"I will go and make Molotov cocktails. I want to fight them. I went to the recruitment office today, but they said they wee only taking veterans [for active duty], so I decided on this."

Anya, 25-year-old designer, Kyiv   

 

"Yesterday I woke up from the noise of explosions, I saw flash fires. It was scary."  

"I feel very, very, very angry because it's not a normal situation. It's my country, it's my land, it's my city. And now all of us, all of Ukrainians are under attack. Multiple cities are under attack."  

"All the sanctions are good, but it's not enough. This war is not about only Ukraine and our independence and safety. We are a shield for you - Europe and the world."

Ksenia, resident of Kyiv

Kyiv residents seek shelter in a metro station after being urged by air sirens to find safety  Anadolu Agency

 

Reports emerged on Friday, the second day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, that Russian special forces had entered the city, some disguised in Ukrainian uniforms, engaged in a scheme directed by Vladimir Putin to put a quick end to the war by storming the government to take prisoner or kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and others governing the country along with him. That rumour was circulating mid-morning.

By early evening President Zelensky was on the streets of Kyiv, making himself very present, very visible, even as a disinformation rumour began spreading that he had left the country, taken up the offer proffered by the Biden Administration in the U.S., to have American military agents spirit him to safety. He made it be known that he planned to stay right there, along with Ukraine's soldiers, "fighting for our independence". 

Earlier in the day, automatic gunfire rang out in the city; bursts of small arms firing intermittently that could be heard from Ukraine's capital city centre. Air raid sirens sounded regularly throughout the day in response to the threat of Russian bombing raids, sending the city's residents to area air raid bunkers. Ironically, one of those bunkers is a metro station built during the Soviet era to withstand  nuclear attack.

 

On Friday, reports circulated that 50,000 Ukrainians had fled to Poland. Its border was jammed with refugees. Ukraine authorities had taken steps to intercept any vehicles with Ukrainian male civilians over the age of 18 and under 60, to stop them from leaving, to encourage them to enlist in service to their country, to help fight off the attackers. Authorities in Ukraine urged citizens to take up arms in defence of the capital. 

Automatic rifles would be available to anyone wanting to make use of them, and by late Friday 18,000 had been distributed. Other measures were circulating images explaining how Molotov cocktails could be produced; improvised explosives made by filling a bottle with oil and gasoline. Another touch of bitter irony, since the improvised explosive devices were a brainchild of a 1930s-era Russian general.

Older residents of the city were a trifle sanguine about the situation: "These Russians can't do anything to us. I survived the Soviet Union, I'll survive this, too", said one elderly resident. She had no plans to leave the city. "And where would I go? I'll stay right here", she laughed. "A few weeks in a shelter is easy enough."

From both the north and east, Russian armoured columns are closing in on Kyiv. To slow down their progress, Ukrainian forces have been detonating bridges. The city's thermal power station became victim to a Russian hit. As night fell on Friday, men with Kalashnikov assault rifles were on alert, guarding the metro shelters from the potential threat of Russian infiltration.

"Putin and his thugs can try to take Kyiv", said one of the guards holding a rifle. "Let them see how they will manage against three million of us." The piercing sound of intermittent air raid missiles forming the background.

Firefighters inspect damage at a building following a rocket attack on the city of Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. (Ukrainian Police Department Press Service via AP)

Hint: We Have a Nuclear Arsenal

"Whoever tries to hinder us ... should know that Russia's response will be immediate. And it will lead  you to such consequences that you have never encountered in your history."

"As for military affairs, even after the dissolution of the USSR and losing a considerable part of its capabilities, today's Russia remains one of the most powerful nuclear states."

"Moreover, it has a certain advantage in several cutting-edge weapons. In this context, there should be no doubt for anyone that any potential aggressor will face defeat and ominous consequences should it directly attack our country."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to a journalist's question during a joint news conference with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban following their talks in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022. (Yuri Kochetkov/Pool Photo via AP)

"It's a full-scale invasion of a type we haven't seen on European soil since the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in 1939."

It's totally unprovoked, like in 1939, with a very similar narrative: That the Poles don't deserve to have a state or to even be a nation."

"[Putin signalled his intention for days] using obscene language like the 'de-nazification' of Ukraine. What is colonialism if not the pretense that the people cannot govern themselves? That's exactly what Putin is telling us: That Ukrainians are incapable of governing themselves. It's bone-chilling to hear that."

