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January 22, 2023

Psychological distress in middle age may raise risk by 24{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}

A middle aged man in glasses stares out of a window in deep thought — Psychological health may have a bigger impact on dementia risk than previously thought. SolStock/Getty Images

Researchers followed 67,688 individuals over an average period of 25 years to better understand the link between symptoms of dementia and psychological distress (stress, depressive mood, exhaustion, and nervousness).
The researchers found that psychological distress symptoms are associated with an increased risk of dementia.
A better understanding of dementia risk factors may pave the way for dementia prevention.

According to the World Health Organization, there are currently 55 million people worldwide living with dementia, with nearly 10 million new cases being diagnosed each year. To lower the risk of dementia in a population, researchers must understand what causes dementia.

Several studies have looked at the association between psychological distress—an umbrella term that encompasses symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress—and dementia. However, the link between the two remains unclear.

Now, a new study published in JAMA Network Openexplores this link between psychological distress and dementia.

The study was conducted by researchers from the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, the University of Helsinki, and the University of Eastern Finland.

Previous studies, such as one published in 2022, concluded that individuals with depression levels that were increasingly severe, chronically high, or chronically low had a higher likelihood of developing dementia compared to individuals without depression or with decreasing depression symptoms.

Other studies have found that anxiety, vital exhaustion, and psychological stress are associated with a later onset of dementia.

On the other hand, a 28-year follow-up study on the relationship between depression and dementia found that depression was mostly caused by dementia rather than dementia being caused by depression.

Since psychological distress is common in the early stages of dementia, risk-determining studies must have a sufficiently long gap between the measurement of psychological distress and the incidence of dementia for the result to be considered reliable.

Studies with an elderly population and short follow-up periods fail to separate the early (prodromal) symptoms of dementia from causal risk factors.

Another factor to keep in mind in studies on psychological distress and dementia is the competing risk of death. According to some authors, studies should take into account whether people with mental health problems tend to die at younger ages and thus may not live long enough to show dementia.

“We could clarify that connection using one of the largest population data sets, long follow-up, and careful modeling of death [from] other causes,” Dr. Sonja Sulkava, principal investigator for the study and postdoctoral researcher in Professor Tiina Paunio’s group, told Medical News Today.

The study included 67,688 individuals, ages 25–74, who participated in the National FINRISK Study surveys between 1972 and 2007.

FINRISK was a large Finnish population study on risk factors in chronic, noncommunicable diseases that was carried out for 40 years, and its surveys included questions on symptoms of psychological distress.

Dementia and mortality data for each participant until December 31, 2017, was obtained from the Finnish Health Register.

“Dr. Sulkava’s report adds to the new evidence that people who have mental health problems in early life tend to develop dementia in later life. This opens a promising window for dementia prevention.”
— Dr. Terrie E. Moffitt, Nannerl O. Keohane professor of psychology at Duke University, and professor of social development at King’s College London, who was not involved in the study

Taking into account the competing risk of death and other factors that affect the risk of dementia, the researchers found that symptoms of psychological distress were associated with a 17-24{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} increased risk of dementia in an etiological Poisson model and with an 8-12{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} increase in the incidence of dementia in the Fine-Gray model.

“Our study suggests that symptoms of psychological distress, e.g., exhaustion, depressive mood, and experience of stress, are risk factors for dementia, and not only prodromal symptoms of underlying dementia disorder. [However], [w]e cannot prove causality.”
— Dr. Sonja Sulkava

Dr. Moffitt expressed confidence in the findings of this study, noting that the results converge with those of a New Zealand population study.

“In 2022, my team also reported that mental health is an early factor in later dementia. We followed 1.7 million New Zealanders for 30 years in national medical records and found that early-life mental disorder predicted 4 times greater risk of later-life dementia,” he said,

Like the Finland population study, the New Zealand study also controlled for the competing risk of death.

Dr. Linda Ernstsen, associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, who was not involved in the study, told MNT:

“The take-home message from this study is that mental health issues and feeling of distress are associated with premature death and dementia. These findings illustrate the need to focus on mental health at all ages and to identify causes and triggers.”

In their paper, the researchers note that individuals who did not participate in the FINRISK survey or had missing information also had more risk factors and increased risk of dementia and mortality, and this selective participation and non-responsiveness may skew the study results.

The researchers also acknowledged that their measurement of psychological distress was not based on a validated multi-item questionnaire but on several single-item measures for different symptoms of psychological distress. However, these measures correlate significantly and show a consistent pattern of association with dementia.

Moreover, the researchers acknowledged that there was no available information about traumatic brain injury, hearing impairment, and low social contact—three established risk factors for dementia.

Dr. Sulkava added that study participants were asked to report their current symptoms of psychological distress only once, and this leads to a lack of “longitudinal perspective” for the symptoms.

Dr. Ernstsen pointed out that information about social isolation or marital status was not included. Research has found that being married protects against dementia.

“We also know that cardiovascular disease is associated with both mental health and dementia risk, but it was only the presence of diabetes that was adjusted for in the present study,” Dr. Ernstsen added.

Dr. Archana Singh-Manoux, research professor and director at the French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), who was not involved in the study, told MNT that the major limitation of this study relates to reverse causation.

In one of the models used to calculate dementia risk, when the researchers excluded individuals with a follow-up of fewer than 10 years, the sensitivity analyses showed no significant associations between psychological distress and dementia.

“These findings suggest that the main results of the paper are due to dementia events occurring soon after the measure of psychological distress. This is a perfect demonstration of reverse causation, i.e., psychological distress in the preclinical phase of dementia rather than psychological distress ‘causing’ dementia.”
— Dr. Archana Singh-Manoux

When asked about the next research steps, Dr. Sulkava told MNT that larger studies and longer follow-ups will be needed.

“Stress, exhaustion, and depressive symptoms are tightly linked to sleep problems, which are suggested to be risk factors for dementia too. However, most epidemiological studies lack large enough sample[s] or long follow-up,” she said.

“Our next step is to study sleep problems and sleep length and dementia risk using the large Finnish cohorts,” she added.

December 14, 2022

How BMW will revamp its retail network for digital age

Exactly where do you see the most important issues at the start out of the agency product?

When we launch at Mini on Jan. 1, 2024, Mini will be wholly all set. Mini is not a guinea pig for everything that we could then do far better at BMW two yrs later. All things viewed as, we are now pretty considerably alongside in phrases of IT progress and the new buildings. From our place of check out, nonetheless, it continue to tends to make much more perception to commence with Mini and then convert the BMW manufacturer. That’s why we’re getting our time, so that we can then go into the commence-up stage in phases.

Will all nations begin at the exact same time on Jan. 1, 2024?

There will be 3 waves. Germany’s flip will arrive in the to start with 50 {cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the year. I can not say now how factors will be at BMW in 2026.

