The protests, which have seen demonstrators leave trucks idling on roads, have infuriated politicians and business owners, with some in downtown Ottawa complaining about financial losses. “Individuals are trying to blockade our economy, our democracy, and our fellow citizens’ daily lives. It has to stop,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in parliament on Monday, the same day the Ambassador Bridge, which runs across the border between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, was obstructed by demonstrators.
“It’s clear these disruptions have broadened in scope beyond the vaccine requirement implementation,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday of the blockade.
Francois Laporte, the president of Teamsters Canada, said in a statement that the union represented more than 55,000 professional drivers, including 15,000 long-haul drivers, 90% of whom are vaccinated.
Outside the British Parliament on Monday, demonstrators inspired by Canada’s trucker protest swarmed UK opposition leader Keir Starmer, calling him a “traitor” while spouting anti-vax and far-right messages, according to footage shared of the event.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who recently announced plans to loosen the country’s tough border rules, said she had no intention of talking to the protesters, saying the majority of New Zealanders support the vaccination program.
YOU ASKED. WE ANSWERED.
Q: Several screenshots on social media are claiming that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted on Facebook encouraging people not to interact with the unvaccinated. Is it true?
Representatives from Trudeau’s office told CNN that “this is not our post.” CNN reviews of Trudeau’s official Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts did not find any post that included the material from the viral screenshot, nor any other language from Trudeau asking people not to speak to or text with unvaccinated family members.
Twitter flagged one of the posts displaying the phony screenshot as containing manipulated media.
READS OF THE WEEK
Costa Rica mandated Covid-19 vaccines for children. But not everyone’s on board
It started as a heated discussion between a father and his son’s doctor. But it quickly escalated to a multi-person fistfight that shocked the nation.
Last November, Costa Rica became the first country in the world to mandate Covid-19 vaccines for minors, with all children 5 and older required to get vaccinated, barring medical exemptions. Now, a small, yet vocal group of parents — like the ones that encircled the hospital last week — is opposing the measure, catapulting the debate around mandatory vaccines onto the floors of Congress.
In some blue states masks are coming off, but the CDC warns against it
Several states in the US, including New Jersey, California, Delaware, and Oregon, have said they are lifting mask mandates in some indoor settings, including schools, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned against it.
“Our hospitalization rates now are higher than they even were at the peak of our Delta surge,” Walensky said. “So in this moment our recommendations are consistent with encouraging students to wear well-fitting masks. And that’s consistent with our guidance that still also recommends that people mask in public indoor settings in areas of high or substantial transmission.”
The pandemic is triggering eating disorders in our children
Pediatric hospitals in Canada and the US report a surge in young people being evaluated and hospitalized for eating disorders during the summer and fall of 2020.
Eating disorders are often triggered or exacerbated by stress, so like many specialists, Norris was worried the upheaval caused by the pandemic would trigger youths (and adults) who were in recovery from known eating disorders to relapse.
TOP TIP
How worried should we be about the new ‘stealth’ Omicron? Our expert weighs in.
A new subvariant of Omicron is spreading rapidly in some parts of the world. This spinoff from the original Omicron variant, called BA.2, has been found in at least 49 countries, including the US. In some countries, like Denmark, BA.2 has already surpassed the original Omicron (BA.1) as the dominant variant. Because it doesn’t cause a certain signature on lab tests called an s-gene target failure, it can look like other coronavirus variants on a first screening. That has led some to call it “the stealth variant.”
Given how quickly it has spread and even displaced the contagious original Omicron variant in some places, this new subvariant appears to have an even higher rate of growth, according to CNN’s Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen.
