October 30, 2023 CBC article notes: “Elderly Canadians remain at higher risk of serious COVID from first infections, study suggests”
The full title of the CBC article reads: “Elderly Canadians remain at higher risk of serious COVID from first infections, study suggests: Researchers say 4 in 10 seniors aged 80 and older may have avoided infections so far.”
An excerpt reads:
New Canadian data reaffirms that while the vast majority of the population has likely caught the virus behind COVID-19 at least once, more than four in 10 elderly adults may have avoided infection so far — while remaining at the highest risk for hospitalization and death.
It’s yet another reminder that seniors need to be prioritized in vaccination rollouts and should strongly consider getting an updated COVID shot, several medical experts told CBC News.
An additional excerpt reads:
Those measures include getting a COVID vaccine, practising basic hand hygiene, wearing a mask in public and disinfecting high-touch surfaces, Sang said. She also encouraged seniors to “socialize smartly,” in smaller groups and in well-ventilated areas, or even outside when possible.
For seniors who think they have COVID, she said it’s worth taking a rapid test and contacting your primary care provider to find out if you’re eligible for treatments like Paxlovid.
I recommend getting the most recent Covid vaccination; I recommend wearing a mask in indoor spaces such as stores. I am pleased there are people around who follow such practices.
For such people as may be interested, a good resource related to Covid and other topics is The Wellness Trap (2023). An April 25, 2023 Kirkus Reviews article reads:
A hard look at health and diet scams.
Harrison, a dietician, journalist, and author of Anti-Diet, mounts a persuasive critique of the multitrillion-dollar wellness industry. Distinguishing between wellness and well-being, the author faults the wellness industry for selling the idea that individual choice – “the things you do,” rather than genetics or social determinants — is central to attaining and maintaining health. “And doing those things,” Harrison notes, “typically requires a fair amount of economic privilege.” Emphasizing the overlap between wellness and diet culture, the author shows how restrictive diets, juice cleanses, and intuitive fasting have incited eating disorders. “For many people,” Harrison asserts, “wellness culture’s views on food are a gateway into a belief system where every product is a potential threat, every lifestyle choice a matter of life and death.” Wellness culture denigrates conventional medicine, portraying doctors, in league with big pharma, as more interested in financial gain than healing. In contrast to medical diagnoses, wellness practitioners have invented ailments such as adrenal fatigue, leaky gut syndrome, and chronic candida, for which they offer a host of useless supplements and expensive treatments. Harrison sees a strong link between the claims of much alternative medicine and conspiracy theorists: Both believe “nothing happens by accident, nothing is as it seems, and everything is connected.” Both spread misinformation and disinformation — about the perils of vaccination, for example — through social media. Harrison urges tech companies to stop this insidious spread and calls on Congress to repeal a 1994 law that barred the FDA from testing or approving herbal and dietary supplements. Most empathically, she urges us to think critically about the wellness industry’s claims. “Wellness culture is a trap,” she writes, “keeping us stuck in a narrow view of what it means to be well and exposing us to much that is harmful — weight stigma, scams, conspiracy theories, damaging approaches to mental health, false diagnoses.”
A sobering, well-informed analysis of widespread deceit.