Would the agency also be conceivable for the U.S. in the long run?

No, surely not. That would not be suitable with the basic disorders in the U.S.

Your competitor Audi, like other models in the Volkswagen Team, initially will only offer its electrical automobiles with an agency product. Why are you performing factors differently?

I think it is very significant to only introduce an company product with the overall motor vehicle portfolio. Anything else will not do the job in my check out, because you then commence competing within your own product variety.

What do you necessarily mean?

If we introduce an agency design for our electric motor vehicles only and a consumer will come to just one of our dealerships simply because he/she would like to purchase an i4, then beneath this sort of an technique it could materialize that he/she leaves the dealership with a 4-collection coupe. What I am stating is that we do not want our clients to be pushed in any way at the dealership just because the dealership has an additional car in stock. That is why I assume these kinds of a move is basically wrong. There will be no these separation with us.

Is this a lesson discovered from the agency model for your electrified cars that you launched in 2013 and dropped by 2018?

The product worked perfectly in alone for the i3 and i8. In fact, the explanation we folded it back in in any case was because of the competitors with the conventional profits program. At BMW, the client and his or her needs are in the foreground, not what the dealer currently has on provide. The changeover now affects the full manufacturer. That is diverse. And that is why it will do the job.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares wants to reduce distribution prices at his brand names by 40 per cent by 2030. Do you also see likely price savings in the company design?

For us, the company model is not a cost-cutting method. Of system, new efficiencies will outcome from a a lot more data-driven management of our profits. We will be joyful to take that on board. But we are taking this move to make improvements to the shopper practical experience and the model working experience. In the long run, the purchaser will get the very same offer and the similar charges all over the place. That is very significant for us as a high quality brand. We do not want the shopper to feel that they are remaining quoted a unique rate all over the place.

But offering the identical selling prices everywhere can also be a threat. For example, a car or truck that is promoting well in an location these as Tegernsee in southern Germany can result in desire to collapse in other locations of the region if shops have no scope for bargains. Would you settle for a loss of product sales below?

No, totally not. We have a quite distinct expansion tactic at BMW, and we are also attaining market share around the world. In 2021, BMW was when again No. 1 in the worldwide premium segment, and we want to keep on being in that spot. There are even now alternatives to react with selling prices, even in the company design. Just most likely not as locally as is presently the scenario. Even the pricing now may possibly definitely not be best everywhere you go, but in the new product there will at minimum be uniform charges.

But then you might eliminate a purchaser to Mercedes or Audi simply because of 500 euros…

I do not see that taking place. We generally have strategies of reacting, for example as a result of our young made use of cars. There are prospects that we have now and will continue to have.

August 26, 2022

Can poor heart health predict how fast your brain will age?

A futuristic illustration of a human heart — Heart health and fitness might influence mind ageing extra than researchers at first assumed. VICTOR HABBICK VISIONS/SCIENCE Photo LIBRARY/Getty Visuals

Researchers examined the romantic relationship concerning mind age and numerous wellbeing indicators.
They observed that very poor cardiovascular health was associated with more mature brain age, which was connected to poorer cognitive effectiveness, and a lesser brain volume.
They concluded that further more investigation is desired to comprehend no matter whether their findings utilize to various demographics.

As the human mind ages, its construction modifications. A person’s ‘brain age’ can be predicted by a laptop design. This strategy works by using MRI-based device discovering to assess an individual’s neuroanatomy with a significant reference set of wholesome brains.

If you subtract mind age from a person’s chronological age, you can compute their brain-predicted age variation (mind-PAD).

Reports have discovered that brain-PAD can predict the 8-year mortality of 70-year-olds and indicate chance for various problems, such as dementia, numerous sclerosis, and depression.

Researching how mind age interacts with other physiological health steps and health and fitness results could strengthen our being familiar with of the getting older course of action.

In a new review, scientists examined how brain-PAD relates to many well being results in excess of the lifespan.

They discovered that mind PAD is linked to cardiovascular risk and neurodegeneration. They observed that their findings might be practical for knowledge individual prognoses.

The findings ended up lately released in The Lancet Healthy Longevity.

For the examine, the scientists bundled data from 456 individuals who were being born in the exact week of 1946 in Britain. Just about every person underwent 24 distinctive assessments given that delivery on various variables, together with:

childhood cognitive skill
grownup cognition
adult socioeconomic situation
cardiovascular actions (i.e., blood pressure, using tobacco position, and diabetic issues record at ages 36 and 69)
polygenic hazard score (genetic possibility for a variety of health conditions)
MRI mind scan between 2015 and 2018

While members were an typical of 70.7 yrs outdated at the time of the review, their average mind-predicted age was 67.9 years. Female brains ended up an ordinary of 5.4 years younger than male brains following adjusting for chronological age.

The researchers observed that brain age was significantly joined to higher cardiovascular threat, poorer cognitive performance, and a smaller brain volume.

They also located that an more mature mind age was joined to larger levels of neurofilament light-weight protein (NfL). Though NfL ranges raise with age in wholesome people today, they are also joined to neural harm.

Mind-PAD was more joined to long term hippocampal atrophy, an early attribute of Alzheimer’s sickness. Nevertheless, the researchers uncovered no link between mind-PAD and different biomarkers for Alzheimer’s condition.

The scientists also claimed no considerable connection among mind-PAD and childhood cognitive performance, training level, or socioeconomic status.

All round, they claimed that the 12 metrics accounted for in their review could demonstrate 33{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the variance in mind-PAD.

When requested what could describe the romance among cardiovascular overall health and aging in the brain, Dr. Aaron Wagen, scientific research fellow at University University London, just one of the study’s authors, advised Healthcare News Nowadays:

“The brain is the most vitality demanding organ in the human body, and so involves a regular offer of oxygen.”

“Any harm to the vascular program (e.g., heart, blood vessels) that impacts the stage of oxygenated blood supplied to the mind will have a adverse effect on mind wellbeing, probably ensuing in cerebral modest vessel ailment, white make any difference lesions, and mind atrophy. These brain adjustments can occur as aspect of normal ageing. Even so, lousy heart overall health could imply they materialize previously than expected.”

— Dr. Aaron Wagen

Dr. Lee A. Baugh, an affiliate professor of neuroscience at the College of South Dakota, who was not associated in the examine, also told MNT that cardiovascular hazard aspects, these kinds of as blood tension and smoking status, have presently been connected to untimely brain ageing.

“The exact mechanisms by which cardiovascular overall health and getting old in the mind are joined are possible amazingly difficult, but will absolutely have to do with issues these kinds of blood circulation shipping and delivery to the brain, cardiac hemodynamics, and arterial stiffness,” Dr. Baugh stated.

