Morning Update: Relatively few COVID-19 cases reported after receiving first vaccine dose, data show

Good morning,

Only a small percentage of the millions of Canadians who’ve received their first vaccine dose have gone on to develop COVID-19, data show, and an even smaller share of that total have fallen seriously ill or died. Nearly 2,300 Canadians have contracted the virus more than two weeks after receiving their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

The new data serve as a reminder that the first dose doesn’t provide foolproof protection against severe outcomes of COVID-19, which helps explain why public-health officials have urged Canadians to keep their guards up until they receive a second injection.

Meanwhile, Ottawa is considering a plan to defer some deliveries for Canada’s own future use, rather than making any immediate plans to donate to needy countries.

• LTC: Ontario failed to act on surveys of long-term care homes ahead of second wave, commission says
• On a lighter note: Paralympian Kamylle Frenette is hoping to help in Canada’s immunization efforts
• Q&A: Can you get vaccinated if you’ve moved provinces?

Open this photo in gallery:

This is the daily Morning Update newsletter. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for Morning Update and more than 20 more Globe newsletters on our newsletter signup page.

Press Freedom

The Globe and Mail’s Asia correspondent has been honoured with a press freedom award for his work covering China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority.

Nathan VanderKlippe shares the award with Sarah Cox, an investigative reporter with The Narwhal, for her coverage of British Columbia’s Site C hydroelectric project.

Elsewhere:

• As India’s COVID-19 infections mount in a crushing second wave, there is a growing clamour against media coverage criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handling of the pandemic. Media watchers said the effort to weed out critical voices covering the pandemic ties in with digital freedom in India over the past few years.
• Putin’s latest attack on journalists is putting the squeeze on Russia’s vanishing free press. Roman Anin would know, when a team of agents arrived at his door and searched for seven hours – explaining nothing about their presence as they ransacked his apartment – it marked the beginning of an escalated crackdown on independent media and freedom of speech.

Real estate

Pandemic panic has made the real estate frenzy worse, and if you’re not careful, you’ll fall prey to your own fear of missing out.

And of course people feel FOMO – every real estate ad, home-reno show and social-media post is designed to trigger it. What’s to be done? Economists and policy-makers are deep in a well-needed debate. Eventually, the rules may change, but if today’s housing market is hurting your brain, you don’t have to lose your head over it.

• Who are Canada’s real estate billionaires? A field guide to the secretive and super-rich
• Wagons east: Meet the homeowners driving a real estate exodus to Atlantic Canada

Open this photo in gallery:

Got a news tip that you’d like us to look into? E-mail us at tips@globeandmail.com Need to share documents securely? Reach out via SecureDrop

ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Wealthsimple on brink of largest Canadian private tech funding: Sources close to the transaction say several new investors are in the advanced stages of completing a deal to invest $700-million or more for an equity stake in Wealthsimple.

Special Forces commander placed on leave for supporting soldier convicted of sex assault: Canada’s top soldier apologized over his handling of a high-profile departure within the ranks of the country’s military, which he acknowledged was “increasing the pain” within the Canadian Armed Forces.

Private debt manager Bridging Finance placed in receivership as OSC investigates its activities: The Ontario Securities Commission alleges that Bridging misappropriated $35-million from an investment fund it manages to complete an acquisition for its own benefit; that its chief executive officer received $19.5-million into his personal chequing account from a client to whom Bridging had lent more than $100-million; and that Bridging lent $32-million to a borrower two weeks before the same borrower bought a 50-per-cent stake in Bridging.

MORNING MARKETS

European shares gain: European shares gained on Monday as investors bullish about the global economic recovery looked ahead to a busy week for U.S. economic data that is expected to underline the strength of the rebound. Just before 6 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.12 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.26 per cent and 0.13 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.28 per cent. New York futures were higher. The Canadian dollar was trading at 81.22 US cents.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

Regime change in China is not only possible, it is imperative

Roger Garside: “The potential benefits of an orderly transition from dictatorship to democracy in China test the limits of the imagination.”

Ten years after his Orange Wave, the NDP must recommit to Jack Layton’s project

Brad Lavigne: “But to capitalize, the NDP – like it did when Jack was leader – has to answer a very simple question: Is it content to be the conscience of Parliament, or does it want to win?”

TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

Open this photo in gallery:

LIVING BETTER

What is one thing we can do about children’s learning loss during the pandemic?

As children struggle with social isolation, books can offer them a window into new worlds – and make them happier, healthier and wealthier too.

Children learn more from books than how to decode words on the page. In reading stories, children reason, imagine, interpret and connect. They interact with the characters on the page. They learn, in other words, to be people. Reading is also a deceptively social exercise. Kids might be able to use literature as a way out of confinement, the book as a portal to freedom and family.

Read more:

• 45 new titles for you and the young readers in your life
• From graphic novels to audiobooks, tips to get kids reading more

HOROSCOPE

IF TODAY IS YOUR BIRTHDAY: Cosmic activity in the area that governs your social and professional standing warns you must not do anything over the coming 12 months that might damage your reputation. Honesty is essential, even if it means saying things you know others won’t be happy with.

Read today's horoscopes. Enjoy today's puzzles.

MOMENT IN TIME: Photo archive

Open this photo in gallery:

Banting and Best discover insulin

For more than 100 years, photographers and photo librarians have preserved an extraordinary collection of 20th-century news photography for The Globe and Mail. Every Monday, The Globe features one of these images. This month, we’re marking the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin.

In the spring of 1921, Frederick (Fred) Banting was a 29-year-old physician who had just failed to land a job as a camp doctor with an oil exploration crew. Instead, he secured an unused laboratory at the University of Toronto to test an idea he had about diabetes. Charles (Charley) Best, a fourth-year medical student splitting a summer job with a friend, became Mr. Banting’s assistant through a coin toss. The unlikely pair began work in mid-May, using dogs as their test subjects. By early August they had demonstrated that an extract taken from the pancreas of one dog could be used to lower the blood sugar of another dog whose pancreas had been surgically removed. It was the first clear sign of what would later be known as insulin in action, prompting a celebratory rooftop photo with their canine patient #408.

If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday morning, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.