Tobacco control: South Africa must do more to help people quit smoking
May 28, 2021 11:10 am UTC| Health
Each year on 31 May, the World Health Organisation (WHO) hosts World No Tobacco Day. The day aims to spread awareness about the risks of tobacco use and to encourage governments to implement effective tobacco-control...
How to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake and decrease vaccine hesitancy in young people
May 28, 2021 11:07 am UTC| Health
Ending the coronavirus pandemic rests partly on a large uptake of COVID-19 vaccines, with the goal of reaching herd immunity. Recently in Canada, the age for vaccine eligibility has been decreasing to include young adults...
How to 'build back better' health habits after the pandemic year
May 28, 2021 11:07 am UTC| Health
The U.S. is in far different shape today than it was last Memorial Day, and many Americans are, too. According to a recent survey by the American Psychological Association, undesired changes in weight driven by pandemic...
Alarmist reporting on COVID-19 will only heighten people's anxieties and drive vaccine hesitancy
May 23, 2021 03:32 am UTC| Health
From an ethics perspective, it has been a bad couple of weeks for media coverage of COVID-19. First, there was a highly questionable story in The Australian about China allegedly weaponising coronavirus, with the...

COVID vaccines: the danger of journals being seen as substitute regulators
May 20, 2021 02:37 am UTC| Health
A superficial reading of the history of vaccination might lead you to believe that it is simple. Dried smallpox pustules had been used for 1,000 years to inoculate people against smallpox before the first successful...

Who was better at predicting the course of the pandemic – experts or the public?
May 16, 2021 12:23 pm UTC| Insights & Views Health
Early on in the pandemic, it seemed as if the media was asking anyone with potentially relevant expertise scientists, doctors, statisticians to tell us what was coming. These individuals were frequently asked to give...

3 reasons for making COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for children
May 16, 2021 11:17 am UTC| Health
On May 5, Health Canada approved a COVID-19 vaccine for use in children aged 12-15 years. The United States Food and Drug Administration quickly followed suit, and other countries are likely to do the same. Similar...