Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
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.
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
One of the two pilots aboard an airplane carrying fuel reported there was a fire on the airplane shortly before it crashed and burned outside Fairbanks, killing both people on board, a federal aviation official said Wednesday.
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
The Edmonton Police Service has released a number of surveillance videos related to a series of extortion cases in the city now dubbed 'Project Gaslight.'
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
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.