Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
It's "only a matter of time" before cases of the new omicron COVID-19 variant are detected in Canada, according to the medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
Dr. William Schaffner says travel bans, such as the one implemented by Canada against southern states in Africa, can help delay the spread of the new strain but that it will eventually make its way around the globe.
"By that time, it's hopeful that we'll learn a lot more about these variants that will help us cope," he told CTV News Channel on Friday. "Anything that can dampen down introductions, slow the spread of this new variant around the world is important."
Right now, what medical experts do know about the strain is that it features a high number of mutations to the virus's spike protein and it appears to transmit more easily than the original COVID-19.
Fortunately, however, current testing methods are sufficient to detect it, which makes screening for the virus more important for countries than before.
"No border is completely porous-free. These things can travel, and that's a problem," Omar Khan, professor of biomedical engineering and immunology at the University of Toronto, told CTV News Channel on Friday. "It was recently detected, that does not mean it recently emerged. So that's the concern."
Canada's chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam stated Friday there are no indications of omicron's presence within the country.
If the new strain were in fact here, Khan says, Canada's high vaccination rate should offer Canadians good levels of protection. We'll know more about how well the COVID-19 vaccines work against omicron in the coming weeks.
"We have to understand that the current vaccines we have available were developed for the original type of coronavirus,” he said. “We were extremely fortunate that it worked for Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. Now, with omicron, time will tell if we will still have protection.
"It's a moving target. The vaccine stays the same and the virus is evolving. So that's the challenge."
But, in the meantime, while Canada and the rest of the world buys time to find a way to tackle the new variant by restricting borders, the price is being paid by those countries in the south of Africa where omicron was detected first, Schaffner says.
"Travel bans are things that are instinctive, you would think that they would keep the virus out, but they're very, very imperfect," he said. "They have the added unfortunate effect of penalizing, in effect, the countries that are so forward who have made the discovery and let everybody know about them."
The pandemic is a global event, Schaffner says, and finding ways to help developing nations will, in effect, help everyone.
"We, the countries of the world, have not yet figured out a way to make enough vaccine and get it distributed equitably in rapid fashion," he said.
"We in the developed world have two reasons for doing this. One is of course the simple humanitarian reason, we want to save as many lives as possible. But the other is those variants, they appear abroad, and then can come home to our countries. So, we have a self-interest in making sure that we end this pandemic around the world as quickly as possible."
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
The deaths of four people on a farm near the Saskatchewan village of Neudorf have been confirmed a murder-suicide.
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
The Parole Board of Canada has granted full parole to one of three men convicted in the brutal murders of three McDonald's restaurant workers in Cape Breton more than 30 years ago.
Nearly 20 hours after a man climbed and remained perched on top of the Reconciliation Bridge in downtown Calgary, the situation came to a peaceful resolution.
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
Genetic analysis has shed light on a long-standing mystery surrounding the fates of U.S. President George Washington's younger brother Samuel and his kin.
A spokesman for a regional Muslim advocacy group says Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's stance on the Israel-Hamas war could complicate his party's relationship with Muslim Canadians.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is officially selling a copy of the Bible themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, 'God Bless the USA.' But the concept of a Bible covered in the American flag has raised concern among religious circles.
B.C. conservation officers recently seized a nine-foot-long Burmese python from a home in Chilliwack.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
The Ontario government is introducing changes to auto-insurance, but some experts say the move is ill-advised.
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Newfoundland’s unique version of the Pine Marten has grown out of its threatened designation.
A Toronto man is out $12,000 after falling victim to a deepfake cryptocurrency scam that appeared to involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.
There’s a group of people in Saskatoon that proudly call themselves dumpster divers, and they’re turning the city’s trash into treasure.
Ontario is facing a larger than anticipated deficit but the Doug Ford government still plans to balance its books before the next provincial election.