In the Fall 2024 edition of the CoVaRR-Net Quarterly, several key CoVaRR-Net members reflected on the multiple advantages such a network has brought to health research in Canada.

In the Fall 2024 edition of the CoVaRR-Net Quarterly, several key CoVaRR-Net members reflected on the multiple advantages such a network has brought to health research in Canada.

It feels like we’ve been listening to holiday music for a month already. Does that mean you’ve missed the window to get your seasonal vaccines? “Not at all,” says Dr. Marc-André Langlois, Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa and CoVaRR-Net Executive Director. “With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it’s just a matter of time before we all get infected.”

The fight against COVID-19 has been a crash course in adapting quickly to a rapidly evolving virus. CoVaRR-Net’s Pillar 1 Immunology & Vaccine Protection team has been on the front line of that fight.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the establishment of CoVaRR-Net, the Pillar 4 - Functional Genomics and Structure Function of VOCs - team has made great progress in developing tools and methods to assess the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 variants due to vaccination and infection.

It feels like we’ve been listening to holiday music for a month already. Does that mean you’ve missed the window to get your seasonal vaccines? “Not at all,” says Dr. Marc-André Langlois, Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa and CoVaRR-Net Executive Director. “With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it’s just a matter of time before we all get infected.”

The breadth of CoVaRR-Net in bringing together basic and clinical scientists from multiple disciplines with computational modelling and public health policy experts made it possible to rapidly generate, translate and communicate new research findings about the cavalcade of new and emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern across Canada through different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic.

After more than four years of living with COVID-19, one thing that’s predictable is that SARS-CoV-2 will continue to evolve rapidly and find new ways to infect and reinfect Canadians and the world’s population.

Every week, CoVaRR-Net’s CAMEO (Computational Analysis, Modelling and Evolutionary Outcomes) Pillar produces a new, up-to-date snapshot, situational report, and analysis of what’s happening with SARS-CoV-2 variants in Canada through its interactive, web-based Duotang notebook.

Indigenous Peoples in Canada have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. The rate of COVID-19 in First Nations People living on a reserve was significantly higher than in the general Canadian population early in the pandemic and Indigenous Peoples were also more likely to experience hospitalization from COVID-19 than other racial and ethnic groups.

The CoVaRR-Net Biobank and Data Platform have been game-changers by enabling rapid sharing of biological samples, resources, and data related to SARS-CoV-2 among researchers across Canada.

Along with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, many Canadians will also be dealing with a triad of respiratory viruses, including influenza, RSV, and significantly rising levels of COVID-19 in many parts of the country.

Being prepared starts with recognizing that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, continues to evolve with mutations that frequently make the virus more transmissible and better able to evade our immune systems.

Due to social, cultural, and economic inequities, COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on disadvantaged communities leading to more severe health and economic outcomes. More research needs to be done with a health equity lens to ensure policy makers and organizations can target their interventions and make healthcare in Canada more equitable.

The Canadian Consortium of Academic Biosafety Level 3 Labs (CCABL3) is diligently working towards a safer and more collaborative future for scientific research on highly pathogenic organisms.

Airports worldwide are fast emerging as sentinels to watch for the entry and spread of new and emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants: they are testing wastewater on planes and perhaps soon, swabbing floors and surfaces in airports and planes as well. CoVaRR-Net’s Wastewater Surveillance Research Group (WWSRG) is playing a major role in improving this type of surveillance in Canada and worldwide.

With COVID-19, influenza (the flu) and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) cases going up during and after the holidays across the country, experts from CoVaRR-Net want to remind you that masking and other preventative health measures have been proven to work.

People often think – or expect – vaccines provide complete protection for everyone after they get their first dose.

Given that PCR testing of individuals for COVID-19 and case reporting have declined in Canada, public health officials have relied increasingly on wastewater sampling and seroprevalence testing as useful surveillance tools for tracking the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and predicting outbreaks in large geographic areas, such as communities.

With kids and teens back in school, students at university, Canadians spending more time indoors in the workplace and at social gatherings, and new variants always lurking, an 8^th wave of COVID-19 is expected this fall. It’s not yet known how fast or how tall this next wave will be or whether it will be driven by a new variant or by waning immunity against the variants already present.

Motivational Interviewing to Increase COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance (MIICOVAC) is a nation-wide service and pilot research project that aims to explore and address questions, anxieties, and concerns about COVID-19 vaccination.

BA.4 and BA.5 transmit faster and can reinfect people with previous Omicron infections more easily.

Many Canadians wonder whether third and fourth doses of vaccine truly make a difference in protecting them against COVID-19 infection and reducing the risk of transmitting the virus to others.

With the more contagious BA.2 fueling a spring wave, getting a vaccine booster protects Canadians against rising health risks

Two years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, provincial and territorial governments in Canada have shifted their pandemic policies by lifting mask mandates, vaccine passport requirements, capacity limits and other public health measures.

As PCR testing resources have been unable to keep up with demand across the country, rapid antigen tests (“rapid tests”) have become an important tool in the pandemic.

Because of limited PCR testing, the data on the spread of SARS-CoV-2 is becoming limited; wastewater surveillance offers an opportunity to provide a reliable snapshot of COVID-19 rates everywhere it’s monitored.

As PCR testing resources have been unable to keep up with demand across the country, rapid antigen tests (“rapid tests”) have become an important tool in the pandemic.

Cases of Omicron rose rapidly over the holidays and, since then, it has become the dominant variant.

Omicron, which has spread widely across the globe and in many regions of Canada, is one of the most transmissible variants to emerge during the pandemic.

* This article was published before Omicron was declared a variant of concern and spread worldwide. It no longer reflects CoVaRR-Net recommendations in regards to boosters in the reality of Omicron.

Declining antibodies do not necessarily mean less protection for healthy individuals, explains CoVaRR-Net's Dr. Mark Brockman.

Researchers at the Coronavirus Variants Rapid Response Network (CoVaRR-Net) share risk-reducing measures for Halloween.