After a year of pain, here's how the COVID-19 pandemic could play out in 2021 and beyond

Even during the COVID crisis in Ontario, we should not forget that this is a global calamity. The massive third wave in Ontario is driven by COVID variants of concern that appeared in other parts of the world where the virus ran unchecked. In the most literal sense, we are all in this together. Unfortunately, we don’t behave as if that is the case. With the goal of increasing our awareness and actions on COVID-19 global justice, I am posting another article, dated March 10, by Michael Toole, a Professor of International Health at the Burnet Institute in Australia.

RNAO’s continuing media profile: The March report

I am pleased to share our media profile for March 2021, prepared in partnership with RNAO’s communication department. The most prominent issue has been, by far, the quickly escalating third wave of Covid-19 in Ontario, driven mainly by the loosening of public health measures in the face of a faster spreading B7.1.1 variant of COVID-19. However, before getting into that, here are other issues we faced in the media. 

Getting it right

The Ontario government must remain focused on vaccinating all Ontarians as quickly and seamlessly as possible. RNAO's urging is to maintain stringent public health measures to mitigate the spread of new variants and to accelerate the vaccine rollout plan. Success will come only through an all-hands-on-deck approach and that means utilizing every available public health nurse, primary care nurse, and home care nurse in the province – as well as family physicians and pharmacists.

Watch a webinar on vaccine hesitancy and effective vaccine communication

The COVID-19 vaccine will change the course of this pandemic. As millions of people are getting immunized, how can we as health-care workers become champions for this vaccine, and feel empowered to communicate about it with our patients, colleagues, family and friends? To this end we organized on Feb. 8, a webinar on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and effective communication.