Caroline Alphonso
TORONTO — From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009 12:00AM EDT Last updated on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009 1:53PM EDT
Provinces and territories have embarked on Canada's largest-ever mass immunization campaign. But with poll after poll showing less than half of Canadians willing to roll up their sleeves, and doubts swirling about the safety of the H1N1 pandemic vaccine, public health officials have a tough slog ahead in debunking the myths. Canada's chief public health officer, David Butler-Jones, expressed frustration at the anti-vaccine sentiment. Canadians, he said, have a choice: Protect themselves with a safe and effective vaccine, or risk severe disease and even death. "We have the potential to prevent tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths by a simple process of taking advantage of the vaccine that we have," Dr. Butler-Jones said Monday.
1. Will the vaccine give you the flu? AND what about side effects?
The vaccine cannot give you influenza, because it doesn't contain a live virus. In fact, it contains antigens that trick the immune system into thinking it has been attacked by the H1N1 virus so it produces antibodies. It takes about a week to 10 days for immunity to develop after being vaccinated. While some people are scared or nervous about getting a needle, after the initial jab the side effects are similar to those seen with seasonal-flu vaccines, including headaches and sore muscles.
2. It's a new vaccine. But has it been tested enough?
Health Canada says that, based on the results of thousands of clinical trials around the world, it is satisfied the vaccine is safe. And the adjuvant, a chemical product that boosts the immune response, has been tested on thousands with the H5N1 avian flu drug and proven effective, the regulator says. The vaccine confers more than 90-per-cent immunity in healthy adults, more than the seasonal flu vaccine. Researchers cannot do studies in millions of people before licensing a vaccine, which would be too time-consuming during a pandemic. Post-licensing surveillance, in which people report their side effects, will be conducted in Canada.
3. Can you trust the adjuvant?
Canada's vaccine uses an adjuvant which consists of squalene (shark liver oil), DL-alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) and polysorbate 80 (an emulsifier also used in ice cream). There were claims that squalene, part of the adjuvant used in the anthrax vaccine, was to blame for Gulf War syndrome, but the evidence just wasn't there. Claims that mercury in vaccine causes autism have also been debunked. The amount of mercury in a typical vaccine is less than in a can of tuna. The adjuvant used in Canada has been tested with the bird flu vaccine and there was no negative response to it.
4. Should you get the vaccine if you're pregnant?
Pregnant women are one of the most at-risk groups. Their chances of getting very sick and potentially dying from swine flu are four to five times higher than for non-pregnant women, according to experts, and there is also a risk to the fetus. Michael Gardam, director of infectious diseases prevention and control for the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion, noted recently that there is no evidence that any component of this vaccine is harmful to the fetus. Women more than 20 weeks pregnant and those in earlier stages of pregnancy with a history of chronic illnesses should consider getting the adjuvanted vaccine, until the unadjuvanted vaccine is available, public health officials say.
5. What should you do to prevent the spread of H1N1?
6. Should you get vaccinated?
Consider this: 5,000 people have died worldwide, and hundreds of thousands of people have been infected with H1N1. The most recent death in Canada was a preteen girl from Cornwall, Ont., who had no pre-existing medical conditions. True, there have been few H1N1 deaths overall in Canada, but this virus attacks the young, unlike the seasonal flu, which burdens the elderly. Adults get one dose; children between the ages of six months and nine years get two half-doses at least 21 days apart.
Halloween has origins in the ancient Gaelic festival known as Samhain (pronounced sow-in or sau-an), which is dervied from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end".[5] A similar festival was held by the ancient Britons and is known as Calan Gaeaf (pronounced kalan-geyf). The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half", and is sometimes[6] regarded as the "Celtic New Year".[7]
The celebration has some elements of a festival of the dead. The ancient Gaels believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home whilst harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm. In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white with masked, veiled or blackened faces.[8][9]
Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. All other fires were doused and each home lit their hearth from the bonfire. The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames.[10] Sometimes two bonfires would be built side-by-side, and people and their livestock would walk between them as a cleansing ritual.
Another common practise was divination, which often involved the use of food and drink. From wiki!
Even though It seems all fun: Did you know one year a girl received a Hersey chocolate bar to find out it had a poisonous chemical in it?
Here are some Halloween Safety Tips:
Pokemon.com
This is an amazing website for pokemon fans. It gives you every update on the official pokemon series and games. Listen to your favourite pokemon theme songs, search the pokedex, play games, download wallpapers for your computer for free. Explore your favourite pokemon like never before. View the GTS ( Global Trading Station).
Marvelkids.com
So, our first review for girls ages 4-10 is Barbie.com. There you can play games, shop, decorate your house, play more games, and lots more! Sighning up is not only easy, but all this is free!
TORONTO — The Canadian Press Published on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009 12:21PM EDT Last updated on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009 3:05PM EDT
Ontario's top medical official says an outbreak of swine flu among turkeys is a “clarion call” for poultry and livestock workers to get both the seasonal and H1N1 flu shots.
Dr. Arlene King, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, says “the risk to human health from this situation is minimal” after some turkeys tested positive for the H1N1, or swine flu virus.
