Protecting the Community from COVID-19
AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. CHRIS FRASER
As we enter the second half of 2020, we prepare ourselves for a second wave of the pandemic. For Cool Aid’s Medical Services Team, this means working on the frontline to protect the community’s health and safety.
Dr. Chris Fraser, Medical Director of Cool Aid’s Community Health Centre and Clinical Faculty Member of UBC’s Faculty of Medicine, specializing in inner-city medicine, has been on the front lines since the beginning. We asked Dr. Fraser a few questions about his experiences.
Why the need to focus testing on vulnerable populations?
So far, COVID-19 has not hit the streets of Victoria, which is excellent news. We were very concerned that if the virus were to hit our vulnerable population — people with lung related illnesses who are malnourished, who are active in addiction, or who are immunocompromised such as those living with HIV — they would be hit hard. And because people who are homeless or underhoused can’t self-isolate in the same way, we were afraid this would contribute to the rapid spread of the disease and overwhelm our healthcare system.
We were very much spared this wave, and now the key is to really keep up testing and surveillance to make sure nothing goes sideways as we reopen and reduce social distancing. I think the government has a very good plan of reopening in phases with a lot of monitoring along the way, and then we’ll see what happens when we face our second wave.
Are you optimistic that we’ll get through this pandemic?
I think BC Public Health has shown excellent leadership in maintaining our safety. I have nothing but admiration for what they’ve done despite the lack of testing abilities and supply shortages.
The medical and scientific community has been extremely active in working on vaccine trials and it gives me hope that there will be a vaccine within 18 months. Through my work in infectious disease, I was also able to gain first-hand knowledge of the trial drugs which are showing strong promise in treating this illness.
What can we expect during the second wave?
The second wave, according to what we’ve learned from other viruses, will occur sometime in the fall through September, October and November. In the meantime, we’re learning everything we can about this virus. It’s not the flu – COVID-19 is its own virus. It’s a lung virus, but it also appears to be a vascular virus.
And so the data has been really surprising us. I spend about an hour a day just reviewing clinical scientific information and trying to learn as much as I can about this illness. What I’m telling you today will probably be very different in September. By then, we’ll probably have much more information. What was it like for your team visiting homeless camps during the pandemic?
It’s a very intense experience because you’re shocked that there are so many people whose needs are so poorly met by our society. We feel a lot of concern for their vulnerability, but there is also hope because many people want better for themselves. So it’s a very complex reaction.
While we think harm reduction is essential, at the end of the day if we can help people reduce their drug use, not just reduce the harm of drug use, people can move forward in their lives and experience much better outcomes. For the full interview please visit: coolaid.org/news.
To support Cool Aid’s efforts in keeping vulnerable people safe, please donate at: coolaid.org