“I assume the more thrilling problem is whether or not the composite measurement of cardiovascular wellbeing utilised in the present research is offering exceptional info over and outside of what these personal things present, and the remedy to that dilemma really calls for even further research. That getting explained, it is terrific to see these varieties of connections being made amongst mind and entire body overall health,” he additional.

MNT also questioned the scientists what might clarify the variances in mind age in between men and ladies.

“In this cohort, we have noticed that women outperform males in many measures, which includes cognitive checks. The more youthful mind predicted age viewed in females might replicate this, [alongside] in common the variances in existence expectancy in the U.K. population where by girls stay more time than guys. The mechanisms underlying this need further more examine, but cardiovascular health may possibly contribute,” Dr. Wagen claimed.

The scientists concluded that their conclusions would enable further more exploration into mind age and predict future drop.

As for the study’s constraints, Dr. Wagen noted that his research was done mainly on white British participants, and thus could not implement to other demographics.

Dr. Baugh pointed out that because of to how some of the statistical analyses had been carried out, there is an elevated probability of bogus optimistic final results or findings that do not exist. He mentioned that long run investigate should really examine the relationships with much more “conservative statistical ways.”

He added that there are now multiple strategies to determine mind age other than that made use of in the research and that even more analysis is wanted to recognize which is optimal.

New means to evaluate brain age

“It will be important for the industry to arrive up with standardized, nicely-validated techniques to measure brain age to allow for the comparison throughout study experiments, and especially essential if effects like these are finally applied to guideline healthcare choices. It is this latter scenario that I imagine is the really interesting probable for this sort of investigate.”

— Dr. Lee A. Baugh

To support avoid premature brain growing old, experts advise quite a few techniques to minimize cardiovascular chance aspects.

“Being physically energetic, handling current professional medical problems, taking in nutritious, understanding how to regulate tension correctly, keeping engaged in social networks and things to do [are crucial],” Dr. Baugh claimed.

“These are all factors that we know can have a major influence on cardiovascular and mind overall health, fundamentally retaining the full overall body as ‘young’ as possible,” he added.

May 6, 2022

By saying nothing as the world burns, the Met Gala shows we’re still living in a gilded age | Fashion

Amid a world-wide financial downturn and worsening inflation in The usa, critics experienced explained the topic for this year’s Satisfied Gala – Gilded Glamour and White Tie – as “out of touch”.

Although one may possibly argue it was incredibly apt poverty was rife in late-19th century New York, even when elites on the Higher East Facet continued to hold “patriarch balls”, in purchase to make “a circle of elite New Yorkers at the major of the city’s social hierarchy”, as Sven Beckert wrote in his 2003 reserve The Monied Metropolis.

It was Mark Twain who coined the expression The Gilded Age in his 1873 operate The Gilded Age: A Tale of Nowadays. Twain’s novel was a satire of the greed and corruption that pervaded a time when some People in america properly pursued the American dream to grow to be pretty abundant very quickly, although some others lived in poverty. The title was a nod to the slender gilding that Twain stated built the era seem much more golden than it was.

The Fulfilled Gala topic offered an prospect for guests to emulate Twain’s commentary, or bring it up to day for nowadays, nevertheless the chance was nearly unanimously bypassed. Riz Ahmed was the one attendee to notably accept the wealth disparities of the Gilded Age period, telling the press that his outfit was “a love letter to individuals blue-collar personnel, those people immigrant workers” who stored the country jogging through the interval.

Kim Kardashian compensated a sort of fitting tribute, carrying the gown Marilyn Monroe wore when she sang “happy birthday Mr President” to John F Kennedy Jr, which was auctioned in 2016 for $4.8m. It is a gown so expensive, none of the preceding owners could put on it and even Kardashian had to get rid of it as soon as she acquired to the best of the stairs and get into a replica, 1 may even say gilded, version.

But that was kind of it. There were a couple of other nods to inequality, typically from politicians on their own. Hillary Clinton built her first visual appeal at the Met Gala in two a long time, putting on a Joseph Altuzarra gown with the names of 60 historic women of all ages sewn subtly into the material, like Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks. A relatively pared-down appear when compared with Congresswoman Carolyn B Maloney’s daring “equal rights for women” costume in 2021. Meanwhile New York’s mayor, Eric Adams, wore a black tuxedo intended by the Brooklyn-based artist Laolu Senbanjo and embroidered with “end gun violence”. The outfit sparked widespread criticism on the web supplied the mayor’s emphasis on increasing policing in the metropolis: in accordance to the NYPD, in March 2022 New York Town noted 115 shootings in comparison to 99 shootings documented in March 2021.

Just satisfied @NYCMayor at the Achieved Gala just after get together !! 😍 He’s owning a fantastic very first Monday of May possibly but seriously hated hearing about my thoughts on his destruction of New York city’s homeless encampments… but at least I wished him effectively on ending gun violence now! 😍

— Aquaria 🤌🏼 (@aquariaofficial) May possibly 3, 2022

However the best tribute to the age appeared to be a relative silence from these at the leading of New York modern society as residing expenditures spiral and really hard-fought-for human rights are taken absent. As superstars lined up to be photographed, a leaked decision from the supreme court docket recommended that Roe v Wade would be overturned inside weeks, the justices who overturned the landmark abortion ruling a lot more productive in taking The usa back again to a bygone period than any person showing up in haute couture.

Phones were being banned at the celebration so attendees may perhaps not have been given the supreme courtroom information, but it was additional surprising that Florida’s “don’t say gay” bill and the common rollback of trans legal rights in states across The us didn’t provoke any reaction. In 2018, Lena Waithe wore a Carolina Herrera rainbow cape to sign assist for LGBTQ+ rights. Final year the Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy wore a Loewe outfit that includes an illustration by artist and Aids activist David Wojnarowicz of two men kissing as a statement for queer enjoy, whilst footballer Megan Rapinoe carried a placard that browse “In Gay We Trust”. This yr, the topic was seemingly prevented.

The dilemma of whether or not the Fulfilled Gala is the stage for these types of political statements divides critics. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Tax the Rich” gown sparked a debate about no matter whether the red carpet of a glitzy and elite celebration appeared to contradict her socialist concept. AOC responded, telling Vogue: “We can not just enjoy alongside, but we require to split the fourth wall and challenge some of the establishments.”

But this 12 months, most attendees selected to do neither, steering clear of a entire embrace of the concept, or an exciting subversion of it. They showed up in designer dresses that looked beautiful and uneventful.

Even the Met’s have head of costume has said “I think the electricity of manner is that it can reflect the zeitgeist.” So what does very last night’s Gala notify us about the time we’re residing? Ironically, by stating nothing as the entire world burns close to them, the attendees gave a pretty crystal clear feeling that we’re still residing in a gilded age.

November 5, 2021

Can fish help protect our brains as we age?