"Short term, sanctions will not stop the war. The Russians are  hoping for a quick war, but we have plenty of examples of course, in world history of quick wars that became less quick. Then the impact of sanctions could be significant because it's very expensive to wage a full-scale war."

Dominique Arel, Associate Professor of Political Science, Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Ottawa

How full-scale? Russian soldiers and tanks approaching Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv mere hours after the Russian military was given the signal Thursday before the crack of dawn to advance and begin their full-out assault on Ukraine. It took only hours for the Russian defence ministry to claim that 74 military facilities, 11 airfields and 18 radar stations for anti-aircraft batteries had been destroyed by heavy and medium bombers. 

Vladimir Putin delivered an address to his nation, just before signalling the start of the invasion, speaking of the 'demilitarization' and 'de-nazification' of Ukraine. A mission statement beyond ludicrous in his bellicose slander of an eastern European nation that has steadfastly democratized and grown closer to the shared values of the West, moving steadily out of the orbit of Russia, and in the process infuriating the Russian president as it attempted time and again to gain acceptance into NATO.

Efforts expended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky foiled by the very reality that Russia bristled with fury with each successive attempt, leading NATO to exercise its judgement to forestall those attempts. Neither NATO in general or any of its members relish the thought of diplomatically, much less militarily, tangling with Putin's Russia. Of the former eastern European countries that had been commandeered into the USSR, and are now part of NATO, none was seen as so fiercely dominated by Russia as Ukraine.

Ground troops crossed into Ukraine in a three-pronged attack, from the north; from the east through Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv and Sumy; and from Crimea in the south. Tanks were deployed, helicopters and jets flooded across the border into Ukraine, in a carefully planned invasion which saw missiles raining down on cities as the killing machine initiated and fierce fighting began, Ukraine defiant and determined to defend itself and its citizens.

 

Firefighters work on a building in Chuguiv   Getty Images

By the end of the first day of the invasion an estimated 100,000 civilians had fled by train, by bus, by private vehicles, crowding  highways desperate to clear away from the combat zones. Ukraine's neighbours are prepared to give haven to Ukrainian refugees. A strategic military airfield outside Kyiv is in Russian hands. Vladimir Putin's goal is to remove the democratically elected government to re-install a Moscow-appointed replacement.

"What we're seeing right now is tantamount to Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939. And you do not respond by adding 60 new people to the sanctions list. This is at the point where the response has to be using every lever at our disposal to turn [Russia] into a self-ghettoized pariah state."

"We should be looking at things like international travel bans. 'You're travelling on a Russian passport? Nope. Sorry. Turn around and go home'. These are the kind of things that would actually start to hurt."

"This is not just a Ukraine issue. Ukraine just happens to be the human sacrifice standing between Russia and the rest of the old Eastern Bloc that Vladimir Putin also laments losing."

"There's no credible reason to think he's going to stop at Ukraine. And those next countries are NATO members, so, at a certain point, if this continues to escalate, we will have an Article 4 responsibility [invoked by NATO when a member country's security is threatened]."

"No one wants it to get to that point. But no one wanted it to get to this point, either."

Yaroslav Baran, managing principal, Earnscliffe Strategies think tank, Ottawa

 

 

Cannabis Poisoning in Children

Photo: Public Domaine

"It's not your grandfather's cannabis or your father's cannabis."

"We want people to know legal does not mean safe and they should treat it [cannabis] with appropriate caution and respect." 

"It’s troubling to see such a dramatic rise in pediatric cannabis-related emergency department visits, even before legalization. The social reasons behind this surge are not found in the data used for this study, but the significant increase in visits should be a warning to families and doctors."

"More research is needed to identify the causes of this increase and the health and social consequences of cannabis-related visits for these youths."

"It’s important to be aware that cannabis-related emergency department visits in youth were on the rise even before the 2018 legalization of recreational cannabis use for adults 18 and older in Canada."

"Post-legalization and with cannabis edibles, such as chocolates and gummies, now available throughout Canada, these rates may continue to rise. We suggest that emergency department clinicians maintain a high index of suspicion for cannabis exposure in young people presenting to the emergency department."

"Suppose a young person has unexplained decreased consciousness or agitation; in that case, doctors should ask about possible cannabis exposure early in the visit."

