News from Canada

Chandelier said:
www.medscape.com

Healthcare Workers With Long COVID Struggle to Find Support

Some healthcare workers fail to recognize the symptoms of long COVID in themselves, says one physician.
www.medscape.com www.medscape.com
1100-word article.

Healthcare Workers With Long COVID Struggle to Find Support and Care in an Environment of Denial​

Alison Palkhivala
January 09, 2026
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Hulme and other interested parties have tried to help build the infrastructure needed to provide care for patients with long COVID, but they have faced many barriers. Although the condition shares many features with fibromyalgia, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, guidelines for those conditions could not mention long COVID by provincial government decree. “There are many, many political reasons as to why [long COVID] should not become a big deal,” said Hulme. “There are still little pockets of money for research, but they are very small.”
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Health is political. Health care is political. Medicine is political.
“Historically, [healthcare workers] have denied the existence of conditions that do not have a biomarker and a treatment,” continued Hulme. “Until we have a biomarker and a treatment, the healthcare community will continue to be unexcited about this….Insurance companies and governments do not want to pay disability or structured paid leave, and healthcare systems do not want to pay their healthcare workers for paid leave. So, it is in nobody’s interest to accept this as a real condition. There is a lot of stigma around [long COVID. Physicians with it] have had a really hard time going off work. They have been made to feel very guilty and [risk] losing their practice.”
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It's incredible how this perfectly captures the banality of evil. It describes throwing millions of people in the trash. There is no uncertainty as to what happens when sick people are denied all forms of help and support like this. And it's described with less emotion than a garbage collection strike.
 
So, it is in nobody’s interest to accept this as a real condition.

Besides patients. And their family. And friends. And community. And the national budget.

The bit I don't get in all this idiocy is just how short-sighted burying heads in the sand is. The best, and indeed only way, to solve this is to recognise how serious it is, how poorly understood it is and why that is so, and start funding proper research into it to find actual effective solutions.

How else can it be solved?
 
Quoting this bit again:
Medscape News Canada said:
Although the condition shares many features with fibromyalgia, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, guidelines for those conditions could not mention long COVID by provincial government decree.
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Government guidelines for ME/CFS or POTS in Canada can't even mention Long Covid? Really? But patient organizations can, right?

I'm really confused about the idea that a guideline can't mention overlapping conditions, especially since a subset of Long Covid patients meet the ME/CFS diagnostic criteria.
 
Flu season (yellow) is winding down in Canada after a really difficult December/early January. RSV (red) is now rising later in the season, while COVID (blue) remains relatively flat, possibly picking up in the spring.
Flu.jpg
 
Some doctors caution against full-body MRI's as celebrity endorsements drive up demand

"Doctors warn full-body MRIS supporting evidence ay put additional pressure on public health system"

"After a bout of prostate cancer, Don Garnier wanted to take a more proactive approach to his health. That's why he went out of his way to pay $2,500 for a full-body MRI scan at a private Vancouver clinic called Prenuvo.

Garnier said the scan results took five days to come in and were unremarkable — which was good news. He said the nurse clinicians there went through the results with him in detail.

He feels it was worth the money for his peace of mind — and many people share that view".
 
The Canadian Covid Society is asking to share people's experience with LC. Can't say I've seen anything useful out of this thing, but there is literally nothing else happening in Canada, where health care is left to the provinces and there is very little federal funding for medical research, almost none for LC and historically none for ME/CFS.

covidsociety.ca

Share your Long Covid experience - Canadian Covid Society

We’re inviting everyone with Long Covid to share their perspective. Experiences of people with Long Covid from across the country will be highlighted.
covidsociety.ca covidsociety.ca
 
Simon Spichak (of The Sick Times) posted a thread about clinical research on LC in Canada. Pretty bleak:



I wish I still had enough hope in me to see this as a positive. Maybe it is, but we've been through years of evidence that none of the rehab stuff is any effective and still it completely dominates the entire issue.
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One year update: Hundreds of U.S. health-care professionals are serving people in B.C

More than 400 U.S health-care professionals making B.C home.

Summary
  • As of January 2026, more than 400 U.S.-trained health professionals have accepted job offers throughout the province, including rural and remote regions, nearly triple the last update
  • B.C. has received more than 2,750 job applications as of March 2026 from U.S. doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses and allied health professionals as a result of targeted recruitment efforts
  • More than 1,300 U.S. trained doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners have registered to practise in B.C., indicating growing interest to work in the province since pathways were streamlined for U.S. credential recognition in 2025
 
www.medpagetoday.com

One Drug Wins and Another Fails for Long COVID Fatigue

A previous trial of the two drugs showed the opposite effect for reducing the risk of long COVID
www.medpagetoday.com www.medpagetoday.com

MedPage Today said:
Key Takeaways
  • Fluvoxamine and metformin have anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties that have led researchers to test their ability to prevent and treat long COVID and its symptoms.
  • In a randomized trial, fluvoxamine led to a significant reduction in fatigue as measured by the Fatigue Severity Scale compared with placebo at day 60, with a 99% posterior probability of superiority.
  • Among participants receiving metformin, fatigue scores at 60 days were not significantly different versus placebo.
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The antidepressant fluvoxamine delivered clinically relevant reductions in long COVID fatigue, but the diabetes drug metformin didn't outdo placebo, according to the randomized REVIVE-TOGETHER trial.

Among 399 adults with long COVID, those receiving fluvoxamine had a significant reduction in fatigue as measured by the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) compared with placebo at day 60 (mean difference - 0.43, 95% credible interval [CrI] -0.80 to -0.07), with a 99% posterior probability of superiority, reported Jamie Forrest, PhD, MPH, of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and colleagues.

This effect was sustained at day 90 (mean difference -0.58, 95% CrI - 0.98 to -0.16), with a 99.7% probability of superiority.
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There's a lot more detail in the article. I hope someone on here can look at it and see whether this looks useful.

Link to paper (Annals of Internal Medicine):

 
First brain-heart guidelines calls for integrated care for heart, brain and mental health

Ottawa, March 30, 2026 — A new Canadian clinical practice guideline developed through the Canadian Cardiovascular Harmonized National Guideline Endeavour (C-CHANGE) and led by researchers at the Ottawa Heart Institute is calling on clinicians to treat heart, brain and mental health conditions together rather than in isolation.

I'm glad they are finally acknowledging that the brain is connected to the rest of the body.
 
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