Fish in a fishmongers — Could fish consumption protect against vascular brain disease? luoman/Getty Images

Cerebrovascular disease — or vascular brain disease — which impacts the blood vessels in the brain, is the fifth leading cause of death in the United States.
Health experts associate fish consumption with a lower risk of cerebrovascular disease and the accompanying decline in cognitive function.
A recent cross-sectional study found a link between higher fish intake and lower levels of markers for vascular brain damage in healthy older adults, especially those aged 65–74 years.
The effect of consuming fish two–three times per week on cerebrovascular disease-associated brain markers was similar in magnitude to the effect of high blood pressure, which was associated with increased vascular brain damage.

Cerebrovascular disease, or vascular brain disease, refers to multiple conditions that affect the blood vessels and blood circulation in the brain, such as stroke and vascular malformation.

Cerebrovascular disease is the second leading cause of death in the world. It is also the fifth leading cause of death in the U.S. and was responsible for 37.6 deaths per 100,000 individuals in the U.S. in 2017.

In addition to causing physical disability, cerebrovascular diseases can result in the development and progression of cognitive impairment and dementia.

Moreover, health experts also associate subclinical cerebrovascular damage — that is, brain abnormalities observed in the early stages of the cerebrovascular disease before its symptoms become evident — with an increased risk of dementia.

Healthy lifestyle modifications, including making dietary changes, increasing physical activity levels, and quitting smoking, can reduce the risk of cerebrovascular disease.

For instance, there is a relation between higher intake of fish and a lower risk of stroke. Fish are an excellent source of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which may mediate these benefits on cerebrovascular health.

However, the evidence that fish consumption reduces vascular brain damage before the onset of the cerebrovascular disease is mixed.

A recent cross-sectional study investigated the link between fish consumption and vascular brain damage in healthy older adults before cerebrovascular disease onset.

The study reports an association between eating fish two or more times per week and lower levels of brain abnormalities related to vascular brain damage, especially in individuals under the age of 75 years.

The study’s senior author, Dr. Cecilia Samieri, a senior researcher at the University of Bordeaux in France, explains: “Our results are exciting because they show something as simple as eating two or more servings of fish each week is associated with fewer brain lesions and other markers of vascular brain damage, long before obvious signs of dementia appear. However, eating that much fish did not have a protective effect in people 75 years of age and older.”

The study appears in the journal Neurology.

The present study analyzed data collected between March 1999 and March 2001 as part of the Three-City Study, which aims to understand the relationship between vascular diseases and dementia in people aged 65 years and older.

The analysis involved 1,623 people with an average age of 72.3 years and residing in Dijon, France. Individuals were excluded from the study if they had a dementia diagnosis, a history of stroke, or hospitalization for cardiovascular diseases.

The researchers evaluated the extent of subclinical cerebrovascular damage using brain MRI scans.

They analyzed the MRI scans for the presence of three markers associated with subclinical cerebrovascular damage:

White matter consists of nerve fibers, or axons, that relay messages between brain regions. Cerebrovascular disease can result in nerve fiber degeneration and cause damage to the myelin sheath that surrounds the nerve fibers. This leads to white matter abnormalities.

Infarcts are regions of dead tissue resulting from inadequate blood supply. This is often due to a blood clot in a blood vessel.

Perivascular spaces are fluid-filled spaces surrounding blood vessels. When enlarged, they are associated with cerebral small vessel disease.

Each of these markers predicts the extent of cognitive decline related to cerebrovascular disease. However, previous studies have shown that a single measure obtained by combining multiple cerebrovascular disease markers can be a better predictor of cognitive decline than any single marker.

Scientists refer to a combined measure of multiple cerebrovascular disease markers as the global cerebrovascular disease burden.

At inclusion, the researchers assessed the participants’ weekly intake of various food items, including meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, legumes, and cereals, with the help of a brief questionnaire.

They assessed the relation between the global cerebrovascular disease burden and the frequency of fish intake. They noted a link between a higher frequency of fish intake and lower cerebrovascular disease marker levels.

The participants consuming fish two or more times per week had lower combined levels of cerebrovascular disease markers than those who consumed fish less frequently.

Moreover, the strength of the association between lower cerebrovascular disease marker levels and frequency of fish intake was influenced by age. This association was strongest in younger participants aged 65–69 years, but it was not statistically significant in individuals aged over 75 years.

The researchers observed similar results after adjusting for multiple variables, such as age, sex, physical activity levels, education levels, brain volume, and the intake of food items.

Health experts associate high blood pressure with an increased risk of cerebrovascular disease. The authors of the current study observed a similar association between cerebrovascular disease marker levels and high blood pressure, regardless of age of the participants.

To further contextualize the results, the researchers compared the impact of high blood pressure on cerebrovascular disease markers with the frequency of fish intake.

In the participants aged 65–69 years, consuming fish twice per week had a similar effect on cerebrovascular disease marker levels as high blood pressure, but in the opposite direction.

Moreover, the magnitude of the effect of consuming fish four or more times per week on levels of vascular brain damage markers was twice that of high blood pressure.

Dr. Jyrki Virtanen, an associate professor at the University of Eastern Finland, who was not involved in the study, spoke with Medical News Today.

He said, “This is an interesting and potentially important study, as it showed that fish intake can be beneficial for the brain and that it is possible to detect benefits even before overt signs or symptoms appear.”

“The magnitude of the association was also quite significant, as it was about similar to hypertension (a major risk factor for cerebrovascular disease), but in the opposite direction.”

– Dr. Jyrki Virtanen

“An interesting finding was also that the beneficial association was mainly observed among the younger participants,” he explained. “This may mean that for getting the benefits of fish intake on brain health, one should regularly consume fish in younger ages.”

The strengths of the study include the use of high-resolution MRI scans to evaluate three different markers and derive a more comprehensive measure of overall cerebrovascular health.

The researchers also analyzed the data after controlling for numerous variables, such as lifestyle choices, education levels, age, and more, which could have impacted the analysis.

There were, however, a few limitations to the study. Dr. Virtanen noted, “A major limitation of the study is that it is a cross-sectional observational study, so it cannot establish causality between fish intake and better brain health., i.e., that higher fish intake leads to better brain health.”

“However,” he continued, “in nutrition research, well-conducted observational studies can provide good evidence for diet-disease relationships.”

The authors also note that they administered the food frequency questionnaire only once during the study and that the survey may not represent long-term dietary patterns.

Magda Gamba, a nutritionist and doctorate researcher at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Bern in Switzerland, who was not involved in the study, told MNT:

“This is an observational study associating fish intake measured at only one point in time with image indicators of cardiovascular disease burden. This means that we cannot make any direct conclusions on fish as a food that prevents brain damage.”

“More studies are warranted in order to really establish if fish is the real determinant of the observed MRI markers results in this study,” Gamba concluded.