"A recent study showed an increased rate of cannabis poisoning in young children under ten in Canada. Along with our study, this reinforces that parents must be aware of the risks associated with cannabis in youth and properly store and lock any cannabis products in the home."

"We know this phenomenon is happening and will likely become more severe."

Dr.Melanie Bechard, Researcher, Emergency Department Physician, assistant professor of pediatrics, University of Ottawa

Between 2003 and 2017, according to a new study led by the CHEO [Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario] Research Institute, cannabis-related hospital emergency visits for children and youth saw a five-fold increase in the province. This spike arrived before cannabis was legalized in Canada in 2018, affecting children, youth and young adults between the ages of ten and 24, related to cannabis consumption.

Based on research from other jurisdictions, the study lead author, Dr.Bechard, stated her expectation that the steep rate of increase in emergency visits would simply continue following legalization. Over 14.5 million administrative records of emergency department visits in Ontario were examined by researchers. Not only did hospital visits increase, but the medical severity of cannabis visits and the likelihood also rose that a patient in an emergency department for cannabis intoxication would then be admitted to hospital.

An explanation for the increase was not part of the study, but Dr.Bechard felt a number of reasons are likely that would explain why hospitals are seeing such increased cannabis-related visits. Among those possible reasons is the fact that THC is of a higher concentration in today's product than formerly; the main psychoactive compound in cannabis now is greater in comparison to decades earlier, studies confirm.

The steep emergency hospital visit increase arrives in a period when student self-reports indicated that cannabis use was stable, and even on the decrease. Leaving higher THC concentration, not wider use, the culpable explanation. Changing societal attitudes toward cannabis has most likely played a role in the increasing numbers of young people presenting with serious illnesses placed at cannabis' door. Which could also account for cannabis being more readily accessible to young children within a household.

"It is something I see day in and day out as an emergency provider", explained Dr.Bechard. Other research out of Ot4tawa published a month earlier discovered that cannabis poisonings in children dramatically increased once edibles were legalized in 2019, and close to ten percent of all emergency department visits for poisoning in young children are now seen to involve cannabis.

Providers of pediatric health have been attempting to promulgate public health messages highlighting the need for safe storage of cannabis in the household presence of children. Parents and family members are asked as well, to alert health care providers should they suspect cannabis is involved in a child's illness. 

As far as educating older adolescents and teens of safer cannabis use, the study emphasizes its importance. Teens exposed to safe practices in cannabis use should be taught the importance of using lower doses and to increase usage slowly, being careful not to ingest large amounts of edibles, in the process.

A Higher Order Of Intelligence

"A magpie that didn’t have a tracker on came up to one of the individuals that did and started pecking at it."

"We were thinking, ‘what’s going on? Are they trying to get it off? And then we were thinking, ‘Oh, it’s really hard to get these things off. There’s no way it’ll be able to do it’."

"The motions they were doing, it was clear, targeted, like, ‘I’m going to take this giant thing off you’."

"If they were fooling around with the tracker, at the top, they would never have gotten it off."

"They either had to show tremendous tenacity or problem-solving by doing a range of different behaviours, and snipping at different points, to be able to get it off."{

"We found there wasn’t anything in the literature. This was actually a completely new behaviour in a completely new situation, which was kind of cool."

Queensland-based animal ecologist Dominique Potvin

The birds gathered together to work on removing the harnesses Alamy

We err in underestimating the intelligence of other animals in the belief that only humans have defining emotions such as empathy, or the capacity to assess situations then act according to their intentions. A research project being conducted in Australia went somewhat off the rails unexpectedly with the animal subjects -- highly intelligent birds -- failing to cooperate. The scientists set out to study magpies by fitting tiny harnesses with GPS trackers on the birds.

The purpose was routine enough, and is often carried through by scientists intending to measure the movements of animals and follow their travels for research purposes. In this instance where the intention was to find out more about the flying habits and social dynamics of magpies, the birds decided to take matters into their own claws and beaks. In the process actually teaching the researchers a good deal about the social dynamics of magpies.

The researchers deliberately placed the harnesses in such a way as to prevent them from accidentally falling off or being pried away, by placing the weakest part carefully positioned under the birds' breast to ensure they couldn't be pecked away by the birds using their beaks to free themselves from the harnesses. One of the researchers noticed an unharnessed bird paying close attention to one of the five magpies that had been fitted with a harness.

