'It could be catastrophic': Woman says natural supplement contained hidden painkiller drug
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
Megan Scheffers waited until July to celebrate Christmas with her kids after the COVID-19 pandemic kept them apart last winter, but she says decorating candy log cabins just wasn't the same in the dead of summer.
She was hoping to make up for missed traditions this year as two of her three children booked mid-December tickets to fly to Nova Scotia from the Netherlands, where they live with their father.
But as the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus threatens to upend the holiday season, Scheffers said she's worried her 12-year-old and nine-year-old may not make it to Halifax to open their presents.
"All of the decorations, they're still packed away, because I wanted to pull them out when they arrive so we can do it together," Scheffers said.
"Last year, I didn't even put a tree up. Is this going to be year number two without a tree ... and without my children?"
Scheffers is among many Canadians whose holiday plans hang in the balance as mounting anxiety about the Omicron variant dampens excitement for a vaccine-protected comeback of Christmas merriment.
Nazeem Muhajarine, a professor of community health and epidemiology at University of Saskatchewan, said winter festivities may have to be scaled back as Omicron stokes concerns about the safety of holiday travel and gatherings.
But with so much still unknown about the virus mutation, Muhajarine said there's still hope of salvaging the holiday spirit, encouraging revellers to see how the situation unfolds before scrapping their celebrations.
"I think it's prudent to take a more cautious, measured approach," he said. "But wait and see closer to Christmas Day or New Year's Day before you finalize those plans."
Some scientists have suggested Omicron could be more contagious than other strains of the virus, but Muhajarine said it could take weeks to determine the implications of the new variant, including whether it causes severe illness and whether it can overcome immunity provided by vaccination or infection.
He added that while Omicron has been linked to a dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases in South Africa, it's too early to predict how the variant will spread in Canada, which has a much higher rate of vaccination.
What is clear is that the uncertainty could pose complications for those planning to spend the holidays abroad now that Canada and a host of other countries have tightened border measures in response to the variant's spread, said Muhajarine, warning that international travellers risk getting tangled in testing and quarantine requirements to reach their destination.
Visiting family and friends within Canada is a safer bet, he said, but he suggested that visitors take rapid antigen tests before they arrive and after they leave as an added precaution.
Muhajarine said hosts should also be prepared to rearrange their Christmas dinner tables as provinces roll out their COVID-19 policies for the holiday season.
New Brunswick entered the first phase of its so-called winter action plan on Sunday, which allows for indoor household gatherings of up to 20 people, but the province has advised against inviting individuals who have chosen not to get vaccinated.
Meanwhile, Ontario officials have indicated that they intend to stick with their 25-person limit on indoor get-togethers. Quebec is expected to issue its holiday recommendations this week, but Premier Francois Legault has signalled that he hopes to increase indoor gathering limits to 20 or 25 people, up from the current cap of 10.
For his part, Muhajarine endorsed even more intimate celebrations with single-digit guest lists, and making full vaccination a condition of attendance, to reduce the risk of making this Christmas a loved one's last.
"That is how we can have a safe and smart Christmas this year, and hopefully, next year it will be different."
If that sentiment sounds familiar, it may be because it echoes a common refrain among public health officials who for nearly two years have been entreating Canadians to make short-term sacrifices in the service of a brighter future.
Steve Joordens, a psychology professor at University of Toronto Scarborough, worries that the emergence of the Omicron variant just in time for the holidays may mark a tipping point in people's patience for such promises, hardening pandemic fatigue into "depression."
"We thought we were finally going to get the chance to have a Christmas. If that gets taken away from us, I think it's a little extra insult to the injury," said Joordens.
"I think we're starting to feel a hint of these depressive feelings that nothing we can do really changes anything, and that's a scary road to start going down."
Alexandra Martino, a 29-year-old social media manager in London, said she's determined to maintain her holiday cheer as she prepares to fly across the pond to see her family in Toronto for the first time since last Christmas. This despite knowing there's a chance that Omicron could usher in a new wave of holiday disruptions in the week leading up to her flight.
"I just have to stay positive and optimistic, and just keep thinking, 'I'm totally going home. I'm totally going home,"' until something shows up and says, 'You actually cannot.'"
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 5, 2021.
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
The World Health Organization is likely to issue a wider warning about contaminated Johnson and Johnson-made children's cough syrup found in Nigeria last week, it said in an email.
Police have released video footage of a dramatic takedown of a group of teens wanted in connection with an attempted carjacking in Markham earlier this month.
Canada called for 'all parties' to de-escalate rising tensions in the Mideast following an apparent Israeli drone attack against Iran overnight.
A woman who recently moved to Canada from India was searching for a job when she got caught in an online job scam and lost $15,000.
More money will land in the pockets of some Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit installment.
The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time on what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.