“More research is needed to help us understand the mechanism of how eating fish may preserve brain vascular health,” says senior author Dr. Samieri, “because diet is a factor people can modify to possibly decrease their risk of cognitive decline and even dementia later in life.”

Gamba similarly noted, “This article contributes to the knowledge about the relationship existing between fish intake and brain health; younger adults seem to benefit more, but in general, a healthy diet as a part of a healthy lifestyle is recommended for all persons to keep the brain healthy and functional regardless of their age.”

Posted on October 20, 2021
Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting 304 cases of COVID-19, 4 deaths; White House details plans to vaccinate 28M children age 5-11

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Wednesday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.

3:40 p.m.: It seems Manitoba politicians may not have needed to apologize for recently appearing maskless in pictures at an art gallery event.

Chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin says while he doesn’t know details of what happened, people are allowed to remove their masks briefly to take photos.

Manitoba requires mask use in all indoor public places under its COVID-19 public health orders.

The orders spell out some exemptions, such as temporarily removing a mask to eat or drink, to give a speech or to receive a service that requires the mask to be off.

Last weekend, three Manitoba cabinet ministers and a Winnipeg city councillor were seen in pictures on social media without masks and standing alongside other people at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

They later said they were sorry.

“For the most part, that mask should be on. There are brief periods where it’s reasonable for it to come off,” Roussin said Wednesday.

“If it was simply to remove a mask for the purposes of getting a photograph, and then you put it back on, then … that’s in keeping with advice we’ve provided.”

Health Minister Audrey Gordon and Winnipeg Coun. Markus Chambers have both said they removed their masks while sitting down to eat and stood up briefly to pose for the pictures. Families Minister Rochelle Squires and Sport, Culture and Heritage Minister Cathy Cox were also photographed maskless while standing.

Health officials reported 51 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday and one additional death. Almost half of the new cases came in the southern health region, an area that makes up 15 per cent of the province’s population and has low vaccination rates.

The province also said it is preparing to distribute Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to kids ages five to 11 as early as the end of November, if federal regulators approve the lower age eligibility that Pfizer applied for this week. Children of that age would be given smaller doses, with smaller needles, than what has been supplied to date.

“We have spoken with Pfizer as recently as yesterday,” said Dr. Joss Reimer, medical lead of Manitoba’s vaccination effort.

“They haven’t provided us with any numbers but are signaling generally that we can expect a large supply to be available fairly quickly after approval occurs.”

— With files from CTV Winnipeg

3:11 p.m. A Brazilian Senate report recommended Wednesday pursuing crimes against humanity and other charges against President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly bungling Brazil’s response to COVID-19 and contributing to the country having the world’s second-highest pandemic death toll.

Sen. Renan Calheiros presented the proposal to a committee of colleagues that has spent six months investigating the Brazilian government’s management of the pandemic. The decision on whether to file most of the charges would be up to Brazil’s prosecutor-general, a Bolsonaro appointee and ally.

In a nearly 1,200-page report based on the committee’s work, Calheiros called for Bolsonaro’s indictment on charges ranging from charlatanism and inciting crime to misuse of public funds and crimes against humanity. The report can be modified before the 11-member senatorial committee considers endorsing it; a vote is set for Oct. 26.

The committee “collected evidence that abundantly demonstrated that the federal government was silent and chose to act in a non-technical and reckless manner,” the report states.

Bolsonaro has consistently downplayed the threat of the coronavirus and touted misinformation and unproven COVID-19 treatments while ignoring international health guidelines for curtailing the spread of the the disease. He steadfastly rejected restricting activity during the worst of Brazil’s outbreak, claiming the poor would suffer worse hardship if the economy ground to a halt.

Read more from The Associated Press.

3:05 p.m. Nova Scotia is reporting six new cases of COVID-19 today.

Officials have identified three cases in the Halifax area, two cases in the province’s western zone and one case in the northern zone. Among the cases is a fourth patient who tested positive for novel coronavirus as part of a small outbreak at the Valley Regional Hospital in Kentville, N.S.

Officials say testing is continuing for the hospital’s patients, staff and doctors who have been identified as close contacts.

The province now has 165 active infections with 16 people hospitalized, including five who are in intensive care.

According to provincial data, 82.6 per cent of the province’s population have had at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 77.2 per cent are fully vaccinated.

3 p.m. Health officials in New Brunswick say another five people have died, bringing the number of COVID-19-related deaths in the province to 99.

In a statement, Premier Blaine Higgs said his thoughts are with the family and friends mourning their loved ones.

There are 69 new COVID-19 cases today and 761 active cases in the province. There are 55 people hospitalized, including 16 in intensive care. Officials say 14 of the people listed in intensive care are unvaccinated.

Currently 82.9 per cent of eligible New Brunswickers are fully vaccinated while 91.8 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine.

2:50 p.m. Ontario’s Liberals are being accused of saying one thing and doing another after their Thunder Bay MPP sought special treatment for a personal support worker who was about to become unemployed for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Michael Gravelle (Thunder-Bay Superior North) made the request in an Oct. 14 email to Health Minister Christine Elliott and Long-Term Care Minister Rod Phillips despite Liberal party policy, which urges Premier Doug Ford to make full vaccination mandatory for all health-care and education workers.

Elliott’s office took aim at Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca as it released the email Wednesday.

“Steven Del Duca’s Liberals continue to say one thing in the media and another behind closed doors,” a statement said.

Read more from the Star’s Rob Ferguson.

2:45 p.m. Premier François Legault says that while the province plans to lift the pandemic state of emergency after younger children have been vaccinated, some health measures may stick around longer.

Legault told reporters in Quebec City Wednesday the state of emergency has given the province flexibility to introduce measures such as masking rules and a website to recruit health-care help. He said the province would look at measures one-by-one and introduce a bill to maintain those that are needed.

“We have to see what we have the right to do and then what we need to do once the children between the ages of five and 11 are going to be vaccinated,” Legault said. “We think that, for the most part, we will be able to remove most of the measures, but it is possible that some should be kept.”

Legault had been vague about when the health emergency might end, but said Tuesday it could come in early 2022, depending on how quickly vaccination begins for younger children.

2:15 p.m. The first easy-to-use COVID-19 treatment could be available in the U.S. by the end of this year, but it is unlikely to reach developing countries, where hundreds of millions of people remain without access to vaccines until at least the middle of 2022, according to public health officials.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced Wednesday that it would attempt to expedite the timetable for getting the drug, the antiviral molnupiravir, to low-income countries. It pledged an initial investment of up to $120 million to prompt eight generic drugmakers that have signed licensing agreements with the drug’s developer Merck to start producing the medicine now, a sort of insurance policy gambling that it will be approved by regulatory bodies.