And it took but minutes before the magpies tended to one another in identifying the weak point then applying direct, targeted force to free each of the birds from the presence of the irritating harness. None of the birds was able to free itself; it was a cooperative effort on the part of the group itself, one bird ministering to another until all were freed.

Without themselves observing four of the birds actively removing the devices, it would have been a stretch of the imagination to foresee these birds assessing the situation in such a manner that they would understand what would be required to enact the rescue between themselves. Intelligent animals they certainly are. As are crows and ravens and parrots, among avian species known for their high intelligence.

"When we attached tiny tracking devices to five magpies for a pilot study, we didn't expect to discover a social behaviour rarely seen in birds."

"Our goal was to learn more about the movement and social dynamics of these highly intelligent birds."

"Instead, the birds outsmarted us."

Dr.Dominique Potvin, lecturer in animal ecology, Sunshine Coast University, Australia

It's The Neanderthal In You

"This major genetic risk factor for COVID-19 is so common that I started wondering whether it might actually be good for something."

"We don't know at the moment why it was likely advantageous 10,000 years ago. There are many genes involved in the immune system in this region of the genome, so there are many plausible candidate genes."

"If I were to guess, smallpox would be a good candidate. It also enters cells using chemokine receptors."

Dr.Hugo Zeberg, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany

An exhibit at the Neanderthal museum in Krapina, Croatia. A strand of DNA increasing the risk of developing severe Covid-19 has been inherited from the Neanderthals, scientists believe. Photograph: Nikola Solic/Reuters/Corbis

Research recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences appears to strongly suggest that Neanderthal genes known to protect people from smallpox, could conversely explain why it is that some ethnic groups appear more at risk from contracting COVID. 

 

South Asians throughout the pandemic are seen to have been at greater risk of severe illness, for example, even accounting for factors such as deprivation, employment and living conditions. Mutated genes inherited from Neanderthals seem to have doubled the risk of contracting severe COVID.

A study conducted by Dr.Hugo Zeberg determined that roughly half of South Asians carry the mutations in comparison with a fifth of Europeans. The variants must have been beneficial at one time, reasoned Dr. Zeberg, for them to have been passed down over the ages. Research that Dr.Zeberg conducted revealed that their impact lowered the risk of HIV infection by about 27 percent.

That being the case, the researcher realized a suggestion that those same genes would in all likelihood prevent other disease from entering cells in the same manner as does smallpox. When infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19, some people become seriously ill, while others suffer mild or no symptoms.

 

Genes contribute to the chances of contracting severe infection, apart from known risk factors such as advanced age and chronic illnesses such as diabetes. Those with the Neanderthal mutation on chromosome 3 have fewer CCR5 receptors used by HIV to enter human cells, similar to the method of entry for smallpox. Leading researchers to believe that the mutation may have occurred thousands of years past, to protect against the virus, since eradicated.

 

Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo, PhD, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, is co-author of a recent study that traced a gene cluster linked to a higher risk of severe COVID-19 to 50,000-year-old Neanderthals from Croatia   (Photo: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)

 

Shattering Social Assumptions

"Descriptive studies like this are like paintings -- different people will see different things in the numbers."

"But the reality is that what lies behind the earnings differences reported is nuanced, complex, and largely unknown."

"It's almost a fundamentally unidentified problem. [Rather then automatically believing gaps in earnings and education to be rooted in] injustice or unfairness [it is important to remember] people make different choices."

Mikal Skuterud, economist, University of Waterloo

 

"[The report set out to measure weekly incomes of Canadian-born people between the ages of 25 to 44 in 2016, a census year, based on a dozen visible minority categories. as a setting for the country's Anti-Racism Strategy, committed to] removing barriers and promoting a country where every person is able to fully participate and have an equal opportunity to proceed."

"Only about one in twenty [visible minority members] live in smaller cities, towns and rural areas, compared with about one in three white people." 

StatsCan Report, Theresa Qiu and Grant Schellenberg

People of colour born in Canada are more likely than white people to have university degrees. That contributes to higher earnings. Photo by Handout /Vancouver Sun

Statistics Canada has issued its latest report emanating from research on ethnic groups, focusing on earnings and educational achievements. Their results challenge the fairly universal social belief in discrimination in the workplace against visible minorities and people from ethnic minorities holding back advancement. What the report points out is that earnings vary widely for each ethnic cohort studied; some groups clearly flourishing, and others struggling to attain earnings parity.

