Stamp prices rise for the third time in five years amid financial woes for Canada Post
Canada Post is increasing stamp prices for the third time since 2019, a move the Crown corporation says is a "reality" of its sales-based revenue structure.
New research into the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 booster shot suggests getting a third dose significantly reduces the risk of disease-related hospitalization and death.
Conducted by Israel’s Clalit Research Institute in collaboration with researchers at Harvard University, the study compared data from 728,321 individuals age 12 and older who received a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine with the same number of people who received only two doses at least five months prior.
According to the study, receiving the Pfizer booster shot reduced COVID-related hospitalization by 93 per cent, COVID-related death by 81 per cent, and severe COVID-19 illness by 92 per cent, compared with receiving just two doses.
“These results show convincingly that the third dose of the vaccine is highly effective against severe COVID-19-related outcomes in different age groups and population subgroups, one week after the third dose,” said Ran Balicer, senior author of the study and director of the Clalit Research Institute, in a press release.
The study took place in Israel from July 30 through Sept. 23. Researchers looked at the number of COVID-19-related hospital admissions, deaths and severity of disease based on criteria from the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The study also found that a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine reduced the risk of COVID-19 infection by 88 per cent.
“To date, one of the main drivers of vaccine hesitancy has been a lack of information regarding the effectiveness of the vaccine,” said Ben Reis, director of the Predictive Medicine Group at Harvard Medical School and the Boston Children's Hospital Computational Health Informatics Program, in the press release. “This careful epidemiological study provides reliable information on third-dose vaccine effectiveness, which we hope will be helpful to those who have not yet decided about vaccination with a third dose.”
Researchers, however, do note that the rate of COVID-19 hospitalization and severe disease among those age 16 to 39 was too small to determine the booster’s effectiveness. The study also did not include health-care workers, those living in long-term care facilities or people medically confined to their homes. These groups are often more vulnerable to contracting the disease, and likely to be targeted early to receive a booster shot.
At the time of the study, Israel was undergoing its fourth wave largely driven by the Delta variant, which continues to be a concern in Canada today.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization suggested on Oct. 29 that provinces offer mRNA vaccine booster shots to Canadians who are aged 70 and up, along with people who received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine or one dose of the Janssen vaccine and adults in First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities, at least six months after their primary vaccine course. Provinces across Canada have already begun outlining their third-dose policy for immunocompromised people.
Canada Post is increasing stamp prices for the third time since 2019, a move the Crown corporation says is a "reality" of its sales-based revenue structure.
Italy's mafia rarely dirties its hands with blood these days. Extortion rackets have gone out of fashion and murders are largely frowned upon by the godfathers.
After his adopted parents died, Dave Rogers set out to learn more about his birth mother. DNA results and a little help from friendly strangers would put him on a path to a small town in England.
H5N1 or avian flu is decimating wildlife around the world and is now spreading among cattle in the United States, sparking concerns about 'pandemic potential' for humans. Now a health expert is urging Canada to scale up surveillance north of the border.
The judge presiding over Donald Trump's hush money trial has fined him US$1,000 for violating his gag order and sternly warned the former president that additional violation could result in jail time.
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
AI tools can offer recommendations, answer questions and 'talk' with users. But some users are using them to recreate the likeness of the dead.
Russia plans to hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons, the Defense Ministry announced Monday, days after the Kremlin reacted angrily to comments by senior Western officials about the war in Ukraine and Moscow warned that tensions with the West are deepening.
The Israel-Hamas war has led to a spike in 'violent rhetoric' from 'extremist actors' that could prompt some in Canada to turn to violence, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service warns.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.