Molnupiravir was developed in record speed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, who have submitted an application to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization. Merck is already manufacturing the drug in anticipation of that approval, which could come in December.

The U.S. government has a prepurchase contract for 1.7 billion courses of the medication, a simple pill that in a large clinical trial halved the risk of hospitalizations and death from the coronavirus among high-risk people who took it in the first days of infection.

2:05 p.m. The campaign to vaccinate young children in the U.S against the coronavirus will not look like it did for adults. There will be no mass inoculation sites. Pediatricians will be enlisted to help work with parents. Even the vials — and the needles to administer doses — will be smaller.

Biden administration officials, anticipating that regulators will make the vaccines available to 5- to 11-year-olds in the coming weeks, laid out plans on Wednesday to ensure that some 25,000 pediatric or primary care offices, thousands of pharmacies, and hundreds of school and rural health clinics will be ready to administer shots if the vaccine receives federal authorization.

The campaign aims to fulfill the unique needs of patients largely still in elementary school — and an age group containing far more people than the teenage cohort already approved to receive the vaccine — while absorbing the lessons from the rollout of vaccines to other age groups.

This month, Pfizer and BioNTech asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize emergency use of their vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds, a move that could help protect more than 28 million people in the U.S. A meeting to discuss the authorization is set for Oct. 26, and an FDA ruling could come in the days after, possibly clearing a path for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make recommendations on a pediatric dose in early November.

1:50 p.m. A pair of unmasked NYPD cops shoved a straphanger out of a Manhattan subway station on Tuesday after he says he repeatedly asked them why they weren’t following a state rule that requires people to cover their faces in mass transit facilities.

Andy Gilbert, 27, said he got off his downtown W train at 8th St. in the East Village around 8:40 a.m. when he saw the cops standing on the platform without masks.

“Recently I started doing short videos whenever I see that and ask why the cops aren’t wearing masks,” said Gilbert, who lives in Queens.

“This morning I did the same thing. I asked both of them if they realize it’s illegal to not have a mask on in the subway. I asked, ‘Why don’t you just put on a mask?’”

A state rule that took effect in September 2020 requires everyone to cover their faces on the subway or face a $50 (U.S.) fine.

1:40 p.m. Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting nine new cases of COVID-19 and 46 active reported infections across the province.

The province’s acting chief medical officer of health says there are still 76,000 people who are eligible to be immunized against COVID-19 but are not yet fully vaccinated.

That group represents about 16 per cent of those eligible and Dr. Rosann Seviour said they pose one of the greatest challenges to public health officials as they battle the pandemic’s fourth wave.

1:30 p.m. Under pressure from rising infections and worried health experts, the British government on Wednesday urged millions of people to get booster vaccine shots but resisted calls to reimpose coronavirus restrictions such as mandatory mask-wearing.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the government would “stay vigilant, preparing for all eventualities,” but would not trigger its “Plan B” of bringing back restrictions on daily life.

Britain is relying heavily on vaccines to keep the virus at bay during the fall and winter months. Almost 80 per cent of people 12 and over in the U.K. have received two vaccine doses and millions are being offered a booster shot, including everyone over 50.

But critics say the booster campaign is moving more slowly than the virus. The U.K. recorded 49,139 new infections on Wednesday, by far the highest total in Europe, and cases are averaging more than 45,000 a day, up 17 per cent from a week earlier.

1:15 p.m. A Florida battalion chief has been fired for refusing to discipline workers who hadn’t gotten a COVID-19 vaccine in violation of a requirement for county employees.

Orange County Fire Rescue battalion chief Stephen Davis was fired Tuesday for failure to follow a direct order and issue disciplinary actions earlier this month, said Lisa McDonald, a spokeswoman for the fire department in metro Orlando.

But a union representing firefighters told WFTV that Davis didn’t write up the disciplines because the workers on his list were mistakenly identified as unvaccinated or hadn’t gotten their requests for religious exemptions in on time.

“He didn’t do what he was asked to do because he realized some people on the spreadsheet that he received were fully vaccinated and had religious exemptions at the time and he knew it was unlawful and violating state law,” firefighter Jason Wheat told the Orlando television station.

12:35 p.m. (updated) The federal Conservatives are challenging the decision-making process behind the move to require mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations on Parliament Hill.

On Tuesday evening, the group of MPs charged with setting rules for the House of Commons declared that as of Nov. 22, all members of Parliament and their staff members will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to enter the Parliament buildings.

While the decision was heralded by the Liberals and New Democratic Party, both of which have advocated for that approach, the Conservatives were initially silent.

But on Wednesday, one of the Conservative MPs on the board of internal economy, which made the decision, said his party objects to the way it was made.

Read the full story from the Star’s Stephanie Levitz

12:20 p.m. The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority is taking over operations of a Vancouver care home where dozens of residents died during a COVID-19 outbreak that began last November and took months to contain.

A statement from the health authority says the Ministry of Health has approved the transfer of operations and assets from Little Mountain Residential Care and Housing Society.

The transfer includes Little Mountain Place, a 116-bed long-term care home for seniors, where 41 deaths and many more COVID-19 illnesses were reported last winter.

The statement says the transition, which also includes a 96-unit independent living facility and a 73-bed long-term care home for younger adults with complex needs, is expected to be completed in the next few months.

12:10 p.m. Quebec is reporting 458 new COVID-19 cases and two more deaths attributed to the coronavirus.

The Health Department reports there are 287 people hospitalized with the virus, 10 fewer than the day before, and 72 of those patients are in intensive care, a decline of three.

According to the province’s public health institute, 90.2 per cent of those aged 12 and older have received at least one dose of vaccine, with 87.2 per cent considered adequately vaccinated against COVID-19.

Health Minister Christian Dubé tweeted a chart today showing that since he delayed mandatory vaccinations for health-care workers last week by one month, about 1,000 have received a first dose and 2,000 have received their second dose.

11:45 a.m. Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes must be vaccinated to compete at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.

The Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committees announced a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on Wednesday, saying the decision was made with support of the boards of directors and athlete commissions.

Canadian Olympic Committee CEO David Shoemaker pointed out that 840 coaches and staff travelled to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics this past summer without a positive case.

“We want to do the same for Beijing,” he said in a statement.

The United Stated Olympic Committee announced a similar vaccine mandate recently.

The Olympic open Feb. 4 and the Paralympics on March 4.

11:20 a.m. CaféTO, Toronto’s popular pandemic innovation that saw restaurant and bar patios spill into sidewalks and roadways, will become permanent if city council approves a proposal supported by Mayor John Tory.

A city staff report going to Tory’s executive committee next week, and then city council, suggests making the program permanent through a “phased” approach.

The report also advocates waiving fees for next year to give a further boost to hospitality businesses hit hard by COVID-19 restrictions.

