Dr. Jeffrey Kwong from the University of Toronto contributed to a recent publication in the Annals of Epidemiology that illustrates the disproportionate toll COVID-19 has taken among individuals who self-identify as visible minorities and who live in the lowest income areas of Toronto. It revealed that per-capita rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths were [...]
Dr. Danuta Skowronski and colleagues from the BC Centre for Disease Control evaluated the real-world single-dose effectiveness (as opposed to the findings of clinical trials) of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines. They demonstrated that even a single dose of these vaccines reduced the risk of hospitalization from COVID-19 infection by over 80%. A [...]
A commentary in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) from CITF Leadership Group member Dr. Jim Kellner, a pediatrician from the University of Calgary and Chair of the CITF’s Pediatric Network, and CITF-funded researcher Dr. Stephen B. Freedman, also pediatrician at the University of Calgary, highlight the importance of protecting children from the consequences [...]
While many effective vaccines have been developed to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, there remains a critical need for novel ways of treating patients hospitalized with moderate, severe or critical COVID-19. A recent commentary published by CITF-funded researcher Dr. Donald Vinh from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre explores [...]
As the pandemic progresses, we are learning more about COVID-19 and its effects on pregnancy. A recent study conducted by researchers in Ontario, including CITF-funded researcher Dr. Deshayne Fell from the University of Ottawa and the CHEO Research Institute, sought to better understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected pregnancy outcomes at a population [...]
In a recent Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) publication, CITF-funded researchers Drs. Karina Top (Dalhousie University), Manish Sadarangani (University of British Columbia), Jesse Papenburg (McGill University), and led by Drs. Fatima Kakkar and Shaun Morris, described 264 children who were admitted to hospital in Canada with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in 2020. They also found [...]
Canada and other countries globally have authorized different SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, mostly based on findings from clinical trials which have demonstrated a high degree of efficacy against disease. However, the real-world effectiveness of these vaccines in an evolving pandemic with several variants needs to be better understood. In a recent pre-print (not yet peer-reviewed), the [...]
A recent pre-print (therefore, not yet peer-reviewed) led by CITF-funded researcher Dr. Stephen Hwang from the University of Toronto and Unity Health, explored the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 among people experiencing homelessness in Toronto during the first wave of the pandemic. They observed that the overall prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 was higher among populations experiencing homelessness [...]
Vaccine safety is evaluated by tracking adverse events following immunization to determine whether such events are linked to the vaccine. Drs. Karina Top, Julie Bettinger, and Jeffrey Kwong describe their critical efforts for monitoring COVID-19 vaccine safety in Canada, which are all supported by the CITF and Vaccine Surveillance Reference Group. The original article [...]
An international team of experts conducted a multi-laboratory evaluation of 21 commercial high-throughput assays used in laboratories to determine whether someone has antibodies to SARS CoV-2 proteins, using 1,000 blood-donor samples. CITF Testing Working Party Lead Dr. Mel Krajden and Testing Working Party member Dr. Steven Kleinman were among the experts involved. Some assays [...]