I have had COVID-19 twice. The first time, there were no vaccines. The virus infected my heart and left me with heart rhythm problems that required two heart procedures, a vascular repair and what appears to be a lifetime on blood thinners and anti-arrhythmic drugs.
The second time COVID-19 struck happened because I convinced my wife that it was finally safe to take a vacation. We flew to Aruba for a two-week getaway. On the flight, we wore masks. The crew that served us didn’t. We had upgraded our seats to business class to keep us away from crowded economy seating. The passenger in the seat in front of us was sick and coughing for the entire flight. Three days after we arrived in Aruba, I became sick and tested positive for COVID. A day later, my wife tested positive. Aruba didn’t have Paxlovid. We isolated for one week in our hotel room, and when we emerged, we were exhausted. It was our fiftieth wedding anniversary, and COVID had turned it into a living hell.
Two weeks ago, I got the latest COVID booster. There is another variant in the works, which means a fall booster will be needed as well. The first bout of COVID left me ill for almost a year. The second bout has made me more susceptible to respiratory infections, including pneumonia, which I had in December 2024.
COVID, however, has dropped off government radar around the world, most noticeably in the United States under the insane leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump. Here in Canada, the government of Alberta is no longer providing COVID shots for free.
What, then, is the actual state of COVID globally?
The World Health Organization (WHO), from which Trump has removed the United States, describes COVID as on the increase since February of 2025, with test positivity rates reaching 11%. The latest variants are LP.8.1 and NB.1.8.1, the former peaking early in 2025 and the latter appearing in global test results 10.7% of the time.
The WHO advises all member states to manage COVID with “a risk-based, integrated approach.” What, however, has happened is that countries are less forthcoming with COVID data, including hospital admissions and deaths. Furthermore, countries are downplaying Long COVID symptoms, and the collateral damage the virus has caused to infants and the elderly with underlying conditions.
It appears that COVID-19 has put severe strain on governments, which today increasingly report less and less about the persistence of the virus. Why is this?
- Politics – In the United States, particularly, the leadership under the Republican Party and Donald Trump have pressured health agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to downplay the science and evidence in favour of a political agenda. The Trump budget cuts have taken away funding for public health initiatives. The vaccines are being scrutinized by political appointees, not scientists and medical professionals. Political interference is suppressing actual data and delaying the release of information to the public to undermine trust and reinforce vaccine skepticism.
- Overburdened Health Resources – For the Global South, the lack of funding to buy vaccines and the lack of infrastructure to support national vaccination programs remain significant challenges. There appears to be no hurry to support conditions in Global South countries where refrigeration capacity is inadequate to support the current crop of mRNA and other vaccines. Even in the Global North, infrastructure and adequate funding to support sustained education and vaccination programs appear lacking. This may be a sign of government fatigue.
- Less Information Being Shared – Outside of academia and journal publications, reporting on COVID-19 has become background noise. When the pandemic started, reporting provided daily case totals. The numbers were frightening, but at the same time indicated the seriousness of the situation and the openness to share data. Today, reporting on COVID is incomplete, and less is shared across countries. Even decision makers in health and government are finding public health information on COVID insufficient to help with decision-making.
- Variation in Information Quality – Missing data is the most common complaint of those tracking the progress of COVID-19. This includes case identifiers, patient outcomes, and reporting on deaths associated with the virus or attributed to it when underlying conditions exist. Laboratories cannot keep up with the real-time picture of the virus either because of a lack of funding, insufficient resources, or delays in receiving public data.
- Misinformation and the “Infodemic” – There is a growing flood of misleading and false information about COVID, which began right from the outset with people like Donald Trump parading in front of the media, talking about false cures. What is worse, however, is that the phenomenon has persisted into the present, in many countries including the United States, creating confusion and mistrust, and hindering public health efforts to manage the continuing threat responsibly.
What are COVID-19’s real numbers and global impact?
COVID-19 has caused 6.6 million deaths globally, hundreds of thousands of annual hospitalizations, and created post-COVID conditions lasting three months or more in up to 15% of those infected based on Canadian compiled data.
Persistent Long COVID symptoms include fatigue, cardiovascular and respiratory changes, and neurological issues.
Of patients hospitalized because of COVID, 75% had at least one underlying health condition such as hypertension, Type 1 and 2 Diabetes, cardiovascular diseases like heart failure and stroke, chronic lung diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis, COPD, asthma and cystic fibrosis, chronic kidney disease, cancer, tuberculosis, HIV, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia, and substance use disorders. All of these conditions have contributed to increased morbidity numbers, many not necessarily assigned to COVID-19 global data.
In the Thursday, July 3, 2025, edition of the Toronto Star, Iris Gorfinkel, a family physician and clinical researcher here in Toronto, reinforces the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic is not over. She describes the ongoing evolution of the virus as new variants emerge because there is no herd immunity. She notes one in nine Canadian adults have experienced Long COVID, doubling the risk of heart attacks, strokes and death for up to three years after being infected. The risk increases with each infection, with immunization the only mitigating factor.
She accuses government statisticians and politicians of ignoring the uncomfortable truth of COVID’s long-delayed effects, and of failing to account for excess deaths since the start of the pandemic that are not included in the morbidity data.
The government of Canada’s Province of Alberta recently announced they would no longer provide COVID vaccines at no cost to Albertans. Alberta’s right-wing government is led by a vaccine skeptic. Now she will make every Albertan pay CDN$110 (approximately US$80) for COVID vaccines, putting immunization out of reach of low-income earners, community-dwelling seniors, children, and personal support workers (PSWs), even though COVID deaths in the province have outnumbered those from influenza (given free) and RSV (another respiratory viral infection) combined. Gorfinkel states, “Public health should never be weaponized by political agendas.”
