SCOOP: Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's fmr chief of staff lived in a home owned by a sister of Sam Mraiche, a businessman whose dealings w Alberta Health Services are subject to multiple investigations.
Looks like the home was being rented for $1,118 a month while that was his address. That seems like a pretty good discount n the expected rent for a place that sold for $1,700,000.
Carrie Tait doing great journalism and keeps digging deeper.
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According to Alberta's respiratory virus dashboard, 1,544 Alberta children and teens have been hospitalized due to RSV since the end of August, including 150 intensive care unit admissions.
More than half of those hospitalized — 810 of them — were under one year of age. A further 614 were between the ages of one and four.
One infant under the age of one died and another child between the ages of five and nine also died.
"We had so many babies in the hospital suffering with this," said Dr. Sidd Thakore, a pediatrician working at Alberta Children's Hospital.
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The Alberta government faced calls to offer nirsevimab, a newer preventative injection, for free to all newborns last year. Despite being offered in some other provinces, it was not available in Alberta.
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In response to questions from CBC News last week, Alberta Health confirmed it now plans to offer limited coverage starting this fall.
"For the 2025-26 season, the Alberta Pediatric RSV Prevention Program will offer nirsevimab (Beyfortus) to high-risk infants," an Alberta Health official said in an emailed statement.
"A cost-effectiveness and feasibility analysis, conducted by the Institute of Health Economics, is underway to inform decisions for the 2026-27 season."
You know what isn't cost effective? Having over 1500 hospitalized to treat a vaccine preventable illness. Not only is it fiscally stupid, it also jeopardizes the care of others and sets children up with a potential for a lifetime of health complications. Sorry, Jaxyn, preventing your illness wasn't on the right side of the fiscal analysis. Enjoy a lifetime of asthma.
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According to the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), nirsevimab has been shown to reduce hospital admission associated with RSV by 81 to 83 per cent.
Thakore is also calling on the province to provide the shot for free to all newborns.
"If you asked any of those parents out there that had their child in hospital and [were] watching their child suffer, I think there would be a high number of parents that would say, 'I wish I had the opportunity to provide my child with an immunization that could have prevented this," he said.
You know what isn't cost effective? Having over 1500 hospitalized to treat a vaccine preventable illness. Not only is it fiscally stupid, it also jeopardizes the care of others and sets children up with a potential for a lifetime of health complications. Sorry, Jaxyn, preventing your illness wasn't on the right side of the fiscal analysis. Enjoy a lifetime of asthma.
I'm sure having our government stuffed with anti-vaxers isn't helping, either. Maybe we can pay Preston to do another study. ####ing morons.
Just wanted to clarify a couple of facts. Nirsevimab is not an immunization. It does not generate a protective immune response. It is a monoclonal antibody and blocks cell infection by the virus. Protection lasts the length of an RSV season - fall- spring.
Not disagreeing with the premise that Alberta needs to be much stronger when it comes to public health generally and vaccines specifically.
NACI recommends RSV immunization programs use nirsevimab to prevent severe RSV disease. Programs can build and expand over time depending on access to supply, cost-effectiveness, and affordability of available options. Nirsevimab should be prioritized for infants in the following way:
Priority 1:
Infants entering, or born during, their first RSV season who are at increased risk of severe RSV disease, including those who are born at less than 37 weeks gestational age (wGA) (List 1).
Infants entering their second RSV season and at ongoing increased risk of severe RSV disease (List 1).
Infants entering, or born during, their first RSV season whose transportation for severe RSV disease treatment is complex, and/or whose risk of severe RSV disease intersects with established social and structural health determinants such as those experienced by some Indigenous communities across First Nations, Métis and Inuit populations.
Priority 2:
If nirsevimab is priced in a manner to make such programs cost effective, NACI recommends nirsevimab be considered for any infant less than 8 months of age entering, or born during, their first RSV season through universal immunization programs to prevent severe RSV disease.
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False claims about measles, hepatitis, COVID and autism
During his most recent show on May 3, Hodkinson announced he was branching out into vaccine-injury consultation — “COVID-19 and autism related,” his website states.
