By Beryl Matthewson, Health Convenor
It has been an interesting summer with life-threatening heat and fires. Many medical experts are anticipating another wave of Covid-19 to influence this year’s fall influenza virus cases as health care systems face staffing shortages in local hospitals and fewer family doctors.
Travel has rebounded but long line ups to renew passports and catch airplanes are now the norm. Most Canadians have been vaccinated, but deaths are still occurring daily, and the use of masks and individual testing persists. There have been over six million deaths reported across the world due to Covid-19, but also an estimated 20 million lives have been saved by the vaccine. However, there is little known about long term effects of the disease, which can damage the heart and cause strokes.
Post-vaccine myocarditis seen rarely in young men is not nearly as common as post-infection cardiac damage. Data reported in the Journal of American Medical Association suggests that the Covid-19 vaccination actually protected against heart attacks in both men and women.
The world has experienced a severe respiratory infection approximately every 10 years, but there are also now reported recurrences of other diseases such as polio and monkey pox in younger populations who were never vaccinated, so for them precautions are still needed for the future.