Those of South Korean, Chinese and South Asian heritage appear to represent the top echelon of earners in Canada by and large, while Latin-American and Black groups tend to be among the lowest earners. Whites, on the other hand, are stuck for the most part in the middle of the pack with respect to wages and surprisingly enough are in the lower echelons regarding university education.

Such details, according to economist Frances Woolley of Carleton University, are critical to understanding the situation pertaining to achievement in both these areas regarding visible minorities. The federal Employment Equity Act places visible minorities as one of four groups covered; women, people with disabilities and Indigenous Canadians, make up the other three.

White Canadians were used as a majority baseline, enabling the report to pinpoint that some ethnic groups are performing significantly better than others in earnings and education. Striking differences between men and women is examined as is how people of colour tend to overwhelmingly choose to live in major cities in Canada.

The report also gently turns the table on preconceptions over outcomes being directly responsible by the presence in workplaces and educational opportunities by racist workplace supervisors or discriminatory educators. Outcomes in both areas are far more likely to be the result of complex life decisions people tend to make, for those people who fail to move up the ladder of opportunity.

According to the report, most visible-minority Canadian women earn more than do white females, whose average was $1,120 weekly. Korean-Canadian women earned $1,450 a week while Chinese women earned $1,440; South Asian women $1,360;and Arab and Iranian women, $1,120. Black women on the other had, earned less, at $1,080, and Latin-American women made $1,000 a week.

Slightly more was earned by Korean, Japanese and South Asian men than white males, who took in $1,530, while Chinese-Canadian men earned about the same and Filipino and South-East Asian men earned roughly 15 percent less than white males, and Latin-Americans and Black males earned about 20 percent less.

When variables such as age, place of residence and educational levels are taken into account, other issues remain significant. The Statistics Canada report makes no suggestion where discrimination might be occurring in Canada, but both Schellenberg and Skuterud feel the data appears to raise at minimum one red flag: Black males fell further behind others in earnings in the period between 2006 and 2016.

Another surprise: People of colour born in Canada are likelier than are white people to gain university degrees. Over 60 percent of Chinese and Korean men earned a bachelor's degree at the very least, or  higher, in comparison to 24 percent of white males, a gulf in educational attainment considered "astonishing", by Dr.Skuterud. Over 40 percent of South Asian, Arab, West Asian and Japanese men sought and gained university degrees.

The only ethnic groups less likely to have degrees as compared to white males were Black males, at 20 percent, and Latin-American males at 17 percent. And then there is the different lifestyle choices made by people of colour and whites, where 60 percent of all people of colour in Canada choose to live in just three cities; Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, in comparison to a mere 27 percent of white people.

One reason many people of colour earn more than do white people, is the very fact that they live in metropolises where wages tend to be higher. White people, found the authors, were also likelier to be married, have children and not be living with their parents. U.S. research in particular has explored whether employers discriminate based on race or ethnicity, despite which, Dr.Skuterud points out "It's almost a fundamentally unidentifiable problem."

Sixty per cent of all people of colour in Canada live in just three cities — Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver — where wages are generally higher. That compares to only 27 per cent of white people. Photo by KENA BETANCUR /AFP via Getty Images

Analyzing Deep Space

James Webb Space Telescope   NASA

"It's extremely satisfactory seeing everything coming into place. It's a sense of amazement and happiness."

"[The sensor ... Fine Guidance Sensor ...] is mission critical. There was a lot of pressure on us. Everybody was very happy."

"You would be able to point at a human hair [with the sensor] from a couple kilometres away. It's pretty much pushing the limit of what can be done."

"I can't wait to see the data we'll get."

 Jean Dupuis, senior mission scientist, Canadian Space Agency

Canada's Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) and the Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. (Credit: NASA)

Canada is an integral part of the massive James Webb Space telescope functioning, joining with NASA with the ambitious to make this space exploration project operational, from the beginning. Up to half of the 600 scientists in the Canadian Astronomical Society are or have been involved with the project. Dozens of Canadian scientists and engineers are involved in the design team that produced vital Canadian technology used in the functioning of the telescope. 

 

The systems meant to give direction to the telescope have been designed and built through the Canadian Space Agency.