A consultation costs C$790 or US$570, plus tax, and “if you have difficulty paying our fee, you can engage a specialized lending agency that pays Malpractice Check on your behalf,” the website states. The fee is refunded if the client decides not to move forward with a claim.
On that same May 3 show, the host, “the Wolf,” averred that when he was a kid, you caught measles and you got over it, but now health officials are recommending vaccinations. Is this something people should be worried about?
“There need to be studies that really determine that risk-benefit ratio,” Hodkinson said, and then referenced a study that he said had shown “the risk of an adverse event from the measles vaccination was 60 times greater than the risk of a serious adverse event from the disease itself.
“So one can make a good point that vaccines are more dangerous than the disease they are trying to prevent,” Hodkinson said.
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All health care decisions are based on cost. It’s $400- $500 US per dose. There are about 50,000 babies each year so that’s about 25 million per year in cost for kids under one. At 800 hospitalizations for those under 1 that would need 30k per hospitalization.
So you certainly wouldn’t fund it day for all kids under 18. And it’s marginal for kids under 1. Which is why the NACI recommends what it recomends
Voted, but would this do anything? The UCP don't give 2 effs about the environment and neither do their deplorable supporters.
The UCP and Northback need to understand how large the opposition is. UCP members should be worried about their seats. Northback should be worried about a long expensive fight (with the value of coal expected to drop). EVR in BC is laying off workers because of the tariffs. Many locals think there is great support for a coal mine.
When Glencore spins off Teck’s dirty coal, it also spins off the cleanup to taxpayers
Words are cheap. Without binding measures post-spinoff, US$70-billion miner Glencore would be off the hook for the billions of dollars it will cost to reclaim the mines and remediate the major selenium poisoning that has amassed in the Elk Valley and downstream in the transboundary Kootenay watershed in Montana and Idaho.
The liabilities would instead rest with a stand-alone company reliant on a product with declining demand – for both thermal and metallurgical coal – and with revenues that could dramatically dwindle in the coming years.
What guarantees are there that B.C. taxpayers won’t have to cover the Elk Valley Resources (EVR) mines’ remediation liabilities in the event the new owners are no longer able to pay for it?
Last edited by troutman; 05-20-2025 at 11:44 AM.
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When Cooper slinks away and theres a byelection (not sure Smith still believes in these) the leader of the Republican Party of Alberta, Cameron Davies will be running in the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills by-election.
When Cooper slinks away and theres a byelection (not sure Smith still believes in these) the leader of the Republican Party of Alberta, Cameron Davies will be running in the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills by-election.
Can he do this? Is he even a citizen?
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Is James Snell, Davies' press secretary according to that media release, the same James Snell, the Alberta Legislature Bureau Chief for the Western Standard?
Is James Snell, Davies' press secretary according to that media release, the same James Snell, the Alberta Legislature Bureau Chief for the Western Standard?
Voted, but would this do anything? The UCP don't give 2 effs about the environment and neither do their deplorable supporters.
The UCP also has been putting a massive amount of spin on the fact that a town, that isn't even in the effected county, voted 70% in favor of a mine. They trot that out at every possible chance.
So a much larger number voting overwhelmingly against, would do something to balance out the only 'vote' thus far.
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The UCP also has been putting a massive amount of spin on the fact that a town, that isn't even in the effected county, voted 70% in favor of a mine. They trot that out at every possible chance.
So a much larger number voting overwhelmingly against, would do something to balance out the only 'vote' thus far.
The “non-binding” referendum was a farce. There was no public discussion or debate. The vote did not include 2,400 secondary residents who also pay taxes in CNP, and would be largely against the mine. This was intentional by council in my mind. The difference was only about 1200 votes. 1200 people are holding the province hostage, when 200,000 people in the Oldman watershed, and millions of Albertans were not consulted.
The premier said on her weekend radio program that the province has heard “loud and clear” that Albertans do not want mountaintop removal or strip mining.
When announcing new rules banning new open-pit coal mines in the foothills and allowing steelmaking coal mines, the province said the Alberta Coal Industry Modernization Initiative will not affect Northback’s proposed coal mine.
This is confusing. I’m not sure Smith understands Northback is seeking an open pit mine at Grassy Mountain. Brian Jean understands this.
Last edited by troutman; 05-21-2025 at 08:24 AM.
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