It’s “critical” that politics be pulled out of the pandemic response in order to effectively combat COVID-19, which is precisely why a new pilot project, known as the Canadian COVID Collaboration, has launched in Guelph and Wellington County.
“At the local level, these things don’t tend to get that politicized,” Dr. Jeff Wilson of the Guelph-based social enterprise Novometrix told GuelphToday Wednesday morning following a presentation involving a number of experts and viewed by people throughout the country and elsewhere around the globe.
“We’re very interested in how this could be spread globally, and it all comes out of Guelph.”
The pilot project involves bringing together local community leaders, including MPs, MPPs, elected municipal officials, medical personnel, faith groups, charities, the University of Guelph and more to come up with a mass testing program, collect and analyse information, and focus education efforts where that information says it’s needed most.
“Guelph is very unique because we’re naturally very collaborative,” said Wilson, a veterinarian, noting a dozen or so “core leadership team” members began meeting in his Puslinch barn. “It’s a different governance model compared to what we’re normally used to. It’s actually much more inclusive and transparent, and builds accountability into the process.”
When it comes to establishing a “comprehensive” testing program, accompanied by questionnaires to help focus the findings, that’s being done with assistance from the U of G.
“The university has … very extensive testing capacity,” Wilson said, adding publicly-released data has focused on case counts, but more information is needed on the exposure points. “With that kind of data, you can really target in on … what’s causing the problem and then you can focus the vaccine and social distancing on the right groups.
“That’s a key part we’re not seeing in the provincial and federal response, that risk factor analysis.”
The project may also result in clinical trials of a prospective vaccine being tested here, Wilson explained, noting they would be built off trials happening in Australia involving a protein-based vaccine, rather than the mRNA platform like the one from Pfizer.
Vaxine, an Australian firm, is in the midst of human trials of a vaccine that can be transported and stored at traditional temperatures, making it easier to distribute compared to the minus 80C required for the Pfizer vaccine. If the next phase of testing is successful, their vaccine may be ready for roll out mid- to late-next year, said company founder Dr. Nikolai Petrovsky during Wednesday’s presentation.
“Protein-based vaccines take longer,” he said in comparison others such as the Pfizer vaccine, explaining 15 years of scientific research has gone into it.
Wilson believes the provincial and federal governments have done a poor job of managing the pandemic, falling short on several fronts including creating a transparent and inclusive outbreak leadership team and running an effective testing program, with thorough communication between agencies and the public.
“Politicians should never run outbreaks. They lack sufficient knowledge and they are primarily driven to get re-elected,” he said during Wednesday’s presentation. “It doesn’t mean they’re bad people. It’s just that they will lean strongly towards controlling the messaging to convince the public, and the media, that their government is on the right track.”
Upper-tier governments have focused the message on keeping the public calm – “we’re all in this together” – and deflecting criticism, and not the free flow of information Wilson feels would be most helpful.
“We’ve made progress on educating people and promoting mask use. Social distancing is apparently working, but it makes no sense to distance everyone in every situation as we are attempting to do now,” he said. “Obviously, we also need a vaccine, but the search for one needs to be systematic, transparent and based on evidence, not based on lobbying.”
Similarly, he feels vaccine corporations have focused on promoting their own interests rather than contributing to “any coherent strategy to end the pandemic,” while others are using the crisis to support their brands and sales.
Currently, a majority of vaccines used in Canada are imported, noted Dr. Don Gerson, president and CEO of vaccine manufacturer PnuVax Inc. Montreal. However, this country has a long history of manufacturing vaccines and is capable of doing it again – something he feels all countries should do so they’re not dependent on a few.
“We have quite a bit of capability,” he said. “Does it take time, money and effort? Of course it does, but there’s no fundamental barrier.”
It’s important that we learn from our experiences with COVID-19, including mistakes made, in order to be better prepared for the future, Petrovsky said, noting, “This isn’t going to be the last pandemic we face.”
Based on the number of infections around the world, and the global population, he figures we’re about 10 per cent of the way through this pandemic.
“People didn’t take it seriously enough,” he said of the initial reaction, which allowed the virus to spread quickly. “I wouldn’t throw away your masks just yet.”
