COVID-19: We ask a health-policy expert the questions on your mind
As Hamilton receives its first COVID-19 cases and the city braces for more, a local doctor and health-policy expert is answering the pressing questions on residents’ minds.
Here is The Spectator’s conversation with Dr. Ahmad Firas Khalid:
As a society, what should we be doing right now?
Khalid said he’s received an “insane amount” of calls from everyone from gym owners to mom groups, asking how they should respond to this pandemic.
“We’re seeing a much bigger onus on you and I to step up,” he said, noting more people are realizing it’s on them to protect themselves and society as a whole — self-isolating, staying home from work when they’re sick and doing a better job of washing their hands.
Basically, he thinks we’re at a point where we should continue going about our daily lives but taking additional precautions to stay safe. As for spaces where people may be interacting or spreading germs, such as gyms, those in charge should be ensuring space and equipment is clean and people stay apart.
Gyms could limit the number of people in workout classes, for example.
Another point: “We need to stop fist bumps or elbow bumps,” he said. “People are coughing into their elbows.”
He also advises people to steer clear of large gatherings.
Should we travel?
Khalid advises against travel to the countries worst impacted by COVID-19.
He also warns that people travelling to countries not seriously impacted yet should know that case numbers and policies are changing daily.
A country that might be business-as-normal one day might go into quarantine, as Italy has already done, the next. You don’t want to get stuck.
It’s best to delay international travel, if possible, he said.
How far are we from community transmission, which means cases appear that aren’t related to “close contact” or travel?
“I would give a million dollars to someone that can come up with an answer,” Khalid said.
He acknowledges it’s “frustrating” for the public to not know more about when cases might appear that are not linked to travel or close contact with someone who has COVID-19, such as a family member. “We keep hearing the same answer, ‘We don’t know, time will tell,’ ” he said, noting even his own mother asks him why we don’t know more about how it will spread. “But it’s true.” The news about coronavirus is changing by minutes, not days, making it even more difficult to keep on top of what the most need-to-know news of the day is.
If/when community transmission does occur locally, that’s when we’re likely to see an increase in numbers, he said.
British Columbia has already seen at least three cases of community transmission.
If someone is asymptomatic, can they still pass on coronavirus?
“We are seeing cases where there are asymptomatic people who have coronavirus and are transmitting it to others,” Khalid said.
“Do we know anything more than that at this point? No.”
A recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine, which looked at 126 people in Germany who were in quarantine after leaving a cornavirusaffected area in China, showed two people who did not show symptoms tested positive.
“We discovered that shedding of potentially infectious virus may occur in persons who have no fever and no signs or only minor signs of infection,” reads the study abstract.