The cost of the James Webb, launched in late December, designed to study the nature of planets beyond our solar system, and to enable study of what the oldest galaxies reveal about the birth of the universe, was $13 billion, and represents over two decades of work. Designed and builtt as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, the Webb is meant to orbit deeper into space -- about 15 million kilometres out -- with a sensitivity more than a hundred to a million times greater than its predecessor.

It is deemed to be sensitive enough through the newer technology with which it is outfitted to analyze exoplanetary atmospheres and to gather data from "First Light" galaxies, whose formation extends back 13.6 billion years. Without the installed Fine Guidance Sensor none of these ambitious prospects would be possible. Up and running, the sensor is used to align the telescope's 18 mirrors. It will probably take until summer for the sensor to cool down to below -200C to be fully operative.

Once that happens the sensor will function to aim the James Webb with a precision scarcely believable; down to a few milli-arcseconds. Operational and functional success appears to be the hallmark of the telescope and its launch. In December, NASA announced that the telescope had succeeded in slipping into its orbit so wonderfully well, the fuel savings could operate the telescope for significantly longer a period than the original ten-year lifespan foreseen. 

As well as the sensor, another Canadian contribution is its Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectograph, meant to assist in analyzing light observed by the telescope. As a result of Canadian involvement to the extent and degree that it has been, Canadian astronomers have a special entitlement to five percent of the observation time the telescope offers.

Canadian researchers plan to use the Webb telescope to study asteroids and comets close to Earth as well as the effect that stars have on the space around them in distant regions of the galaxy where new stars are born.

 

Move Over, Omicron, Here Comes Your Offspring!

"I think this is going to be the reality going forward as we go towards an endemic scenario." 

"Hopefully, knock on wood, it’s osculating towards a less lethal and a much more milder version of COVID."

Fredericton pharmacist Alistair Bursey. 

 

"There is very limited evidence at present to determine how impactful the differences between BA.1 and BA.2 may be, hence the ongoing efforts by PHAC scientists to monitor cases here in Canada and track developments internationally."

Public Health Agency of Canada

 

"Significant degree of uncertainty [remains around BA.2, but the subvariant is worth keeping an eye on as more cases are reported around the world]."

"We have a lot of BA.1 for example here in Canada, we also have BA.2. What's interesting is, in other jurisdictions, we're seeing growth of BA.2 whereas BA.1 might be on the downslope." 

"Again, something to keep an eye on for now."

"It's not the same [as BA.1], it's probably a little bit more transmissible, but there's probably a lot of other similarities."

"I think it's too soon to know exactly how this manifests and we need to learn more."

Infectious disease expert Dr. Isaac Bogoch, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto

BA.2 has been tracked for weeks in regions around the world, but drew the close attention of virologists once it started to creep up on the original Omicron lineage in multiple countries, including early signals of a slight rise here in Canada. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

Canadian provinces are starting to remove pandemic restrictions. The wave of infections caused by Omicron is subsiding, there are fewer infections, less hospitalization and ICU patients. The time is seen as ripe for restrictions to start lifting. The trouble is that with the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, every time the medical community begins to heave a collective sigh of relief that the pandemic seems to be getting under control, it has another trick up its sneaky sleeve.

Omicron has proven to be the most infectious mutation yet of the original coronavirus. It is also held to be less lethal in its outcome than its predecessor, Delta. But it has swept unmercifully through the human community worldwide. That the latest Omicron wave brought to Canada courtesy of its wild infection rate has bred through mutation, another variant -- dubbed by the World Health Organization BA.2 through its origins in BA.1 -- that is even more infectious [showing up in laboratories since November], is no success story for COVID control.

BA.2 has now gained a firm foothold in Canada, just as BA.1 is subsiding. Which means that COVID-weary populations, anxious for restrictions to be lifted, hoping for COVID to recede into the mysterious background from which it came, may now become vulnerable to an even more transmissible disease than Omicron turned out to be. With society beginning to open, just as BA.2 -- the variant offspring of BA.1 --, is gaining strength in numbers infected, is not a particularly good sign for the near future.

BA.1 is thought to be 1.4 times more infectious than its predecessor and it is anticipated to become dominant in coming weeks, potentially extending the current wave of the pandemic just as all indications have been that it is fading. Infectious disease experts are conflicted in their points of view; many indicating there is not enough known about the variant to make confident predictions, others that though it will influence rising case counts, it may not be a complete game-changer.