The hastily developed, enthusiastically received way to let pandemic-struck eateries and bars expand patios onto new public and private spaces was launched in June 2020 amid fears over infection risk from indoor dining.

Read the full story from the Star’s David Rider

10:45 a.m. A&W Revenue Royalties Income Fund says its same-store sales grew nearly 17 per cent in its latest quarter as COVID-19 public health restrictions eased, allowing the fast-food chain to reopen more restaurants and serve more customers.

The Vancouver-based company’s gross sales in the royalty pool totalled $409.5 million for the three months ended Sept. 12, up from $340.6 million in the same quarter of 2020.

The company reported net income excluding non-cash items of $9.2 million for the third quarter, up from $7.7 million in the same period the previous year.

It says there were 994 open restaurants in the royalty pool at the end of the quarter, compared to 971 in 2020.

The company says its monthly distribution rate will increase to 15.5 cents per unit, up from 15 cents per unit, beginning with its October 2021 distribution payable Nov. 30.

A&W Revenue Royalties Income Fund owns the A&W trademarks used in the A&W quick service restaurant business in Canada.

10:15 a.m. (updated) Ontario is reporting another 304 COVID-19 cases and four more deaths, according to its latest report released Wednesday morning.

Ontario has administered 25,284 vaccine doses since its last daily update, with 22,290,203 vaccines given in total as of 8 p.m. the previous night.

According to the Star’s vaccine tracker, 11,421,523 people in Ontario have received at least one shot. That works out to approximately 87.6 per cent of the eligible population 12 years and older, and the equivalent of 76.8 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.

Read the full story from the Star’s Urbi Khan

10 a.m. Morocco is suspending until further notice all flights to and from the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands amid rising coronavirus infections in those countries. The new restriction will come into force just before midnight Wednesday, the North African kingdom’s airports authority said.

In a tweet, national carrier Royal Air Maroc said the move was due to “the pandemic situation.” It did not provide further detail.

Morocco’s Health Ministry warned Monday of the threat of a new virus surge, stressing “the need to avoid possible a relapse of serious and critical cases and COVID-19-related deaths, which have occurred in several European countries.”

COVID-19 cases have been rising sharply in the Netherlands over the past two weeks and also are climbing in Germany.

9:50 a.m. (updated) Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy will table a mini-budget on Nov. 4 to outline the Progressive Conservatives’ plans for tackling the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bethlenfalvy emphasized “the job is not done” in dealing with a global health crisis that has killed more than 9,800 Ontarians since March 2020 and upended the province’s economy.

“Our government’s next fiscal update (is) a plan that will protect the hard work and sacrifice of the people of Ontario in our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said Wednesday.

Read the full story from the Star’s Robert Benzie

9:45 a.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered the country’s workers to stay off work for a week starting later this month amid rising coronavirus infection and death numbers, and he strongly urged reluctant citizens to get vaccinated.

The government task force on Wednesday reported 1,028 coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours, the highest number since the start of the pandemic. That brought Russia’s total death toll to 226,353 which is by far the highest in Europe.

Putin said Wednesday he supports the Cabinet’s proposal to introduce a nonworking period starting Oct. 30 and extending through the following week, when four of seven days already are state holidays. He added in some regions where the situation is the most threatening, the nonworking period could start as early as Saturday and be extended after Nov. 7.

9:30 a.m. Children age 5 to 11 will soon be able to get a COVID-19 shot at their pediatrician’s office, local pharmacy and potentially even their school, the White House said Wednesday as it detailed plans for the expected authorization of the Pfizer shot for younger children in a matter of weeks.

Federal regulators will meet over the next two weeks to weigh the benefits of giving shots to kids, after lengthy studies meant to ensure the safety of the vaccines.

Within hours of formal approval, expected after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory meeting scheduled for Nov. 2-3, doses will begin shipping to providers across the country, along with smaller needles necessary for injecting young kids, and within days will be ready to go into the arms of kids on a wide scale.

“We’re completing the operational planning to ensure vaccinations for kids ages 5-11 are available, easy and convenient,” said White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients on Wednesday.

9:10 a.m. It’s a scary Halloween season for retailers that are scrambling to stock their shelves in time for the holiday.

Geoff Waszek, owner of Candy’s Costume Shop in Toronto, said he was wary of placing orders in January, as is customary in the industry for Halloween, out of fears that another lockdown would cancel the festivities.

Once he did start ordering, Waszek said he had to scrounge to source stock from a patchwork of suppliers who were struggling with supply chain issues.

U.S.-based HalloweenCostumes.com, which ships directly to Canadian consumers, said many of the goods they ordered won’t even arrive until after the holiday.

8:45 a.m. Statistics Canada says the annual pace of inflation picked up in September to reach its highest level since February 2003.

The agency says its consumer price index in September was up 4.4 per cent compared with a year ago.

The reading compared with a year-over-year increase of 4.1 per cent in August.

Driving most of the increase were prices at the pumps as consumers paid 32.8 per cent more last month for gasoline than in September 2020.

The statistics agency says the annual inflation rate would have been 3.5 per cent had it excluded gasoline prices from its calculation.

Statistics Canada also says that food prices overall rose 3.9 per cent year-over-year, compared to the 2.7 per cent recorded in August.

8 a.m. Immigration authorities in Singapore seized 23,100 tablets of the parasite-killing drug ivermectinat the country’s border in recent weeks. Despite the Centers for Disease Control’s warnings, ivermectin has surged in popularity as a bogus COVID-19 cure.

Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority stopped the thousands of tablets from entering the country between Sept. 10 and Oct. 6 and posted a spicy Facebook meme about it Tuesday.

In three of the ICA’s five busts, the tablets were not declared at all. In one bust, they were labeled “health care products” and in another they were described as a “supplement pharma product.” One of the “no declaration” shipments included 2,000 tablets of hydroxychloroquine, the ICA said.

Side effects of ivermectin include nausea, comas, seizures, vomiting and diarrhea. In severe cases, it can be fatal to take ivermectin.

7:40 a.m. Canadian airline ticket prices are bouncing back from their deep pandemic lows — and with Christmas around the corner consumers can expect sky high prices for the holidays.

Experts say a perfect storm of pent-up demand, higher costs and rising fuel prices mean round-trip tickets this holiday season may be higher than ever.

As recently as June, one-way flights between Toronto and Vancouver were as low as $114. While there are still low-cost tickets available from now until mid-December, tickets closer to Christmas are back up to seasonal highs, currently going for between $450 and $1,200 each way for economy flights from Toronto to Vancouver on Air Canada and WestJet.

Read the full story from the Star’s Rosa Saba

7:20 a.m. New York City will require police officers, firefighters and other municipal workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be placed on unpaid leave, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday, giving an ultimatum to public employees who’ve refused and ensuring a fight with some of the unions representing them.