Provincial officials say the outbreak affected an Ontario breeder's flock of turkeys which were not destined for the food chain.
Dr. Deb Stark, Ontario's chief veterinarian, says the situation likely involved human to bird transmission.
Dr. Stark says the flock operator voluntarily quarantined the infected birds and put “movement controls in place.”
She says the finding “does not pose a food safety risk.”
While officials declined to name the farm, the Turkey Farmers of Canada said on its website that the birds belonged to Hybrid Turkeys, a breeder based in Kitchener, Ont.
The findings will be of keen interest internationally, coming just days after the publication of a study that suggested turkeys are not susceptible to the pandemic virus.
The work, done by researchers in Italy, was published late last week in the online journal Eurosurveillance.
Well-known influenza researcher Dr. Ilaria Capua and colleagues at the OIE collaborating centre for infectious diseases at the human-animal interface in Venice tried to infect turkeys with the new H1N1 virus. The OIE is the acronym used by the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health.
Turkeys are generally very susceptible to influenza viruses and one would expect to see illness among birds if they became infected with a flu virus, Dr. Capua said in an interview Tuesday.
But while her team exposed turkeys to massive doses of H1N1 virus, they saw no evidence of infection in the birds. Nor did they find any evidence of virus in the lungs or tissues of the turkeys.
Dr. Capua said teams of researchers in Britain and the U.S. have also tried to experimentally infect turkeys, also without success.
Ontario isn't the first jurisdiction to report finding H1N1 virus in turkeys. Officials in Chile announced in August that they had found the virus in turkey there.
But some leading influenza experts have quietly expressed skepticism about that earlier report, musing whether lab contamination could be responsible for the finding.
Dr. Capua said a lot of questions need to be answered about the new discovery in Ontario, including whether the full genetic sequence of the virus has been checked to ensure that it is the pandemic virus and not another H1N1 variant.
“Before we say that this virus can spill into turkeys or into birds, I would really make sure that it's the right virus. And that there's no possible concern about any human error or contamination and that all the internal genes have been sequenced,” she said.
A sheriff says a Colorado couple’s report that their 6-year-old son was in a balloon that was hurtling away from their home was a publicity stunt.
Sheriff Jim Alderden says Richard and Mayumi Heene “put on a very good show for us, and we bought it.”
The sheriff says no charges have been filed yet, and the parents aren’t under arrest. But he says he expects to recommend charges of conspiracy and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
He says all three of the couple's children knew of balloon hoax, but likely won’t face charges because of their ages.
Mr. Alderden says interviews with the parents Saturday resulted in enough information to get a warrant to search the house. He says they were looking for computers, e-mails, phone records and financial records.
The parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, met with Larimer County investigators for much of Saturday afternoon amid questions about why their 6-year-old son Falcon vanished into the rafters of the family’s garage while the world thought he was zooming through the sky in a flying saucer-like helium balloon. The incident sent police and the military scrambling to save young Falcon Heene as millions of worried television viewers watched.
Suspicion that the balloon saga was a hoax arose almost immediately after Falcon was found hiding in the garage attic. Mr. Heene, an inventor whose family has appeared on the ABC television reality show Wife Swap, and his wife had said one of the boy’s older brothers said Falcon was aboard the homemade balloon when it took off.
Mr. Alderden initially said there was no reason to believe the incident was a hoax. Authorities questioned the Heenes again after Falcon turned to his dad during a CNN television interview Thursday night and said “you said we did this for a show” when asked why he didn’t come out of his hiding place.
Falcon got sick during two separate TV interviews Friday when asked again why he hid.
After the sheriff spoke to reporters Saturday, Richard Heene and his wife walked out of his office after meeting with officials for several hours.
As reporters yelled questions, Mr. Heene said: “I was talking to the sheriff’s department just now.” He then walked to his car with his wife and a friend and drove away. It wasn’t clear where the family spent Saturday night.
The Heenes have said the balloon was supposed to be tethered to the ground when it lifted off, and no one was supposed to be aboard. A video of the launch shows the family counting down in unison, “3, 2, 1,” before Richard Heene pulls a cord, setting the balloon into the air.
“Whoa!” one of the boys exclaims. Then his father says in disbelief, “Oh, my God!” He then says to someone, “You didn’t put the (expletive) tether down!” and he kicks the wood frame that had held the balloon.
Falcon’s brother said he saw him inside the compartment before it took off and that’s why they thought he was in there when it launched. Mr. Heene said he had yelled at Falcon before the launch for getting inside.
Over the years, Richard Heene has worked as a storm chaser, a handyman and contractor, and an aspiring reality-TV star.
The producer of Wife Swap said it had a show in development with the Heenes but the deal is now off. TLC also said Mr. Heene had pitched a reality show to the network months ago, but it passed on the offer.
A balloon lands near Fort Collins, Colorado. Police say the balloon, at first believed to have a child inside, was empty. Photograph: AP
A homemade flying saucer-shaped balloon in which it was feared a six-year-old boy could have been trapped has been found to be empty after it landed in a field in Colorado following a desperate chase through the skies.
The silver, car-sized craft reportedly came untethered from the garden of the man who had constructed it. Reports named him as Richard Heene, an amateur science and weather investigator.
