“We know that groups such as those who had a lot of economic instability or sustained long periods of isolation, or those with compromised health problems or chronic health conditions, were at particularly elevated risk,” said Dr. Renée El-Gabalawy, an associate professor at the University of Manitoba and a clinical psychologist with Shared Health who studied the effects of the pandemic on mental health.

To read the entire article, please follow the link to CBC Manitoba.

Rachul, who has previously done research on how misinformation spread during the COVID-19 pandemic, said the sophisticated algorithms underlying social media make it extremely easy for people to get “stuck in silos,” where they’re constantly fed misinformation.

To read the entire article, please follow the link to CBC Manitoba. 

A significant spike in rural homicides this year is raising alarm bells in rural Manitoba, but a local criminology professor says the numbers we are seeing might not be cause for panic just yet.

Adam King, assistant professor in the labour studies program at the University of Manitoba, said the COVID-19 pandemic has radically shifted how employers hire and how potential employees view jobs.

“Post-pandemic, for the first time, employers are having to compete for workers rather than the other way around,” he said.

To read the full story, please visit the Winnipeg Free Press.

“Increased rates of depression, anxiety, substance use problems and all the mental health consequences associated with loneliness and disconnection, both during the pandemic but also have lingered for some afterwards,” explained Corey Mackenzie, a professor of psychology at the University of Manitoba.

“The COVID pandemic has kind of run its course to a degree, but this other pandemic of loneliness and social isolation is still very much a serious issue for a lot of people.”

Read more

“My coauthors have had an ongoing interest in how entitlement influences workplace behavior. Entitlement is about feeling like you are owed unearned, special treatment and favors. We have other papers about the effects of entitlement in workplace interactions — for example, its effect on service workers and negotiator,” explained Neville, an associate professor of organizational behavior at the Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba.

Read here

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) confirmed it did neither. Various PSPC spokespeople described other forms of verification its employees had instead relied on.

Larson flagged his concerns about an exchange between Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner and Switch Health executives in May 2021, where she repeatedly asked whether Switch Health subcontractors’ employees were incorrectly identifying themselves as nurses.

Read more

Last week, the World Health Organization classified EG.5 as a variant of interest, but said it does not seem to pose more of a threat to public health than other variants.

According to virologist Jason Kindrachuk, this strain is an Omicron subvariant that doesn’t deviate much from what we’ve already seen.

Read here

The University of Manitoba’s mandatory masking protocol will end when Summer Term begins on May 1.  From that date forward, masking will be strongly encouraged, and UM will continue to supply masks as the university still recommends people use them, especially in indoor spaces that do not allow for distancing. This change will align UM with current public health practices across the province.

As we remove the masking mandate, individuals’ risk assessments will vary and I ask everyone in this community to respect the decisions of others.

Throughout the pandemic, UM has been very mindful of the most vulnerable among us who carried (and continue to carry) more burden than the majority had to. This is why we are one of the last institutions in Canada to lift its mask mandate. This mandate helped keep our community safe while vaccines were rolled out, and while hospitals were under the greatest strain.

UM has also been assessing our HVAC systems and making improvements to support optimal air quality. Additional enhancements will continue into Fall 2023, and you can read more about them here.

Thank you to everyone who has consistently prioritized public health by wearing a mask. I recognize it may not always be comfortable or convenient to do so, but I sincerely appreciate how committed this community is to keeping each other safe. Thank you to everyone for doing their part, and for sharing ideas and engaging with our COVID outreach and safety committees.

I’d like to also extend my gratitude to Security Services for taking on the additional duty of providing masks and helping support the mask mandate over the past three years.

All the best in the final week of term. 

Thank you. Miigwetch.

-Michael Benarroch, PhD
President and Vice-Chancellor

The province will be the first in Canada to systematically collect this data from patients when they access care. The purpose of amassing and analyzing the data is to address inequities in health care.

The initiative is led on behalf of Shared Health by Dr. Marcia Anderson, executive director of Indigenous academic affairs at Ongomiizwin, the Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing in UM’s Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.

“The only reason to collect racial, ethnic and Indigenous identifiers in data is so that we can measure … how systemic racism is happening in health care, intervene, and then check to make sure that our interventions are actually making a difference,” said Anderson, who is also vice-dean Indigenous health, social justice and anti-racism of the Rady Faculty.  

The initiative was jointly announced on Feb. 2 by UM, Shared Health and the province.

That morning, Ongomiizwin and the UM-based George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation, also a partner in the initiative, hosted a discussion of community-owned, race-based health data at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

“As a health system … we are trying to take critical steps to disrupt racism and discrimination in all forms,” Monika Warren, chief operating officer of provincially co-ordinated health services at Shared Health, told about 150 in-person and online attendees.

Beginning in April 2023, patients at hospitals, including emergency rooms, will routinely be asked to self-identify during registration by choosing from a list of Indigenous, racial and ethnic identities.

The central point made by speakers and panelists at the event was that BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) communities must have governance over the use and release of the data.

Because there is a risk of race-based data being misused to cause harm, speakers said, transparent governance agreements must be maintained between the health system and BIPOC communities. The data must be collected in a culturally safe way and must only be used to advance health equity.

“We must ensure that we … don’t end up reinforcing biases and stigma,” said Kasari Govender, British Columbia’s human rights commissioner, who spoke via videoconference.

Anderson noted that there are established agreements between Canada and Indigenous Peoples for data governance. “How do we apply those same principles around community ownership and data sovereignty for diverse Black and racialized communities?” she asked.

Anderson and Dr. Jillian Waruk, senior epidemiologist with the Government of Manitoba, gave a presentation showing that when Manitoba started collecting voluntary race-based identifiers in the spring of 2020, the data quickly exposed the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on BIPOC communities. This knowledge allowed for targeted efforts, such as improved vaccine access, that saved lives.

Fewer than two per cent of patients declined to declare their identity, Anderson noted.

Based on the principle that the data would be controlled by the communities, Waruk released the COVID-19 data only with approval from an advisory council of experts from BIPOC communities.

Any request for the release of data was discussed by this council based on key considerations for race, ethnicity and Indigenous identity data collection and use, adopted by the Office of Anti-Racism in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.

Panelist Dr. Randy Fransoo works at the Canadian Institute for Health Information, which has established pan-Canadian standards for the collection of race-based data. Manitoba’s use of COVID-19 data was “a shining example” for the rest of Canada, he said.

The other panelists were Karen Sharma, executive director of the Manitoba Human Rights Commission; Dr. Tina Chen, distinguished professor of history and executive lead (equity, diversity and inclusion) at UM; and Dr. Delia Douglas, director of the Office of Anti-Racism in the Rady Faculty.

When an audience member commented, “We’ve been data-collected to death” and questioned whether the initiative would lead to improved health care for First Nations, Anderson agreed that the project must lead to “concrete, deliberate action.”

“Data collection … is not the end of the line,” she said. “It’s the starting point of an intervention.”