The mandate affecting the nation’s largest police department and more than 100,000 other Big Apple workers — including trash haulers and building inspectors — carries a Nov. 1 deadline for getting the first vaccine dose, de Blasio announced.

Jailers on Rikers Island, where the city has been grappling with staffing shortages creating unsafe conditions, will be subject to the mandate on Dec. 1.

Of the workers affected by the new mandate, 71 per cent have already received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the city.

The city previously mandated vaccines for public school teachers and the state has previously mandated vaccines for hospital workers.

6:25 a.m.: What do you call someone who graduates last in their class at medical school? Doctor. It’s an old joke, but the point is that not everyone who attains the rank has the same level of acumen. Monday, two doctors were censured by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario for peddling flimsy vaccine, masking, and even COVID test exemptions. Physicians, heal thyselves.

By Tuesday, there were four such quacks on the docket, and there are clearly more. It’s a clear breach of proper medical practice, and in this time of plague, it’s clearly a loophole that needs to be filled. So, how?

Read the full column from the Star’s Bruce Arthur here.

6:24 a.m.: An Ontario mayor who has pushed COVID-19 disinformation may lose part of his pay following a scathing report by an integrity commissioner.

West Lincoln Mayor David Bylsma is one of a small band of politicians in the fiercely conservative communities of western Niagara who have embraced anti-vaccination or anti-lockdown rhetoric. He is the only one to face sanctions from the political bodies he is a part of.

First, his own council stripped him of most of his powers, and now the regional council that his mayoralty entitles him to sit on will consider suspending his pay.

Bylsma’s decision earlier this year to ask a St. Catharines woman, Emily Spanton, through Facebook if the COVID-19 vaccine impacted her menstruation was “alarmingly invasive,” “arguably insulting” and “irresponsible,” Niagara Region’s integrity commissioner found in an Oct. 8 report.

Read the full story from Torstar’s Grant LaFleche here.

6:22 a.m.: Russia’s coronavirus deaths surged to another daily record Wednesday as soaring infections prompted the Cabinet to suggest declaring a nonworking week to stem contagion.

The government task force reported 1,028 coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours, the highest number since the start of the pandemic. That brought the total death toll to 226,353 — by far the highest in Europe.

Amid a spike in infections and deaths, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova suggested introducing a nonworking period starting Oct. 30 and extending through the following week, when four of seven days already are state holidays. The proposal is yet to be authorized by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The daily coronavirus mortality numbers have been surging for weeks and topped 1,000 for the first time over the weekend amid sluggish vaccination rates, lax public attitude toward taking precautions and the government’s reluctance to toughen restrictions. About 45 million Russians, or 32{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the country’s nearly 146 million people, are fully vaccinated.

6:21 a.m.: The Czech Republic has been hit by a steep rise in coronavirus infections that have reached levels unseen since late April, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

The government was set to meet later in the day to approve new measures to tame the surge.

The day-to-day increase in new cases reached 3,246 on Tuesday, more than double the cases a week ago when it was 1,507. It was the highest number since April 20.

The new infections surpassed 100 per 100,000 people in seven days with 117 positive cases.

The fast rise of infections is accompanied by increasing numbers of people who need hospitalization and those who die.

6:20 a.m.: The World Health Organization said there was a 7{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} rise in new coronavirus cases across Europe last week, the only region in the world where cases increased.

In its weekly assessment of the pandemic released late Tuesday, the U.N. health agency said there were about 2.7 million new COVID-19 cases and more than 46,000 deaths last week, similar to the numbers reported the previous week. Britain, Russia and Turkey accounted for the most cases.

The biggest drop in COVID-19 cases were seen in Africa and the Western Pacific, where infections fell by about 18{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} and 16{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}, respectively. The number of deaths in Africa also declined by about a quarter, despite the dire shortage of vaccines on the continent. Other regions including the Americas and the Middle East, reported similar numbers to the previous week, WHO said.

But for the third consecutive week, coronavirus cases have jumped in Europe, with about 1.3 million new cases. More than half of countries in the region reported a rise in their COVID-19 numbers, WHO said.

In the past week, Russia has repeatedly broken new daily records for COVID-19 cases and the number of infections in the U.K. has surged to levels not seen since mid-July.

6:19 a.m.: Statistics Canada is scheduled to say this morning what the country’s headline inflation barometer registered in September.

The consumer price index in August rose 4.1 per cent compared with the same month one year earlier, marking the largest year-over-year increase since March 2003.

The pace of increases in August reflected the rebound in prices from the lows witnessed one year earlier, a surge in consumer demand and supply-chain bottlenecks that have driven up transport costs being passed on to buyers.

RBC economists Nathan Janzen and Claire Fan say they expect to see an annual inflation rate of 4.2 per cent in September with home and gasoline costs as key drivers.

They also write in a note that supply-chain issues may be more persistent and over time fuel higher, longer-run inflation expectations for households and businesses.

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem has said the central bank would act to rein in inflation if the current bout of price increases look to become more than one-off pressure points.

6:18 a.m.: It’s a scary Halloween season for retailers that are scrambling to stock their shelves in time for the holiday.

Geoff Waszek, owner of Candy’s Costume Shop in Toronto, said he was wary of placing orders in January, as is customary in the industry for Halloween, out of fears that another lockdown would cancel the festivities.

Once he did start ordering, Waszek said he had to scrounge to source stock from a patchwork of suppliers who were struggling with supply chain issues.

U.S.-based HalloweenCostumes.com, which ships directly to Canadian consumers, said many of the goods they ordered won’t even arrive until after the holiday.

Spokeswoman Ashley Theis said the company will just have to use the late items as stock for next year.

The retailers said supply shortages made it difficult to bounce back from a dismal 2020, when many didn’t celebrate Halloween because of high COVID-19 numbers. This year, however, Waszek says he’s happy to see how excited people are to celebrate the holiday again.

6:15 a.m.: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will continue today consulting with opposition leaders about how the House of Commons should resume work and what the priorities should be once it is back in operation.

He is scheduled to have separate phone conversations with Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and the parliamentary leader of the Greens, Elizabeth May.

On Tuesday, he exchanged ideas on the resumption of Parliament with Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet.

First on the agenda is whether the House of Commons should resume the hybrid sittings adopted to get through the COVID-19 pandemic or return to normal in-person operations.

That is likely to be a testy topic with O’Toole in the wake of a decision Tuesday by the multi-party board of internal economy to allow only fully vaccinated individuals to have admittance to the House of Commons precinct.

The Liberals, Bloc Québécois and NDP all support mandatory vaccinations and have said all their MPs have had two shots of approved vaccines; but O’Toole has refused to say whether all his 118 MPs are fully vaccinated and has opposed making it mandatory.