Based on the fact that the Omicron wave is diminishing, that booster shot rates are fairly high, and an estimated 3.5 million people in the province of Ontario alone have been infected with COVID-19 during the overwhelming Omicron wave that began back in December, there is a condition of widespread immunity assumed to exist in the general population. 

The BA.2 rise in Canada "does not necessarily mean a second major Omicron wave will happen, more likely we'll see a prolonged peak or a shoulder in the Omicron wave", according to the opinion of Sarah Otto, professor of evolutionary virology and mathematical modelling at University of British Columbia, herself a leading Canadian expert on BA.2.

Scientists, on the other hand, are studying Omicron closely since so much uncertainty remains and it has been associated with a renewed spike in cases in countries like Denmark, which dropped all pandemic restrictions in January including masks and is now experiencing record high case counts with the BA.2 sub-variant dominant.

BA.2 is different enough from BA.2, argues a recent study led by Japanese researchers, that it should not be classified as a variant of Omicron, but rather, should be given its own unique Greek name, setting it apart from its predecessor.

 

Research is underway to understand the BA.2 subvariant's impact on vaccine effectiveness, but current shots are still expected to continue offering protection against severe illness. (Luke Dray/Getty Images)

"What is important to remember here is that Denmark is not Canada. Denmark is a different population, with different vaccine uptake, different medical histories and demographics." 

"So what's happening in Denmark isn't necessarily going to automatically translate to Canada." 

"We need to keep the sequencing going on,. We need to know the behaviour of this virus."   

Angela Rasmussen, virologist, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, University of Saskatchewan    

 

"We need to get serious, find out fast the conditions under which Omicron originated, the mechanisms at play during the assembly of its complement of mutations and figure out how we can minimize the probability of these conditions recurring,"    

"The last thing any of us want is another new hyper-evolved [variant of concern] cropping up every few months."

Darren Martin, virologist, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Propitiating COVID With Cash

"The unique characteristics of a pandemic recession imply that fiscal policy during a pandemic should be geared much more toward helping those who are directly harmed rather than toward increasing aggregate demand more generally. That is, it should be aimed at providing social insurance rather than broad stimulus."

"Although direct payments [up to $1,200 per person followed by $600 and $1,400] surely gave many households a much-needed boost at a difficult time, most of the money went to people who had not been economically harmed by the pandemic."

"[If] stimulus payments that did little to help those most affected by the pandemic end up precluding spending $1 trillion on infrastructure or climate change in the next few years, the United States will have made a very bad bargain indeed."

Christina D. Romer, Professor of Economics, University of California-Berkeley

Pedestrians at the intersection of King and Yonge Streets in Toronto. Photo by Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia files

Those that could, did. Wealthy countries of the world, struck by the terror of the global pandemic in the face of their hospitals flooded with COVID-19 patients, workplaces reduced, small businesses failing due to closures, stricken COVID patients dying, spent wildly in the belief that if they spent widely enough and wisely enough they could 'buy' their way out of the crisis, and suffer fewer catastrophic casualties than countries unable -- due to financial constraints -- to cast treasury funding at the problem.

 

So in hindsight how did they fare comparatively, the big spenders and the penniless sufferers?

 

There was in fact, an enormous variation in spending their way around the pandemic by various countries. Some pushed their budges to highs never seen before, taking on huge debts. Other countries were far less stridently defensive and restrained their horror at what was unfolding before their very eyes. It now becomes increasingly evident that more government spending was no guarantee of more relief from the pandemic.

 

Governments that spent the most lavishly during the pandemic's early days counted amongst themselves the United States and New Zealand; each spending 11.5 percent of GDP, with Canada following at 10.1 percent. Four of five biggest spenders were wealthy, English-speaking countries. As an example, the spending indulged in by the government of Canada was over double that of other countries such as France, Spain and Italy. 

It appears that the size of the national health crisis did not determine the size of the economic response; no evidence exists that countries with high COVID-19 mortality rates spent more on the pandemic than did countries with lower rates of population death -- or vice versa. "Countries in 2020 appear to have been constrained in their fiscal choices ... by their ability to borrow", explained Ms.Romer in a case study. Wild borrowing is what enabled these countries to spend as much as they could.

Those countries of the OECD with poor bond rating scores like Italy and Greece were forced by circumstances to spend substantially less than did countries with higher credit ratings. Canada began the pandemic with a top-rated AAA credit rating, representing one of the countries that borrowed and borrowed as though they would never be faced with a future invoice for repayment. In the process its credit rating descended in reflection of its vast borrowing amounts.

