An expert says Canadians don't need to panic about COVID-19 reinfections even as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tested positive a second time for the virus.
Stephen Hoption Cann, a clinical professor with the University of British Columbia's faculty of medicine, says it's difficult to say how prevalent reinfections are because data is limited.
He says it should be expected people can get COVID-19 again -- just like Trudeau, who said in a Twitter post Monday that he was isolating and feeling "OK."
"The variant currently (circulating) does cause people to get hospitalized at a lower rate," said Hoption Cann. "The real concern is not that you get infected, but you get reinfected and develop a severe illness from that infection."
Hoption Cann said research shows those who are not vaccinated are more likely to get COVID-19 more than once.
Most provinces don't track reinfections. However, government data in Ontario shows that from May 22 to May 28, 294 people reported having caught COVID-19 repeatedly. That number went down to 238 from May 29 to June 4.
Hoption Cann said there's no need to bring back mandatory masking or tracking to prevent reinfections because Canadian health care needs to prioritize more immediate concerns such as monkeypox and other viruses.
He encourages everyone to do a personal risk assessment to prevent reinfection.
"If you're at lower risk, you're probably not going to take as many precautions, but if the person's elderly, has other health conditions, they should probably take more precautions because any infection could go poorly for them."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2022.
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No mention of long covid risk
No mention of long covid risk with reinfection. Very disappointing.
Severe outcomes aren't the
Severe outcomes aren't the only consideration. For many, missing work is a severe outcome even if clinically it is not since there was no hospitalization. I'd still like to see data on lost time from work and effects on overall workforce productivity and increased healthcare costs. Summer has been lower for community transmission of Covid. It's Autumn I'm concerned about.
There are some governments
There are some governments that are acting to encourage their general populations to take vitamin-D because of results of interventional and non-interventional studies that show a prophylactic effect, particularly in the severely deficient, and particularly against severe outcomes from respiratory infections like Covid. Ireland and the UK have both come on board by recommending decent levels of supplementation for the entire population without testing and they have taken steps to make vitamin-D available in sufficient quantities for everyone which isn't hard to do because the stuff is cheap as chips and no drug company owns it.
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