Senate expenses climbed to $7.2 million in 2023, up nearly 30%
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
As the rate of Black Americans vaccinated against COVID-19 lags behind those of other groups, officials in the U.S. are turning to barber shops and hair salons to combat vaccine misinformation.
“We talk about their darkest secrets, so I know that they trust me because they share a lot with me,” Katrina Randolph, owner of Tres Shadez Hair Salon in Capitol Heights, Md., told CTV National News.
“So why not get vaccinated? Why not allow me to help you make a decision to save your life.”
In early June, the Biden administration announced it had teamed up with several organizations, including the Black Coalition Against COVID, to launch an initiative called "Shots at the Shop," encouraging Black-owned barber shops and beauty salons to promote vaccine education and outreach on a local level.
Shops like Randolph’s help to share accurate information about vaccines with their customers, even hosting on-site vaccination events in partnership with local health care providers.
“It’s familiar… not an office… I feel comfortable getting the shot here,” said Tres Shadez client Skylar Moses.
U.S. federal data shows that less than a third of Black Americans have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine – the lowest of any racial or ethnic group in the country.
Historic discrimination and damning reports involving racialized patients have deepened mistrust in Black, Indigenous and communities of colour, leading to vaccine hesitancy -- defined by the World Health Organization as people purposely delaying receiving available vaccines.
For Black Americans, some of those reservations stem back to the unethical Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments, which lasted from 1932 to 1972, where researchers from the U.S. Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) purposefully didn’t treat Black patients infected with Syphilis to observe the “natural history” of the untreated disease.
And despite the fact that racialized communities face a greater risk of contracting COVID-19, a U.S. survey conducted in late 2020 found higher levels of vaccine hesitancy and distrust in Black and Latinx populations compared to their white counterparts due, in part, to a lack of confidence in the government.
“In the early days of the pandemic, the most common source of disinformation about COVID was coming out of the White House,” Dr. Stephen Thomas, professor at the University of Maryland Centre for Health Equity, told CTV National News.
“So, ‘It’s all a hoax,’ ‘It’s just like the flu…’ that was marinating in our communities.”
But several studies, published in the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA Internal Medicine, have found that partnerships with local barber shops are helpful in promoting public health initiatives in Black communities, such as screening for diabetes and monitoring high blood pressure.
Randolph says about 75 per cent of the clients she’s spoken to in her salon have opted to get the vaccine after speaking to her, building confidence in the community one shot at a time.
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Police say a baby and a pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a vehicle struck a baby stroller and dragged it for two blocks before stopping in Squamish, B.C.
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
The RCMP says it has uncovered a plot by two men in Montreal to sell Chinese drones and military equipment to Libya illegally.
The U.S. Justice Department announced a US$138.7 million settlement Tuesday with more than 100 people who accused the FBI of grossly mishandling allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015 and 2016, a critical time gap that allowed the sports doctor to continue to prey on victims before his arrest.
The Vancouver Canucks will be without all-star goalie Thatcher Demko when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
A 35-year-old man wanted in connection with the murder of Toronto resident 29-year-old Sharmar Powell-Flowers nine months ago has topped the list of the BOLO program’s 25 most wanted fugitives across Canada, police announced Tuesday.
The Canadian Medical Association is asking the federal government to reconsider its proposed changes to capital gains taxation, arguing it will affect doctors' retirement savings.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
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 4 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.