Canada was the fifth largest spender according to the IMF, its pandemic bill totalling a whopping 15.9 percent of GDP, but the prize goes to the United States, at a stratospheric 25.4 percent. Once more, four of the top five spots place wealthy English speaking countries in an overspending clique. Mexico, on the other hand, sits at the bottom with 0.7 percent of GDP spent on programs for COVID-19.

There seems to be no relationship that stands out between spending an historically immense wealth of borrowed money and a better health or economic outcome getting through the pandemic. The U.S. high COVID-19 mortality rate linked to its high spending reflects a poor return on investment with a death toll of 251 per 100,000 population, slightly worse than Mexico's 234 per 100,000 -- bearing in mind that Mexico spent negligibly on COVID-19.

The most efficient country leading the pack in outcome is South Korea with a mortality rate of 11 per 100,000 representing a fraction of what even Canada at 81 deaths per 100,000 experienced. Countries that spent less than average on COVID-19 policies, locking down less aggressively, were those that spent less than the average. South Korea stands out for its combination of below-average spending and above-average economic results, along with fewer population deaths.

Stem Cell Transplants From Umbilical Cord Blood

"This is now the third report of a cure in this setting, and the first in a woman living with HIV."

"[The report] confirms that a cure for HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is possible and further strengthens using gene therapy as a viable strategy for an HIV cure."

"It was previously thought that graft versus host disease might be an important reason for an H.I.V. cure in the prior cases."

"Taken together, these three cases of a cure post stem cell transplant all help in teasing out the various components of the transplant that were absolutely key to a cure."

Dr.Sharon Lewin, president-elect, International AIDS Society

"The fact that she’s mixed race, and that she’s a woman, that is really important scientifically and really important in terms of the community impact."

"Umbilical stem cells are attractive. There’s something magical about these cells and something magical perhaps about the cord blood in general that provides an extra benefit."

Steven Deeks, HIV researcher, University of California, San Francisco

A colored scanning electron micrograph of H.I.V. particles, in yellow, infecting a host cell. The patient received cord blood from a donor with the mutation that blocks H.I.V.’s entry into cells.   Credit...Thomas Deerinck, NCMIR/Science Source

Worldwide, approximately 38 million people are infected with and live with H.I.V. Some 73 percent of these H.I.V.-infected individuals receive treatment through antiretroviral therapy. Of that staggering number of people afflicted with the virus that causes AIDS, three people having undergone novel new surgeries have now been declared cured of the virus. The latest is an American woman with leukemia, the first woman and only the third person to the present cured after receiving a stem cell transplant, the donor of which was naturally resistant to the virus.

This breakthrough case of a middle-aged woman of mixed race was announced at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections taking place in Denver, Colorado. The case study also represents the first involving umbilical cord blood, an emerging approach with the promise of expanding such treatment to greater numbers of H.I.V.-infected people.

The woman has been in remission, free of the virus, for 14 months, no longer requiring potent H.I.V. treatments known as antiretroviral therapy, since she received the cord blood treating her acute myeloid leukemia. This is a type of cancer that begins in blood-forming cells located in bone marrow. Before this case, there were two previous ones that occurred in H.I.V.-infected males. They too had received adult stem cells, more frequently used in bone marrow transplants.

The newly reported case outcome is part of a large U.S.-supported study with the intention of following 25 patients with H.I.V. who undergo transplants with stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood for cancer treatment and other serious conditions. At this point, doctors transplant stem cells from individuals having a specific genetic mutation where they lack receptors utilized by the virus to infect cells.

These individuals, scientists believe, then go on to develop an immune system that has become resistant to H.I.V. infection. While a considerable number of H.I.V. patients will go on to take advantage of this therapy, bone marrow transplants do not represent a viable strategy as a curative for most people living with H.I.V. But it is a building block that may lead to additional therapies whose treatment may have similar results.

 

This scanning electron microscopic image shows the presence of numerous HIV virions. Since receiving umbilical cord blood to treat her acute myeloid leukemia a 64-year-old woman from the U.S. has been in remission and free of the virus for 14 months, researchers said. (C. Goldsmith, P. Feorino, E. L. Palmer, W. R. McManus/CDC/Reuters)