In the News is a roundup of articles from The Canadian Press designed to start your day. Here’s what’s on our editors’ radar for the morning of May 17th …

What we watch in Canada …

OTTAWA – Canada is set to receive a major infusion of COVID-19 vaccines this week, even as questions swirl about how the vaccination campaign will be affected by the sudden departure of the man responsible for overseeing it.

The federal government says it expects about 4.5 million doses to arrive this week thanks to scheduled deliveries from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

Pfizer and BioNTech were scheduled to administer around 2 million doses this week, as their vaccines continue to flow steadily into Canada after early hiccups in February and March.

But the federal government said the two companies will ship an additional 1.4 million shots, which were originally scheduled to land next week, but are now expected to arrive before the next holiday weekend.

Moderna is also expected to deliver 1.1 million doses this week.

The massive influx comes as the Liberal government questions who will now lead the vaccination campaign after Major-General. Dany Fortin was suddenly sidelined on Friday and reassigned from his role as chairman of the national immunization effort.

The Department of National Defense said Fortin was under a military investigation, but otherwise declined to provide details. The government, meanwhile, has not yet appointed a replacement.

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Also this …

Indigenous surgery patients are nearly a third more likely to die after their surgery than other populations in Canada and face higher risks of complications, new research shows, as doctors warn that these inequalities could s ‘worsen with the COVID-19 crisis.

The Journal of the Canadian Medical Association today published a systems review consisting of 28 separate studies. The research involved about 1.9 million participants – about 10% of whom identified as Indigenous – to assess the surgical outcomes of Indigenous patients in Canada across a range of interventions.

Lead author Dr Jason McVicar said the findings underscore the need for First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities to lead a data-driven healthcare overhaul, especially since the pandemic raises concerns that Indigenous patients are falling behind in the growing backlog of surgeries. .

“This study tells Canadians two things: that we need better data, and the data we have tells us we need to do better,” said McVicar, Métis anesthesiologist at The Ottawa Hospital.

Researchers found that Indigenous people face a 30% higher death rate after surgery than non-Indigenous patients, according to data from four studies with a total of 7,135 participants.

The authors also reviewed the literature indicating that Aboriginal patients suffered higher rates of surgical complications, including postoperative infections and hospital readmissions.

The data also showed that Indigenous patients were less likely to undergo surgeries aimed at improving their quality of life, such as joint replacements, as well as potentially life-saving procedures including heart surgery, transplants and cesarean sections.

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And that …

Canadian researchers who followed a group of men born prematurely weighing less than 2.2 pounds find that they tend to age faster than average birth weight male babies.

Results from a team from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., Were published today in the journal Pediatrics.

The researchers followed a group of babies they called “extremely low birth weight” babies along with their normal weight counterparts.

They found that premature boys age faster and are biologically 4.6 years older than normal birth weight boys born at the same time.

The difference was not found between birth weight groups in girls.

Lead author of the study, Dr Ryan Van Lieshout, said in a press release that the rate of aging may be influenced by boys’ handling of physiological stress before birth and in the intensive care unit. newborns from the hospital after their birth.

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What we watch in the United States …

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Denmark for talks on climate change, arctic policy and Russia as calls mount for the Biden administration to take a stronger and more active stance on the rise of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Blinken sees Danish leaders as well as senior officials from Greenland and the Faroe Islands in Copenhagen today before heading to Iceland for an Arctic Council meeting which will be marked by his first face-to-face talks with the Russian minister Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a time of considerably heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow.

The UN Security Council held an urgent session on Sunday on the situation in the Middle East in which U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the administration was working tirelessly by diplomatic channels to stop the fighting.

President Joe Biden met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday, Blinken worked on the phone with various counterparts as he visited Copenhagen on Sunday, and a senior US diplomat is currently in Israel to meet the parties there.

Still, calls for a greater American response are growing, especially in Congress where a large number of Biden’s Democratic allies are calling for more action, including an administration’s demand for a ceasefire.

Biden has so far resisted such calls, reaffirming his steadfast support for Israel’s right to defend against rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.

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What we watch in the rest of the world …

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – The Israeli military has unleashed a wave of heavy airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

He claims to have destroyed 15 kilometers of militant tunnels and the homes of nine suspected Hamas commanders.

Gazans awakened by the night barrage described it as the heaviest since the war began a week ago, and even more powerful than a wave of airstrikes in Gaza City the day before that made 42 dead.

There was no immediate news on the victims of the latest strikes.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes across Gaza and militants have launched more than 3,100 rockets at Israel since the fighting began.

War erupted last Monday when Hamas fired long-range rockets at Jerusalem after weeks of clashes in the holy city between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police.

The protests focused on the harsh policing of a peak holy site during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the threat of eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers.

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In entertainment …

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands – Beating rhythms? Check. Edifying words? Check. Huge backlit white wings? Check.

Following the cancellation of last year’s Eurovision Song Contest amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, it is coming back to life this year with bubbles of coronavirus added to its intoxicating mix of music and melodrama.

National delegations heading to the Dutch port city of Rotterdam adhere to strict measures to reduce the risk of infections, while thousands of fans allowed to attend dress rehearsals, the two semi-finals and the May 22 grand final will need to undergo testing to make sure they don’t. bring the virus into the cavernous room.

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ICYMI …

WAYNE, Alta. – Built during WWI, it survived the Great Depression, WWII and the closure of coal mines in the 1950s. Now the historic Last Chance Saloon in the Ghost Town of Wayne, in southern Alberta, is for sale.

There are a century of memorabilia at this three-story wooden hotel, including photos of the community in its heyday, mining equipment, and three bullet holes – framed on a bar wall – dating back to the 1970s when a bartender thrilled with the trigger wanted to encourage some customers to pay their bill.

The hotel, about 9 miles southeast of Drumheller, Alta., Was built by the Rosedeer Coal Co. to house its workers and opened in 1913. The lounge was added a few years later so that employees paid in company certificates can buy a meal or a beer.

“It was originally built for coal miners when Wayne was starting to thrive with 2,500 residents in the early 1920s. There are only 29 residents left and it is one of the few structures left from this era. », Explains current owner Dave Arsenault, who must sell the hotel as part of a divorce settlement.

“It was a constant concern. There was more than one hotel here. There were 12 coal mines and it was a busy place. Of course, there is hardly anything left, but there are a lot of pictures. showing what it was like during the day.

The hotel is listed for $ 925,000. Arsenault says potential buyers have already generated some interest.

Some believe the hotel’s third floor, which is locked and used only for storage, is haunted. The hotel was featured in Season 3 of the Canadian ghost hunting television show, “The Other Side”.

It has also hit the big screen.

The 1983 film “Running Brave”, starring Robby Benson, was shot in part at the hotel as well as the 2000 western martial arts comedy “Shanghai Noon” which starred Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson and Lucy Liu.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published on May 17, 2021

The Canadian Press