It was feared that Heene's son, Falcon, had climbed through an entrance into a small plywood-lined capsule at the bottom of the balloon, which was not designed to carry people, shortly before it drifted into the skies above Fort Collins, a town north of the state capital, Denver, at around 11am local time (6pm BST). Some reports said a sibling had seen Falcon climb in.
As the balloon drifted dozens of miles to the south-west, climbing hundreds of metres into the air, it was pursued by helicopters while emergency crews in ambulance followed its path from the ground.
But after more than two-and-a-half hours in the air, when the helium-filled craft drifted gently to the ground in a ploughed field, rescue workers found no one inside, television pictures showed.
It was not known whether the child climbed into the balloon, and so, whether he might have fallen out in mid air.
There were fears that flights from Denver's international airport could have to be diverted as the balloon began drifting towards its flight paths.
What an Adventure!
Is He Dead Or Alive?
Hold On, There is a brand new News Report.
Check Out This Video! Turns Out Guess What The Boy was Found!
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Most if not all of you have heard of pop. Pop, like Pepsi, Coca Cola, Sprite, Mountain Dew, Crush, and many other flavours. And probably most if not all of you have tried pop before. But have you ever thought, what makes pop pop? How is it made? Can I make it? Well we, Neko and Teko find out today at a Junior High Science Class.
As you may see there is many different types of them. Here is the story of Toots.
Everyone This is a short Story Written By Neko. Enjoy!I then felt something growing. My jeans and T-shirt were now a silver dress, down to my knees.It was the color of moonlight. My simple sneakers were now fresh silver boots that looked like they had just been on the runway.
I looked at my reflection in a puddle on the street. I had changed. I saw a girl with silver hair, grey wolf ears, and a grey wolf tail. I felt my head…wolf ears. What had happened to me?
I looked like some freak—a mutant wolf girl. I paused as I took out a note from the bottom of the box. It was written in delicate letters: “You must use your unique abilities to fight the aliens; you now have the genes of Grey Wolf.”
Okay, I thought, that explained the wolf ears and tail! But what aliens?
I gasped. A lizard-like creature was in front of me. It was huge and had fire-red eyes that seemed to drill holes into the street. There was another note in the box. It said, “Moon Echo.”
“Moon Echo?” I wondered out loud. A silver rod appeared in front of me.
Okay!
“Moon Echo!” I yelled.
Pure energy shot from the rod. I could feel it vibrating. The lizard creature screeched and then dissolved. I had defeated it.
A figure appeared in front of me. It was a boy, and he looked around 18.
“I am Ryan,” he said. “You are the chosen one. As you already know, you have the genes of Grey Wolf. You must protect this world from aliens who wish to make the earth their own. Once you defeat all the aliens around you, you will return to your normal form.”
As if on cue, I returned to normal. Ryan disappeared.
I guess I’m a hero now! I thought.
I was excited, yet scared. The fate of the world depends on me—just one wolf girl. I won’t let Earth down.
A calm wind blew my hair like a thank-you. The sunset and wind calmed my nerves. Just then, I realized I had missed iCarly!
Well, some things are more important than iCarly…like saving the world!
Tis, Fall, So, It's October and us Canadians are celebrating ThanksGiving. America is celebrating it in November. Remember, Some of you probably have tons of cousins your age who are fun to play with. Plus, You Probably have grandparents that give you christmas presents. I don't have any family, Except My Mom, Dad and Brother and Sister. I will be happy to see them.
Have you ever heard of the farting tortilla? Well first, what is a fart? Here's a defintion: fart- a reflex that expels intestinal gas. And what is a tortilla?: The tortilla is a flatbread made from corn or wheat. So the definition of a farting tortilla is: A flatbread made from corn or wheat the has the reflex of expelling gas. This is Neko and Teko reporting from the tortilla section of the store.
Gummy Bears!!!! YAY!!!
Now, why, you ask, are we doing gummy bears in an article labled ICarly Battles with Wolverine? Well, because they don't actually battle! It's all about the publicity, right? If we had titled this 'Gummy Bears: The Political View' would you have read it? I didn't think so! Now, why would we choose gummy bears, exactly? Well, don't they just look so cute! All lined up like that! Just imagine, they actually have feelings like us humans!
This is Neko and Teko reporting from Gummy BearVille where we are singing 'Winter Wonderland' with the gummy bear pop stars; Justin Bearber and the singing group, Gummyback!
Have you ever travelled anywhere in the world? Did you go by plane? If you have said yes, you know what I mean when I say no to turbulence! Turbulence is when 2 different pressures of air go on either side of the plane making it rock, spin, bump, and/or many other things. Anyway, this article is not about turbulence or the affects it has on your stomach. It's about travelling around the world. Different places in the world have different cultures, languages, food, temperatures, and people. For instance, the biggest difference between Zambia in Africa and Antarctica is the temperature. You could die if you flew to Antarctica, and then to Zambia in a really, really fast jet because of the temperature change.
Horrible Runway Outfit, Just came off the line, Some Teens were actually caught wearing it by the Subway.
This Guy? His name is Tom?
