Canada needs to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and take action before the next health emergency, an expert panel of doctors and researchers says in a new independent report. states.
“Most scientists feel it’s only a matter of time before we face something similar to what we’ve experienced over the past five years,” he says, considering how scientific advice is developed and how it works. said Dr. Fahad Razak, one of six experts who contributed to the report examining how the disease has developed. How the study was arranged.
“Many of the things we’ve discovered when making global comparisons… [pandemic] Looking at the answers, you can see that preparation is a key part. ”
The report of the panel called “The time to act is now” states that disease surveillance, hospitalization data and research results are needed. I can now communicate more effectively between states, territories and the federal government.
“The fragmented nature of how we govern this country, where decisions are made individually in the states and territories and what happens in the federal government. [level]has had a huge impact on the response to the pandemic,” said Razak, an internist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto who is the scientific lead for Ontario’s COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Table. .
A series of new reports published in the British Medical Journal say Canada was “underprepared” and “undercoordinated” during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report’s authors say it’s time to examine what happened and learn how to prepare for the next pandemic.
He said in an interview Tuesday that available health data has varied across the country during the pandemic, making it “very difficult to get a national picture of what’s going on.”
The report also says Canada needs to create a single permanent scientific advisory group, as is being done in the UK, rather than trying to pool expertise in the middle of an outbreak.
“There’s only so much you can do during a crisis. When there’s a crisis, people are desperate and infrastructure doesn’t work well,” Razak said.
The report says “the lack of existing emergency protocols for scientific advice in Canada has caused significant delays” and that better coordination is needed “within and across all levels of government.”
Separate communications between federal and state scientific advisory groups “resulted in multiple streams of advice,” according to a report released Thursday by the agency. The request was made by Health Canada in August last year.
The report also recommends: Evolving health information It should be shared with the public sooner.
The latest version of the COVID-19 vaccine is being rolled out across the country, with priority given to people over 65 and those with underlying health conditions, but not all Canadians are eligible for the shot. Persuasion may again be difficult.
“I think the pandemic was a great example of how not releasing information publicly breeds mistrust and misinformation,” Razak said.
”[The scientific advisory group’s] “Communications to government should be made available to the public as soon as they are made,” he said.
“You want the masses be confident They are also provided with the best available scientific evidence. ”
Report highlights the role of inequality
The report found that Canada has increased the number of people hit hardest during emergencies, including racialized people, Indigenous peoples, people living in poverty, people experiencing homelessness, and residents of long-term care facilities. He said inequalities also needed to be addressed.
“Greater focus and investment is needed to support interdisciplinary research to identify how best to implement public health and other interventions to address well-documented inequalities.” says the report.
This includes more funding for Indigenous-led research, the report says.
Dr Shannon MacDonald, another expert on the committee, said funding agencies need to understand how factors such as colonization, experiences of trauma and economic conditions affect basic health and, in turn, people’s illnesses. He said that different types of Indigenous-led research should be supported, including research that investigates the potential for impact on people’s risks. greatly affected by emergencies.
Better data sharing between governments and First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities is also important, McDonald, who is Métis/Anishinaabe and former chief medical officer of British Columbia’s First Nations Health Authority, said Wednesday. said in an interview.
That requires long-term partnerships, she says.
“When you start talking about meaningful engagement; [with] Indigenous peoples, multi-billion commissions should not have been created on an ad hoc basis when COVID-19 was declared a global public health emergency,” Mr McDonald said.
“It’s really about relationships that develop over time and support health data strategies and advancements.”
Despite its shortcomings, Razak said there is much to be proud of in Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including using wastewater monitoring to detect how much virus is present in communities. said.
“We are one of the pioneering countries and we have certainly taken it forward on a scale beyond what many other countries have been able to achieve,” he said.
But some provinces, including Ontario, have now drastically reduced their wastewater monitoring programs, leaving many communities with “almost no data,” Razak said.
Canadian Press health coverage is supported through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
