Straight poop on COVID surveillance

For now, at least, we can continue to think of and refer to this pandemic as being in its waning stages. Hamilton has no large outbreaks for the first time in ages. Numbers and restrictions are declining, and that light at the end of the tunnel looks like spring, not another train.

Which does not mean there aren’t questions and issues around pandemic management that should be discussed. Here’s one.

According to Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, the province’s chief medical officer of health, Health Minister Christine Elliott and numerous credible science and public health sources, wastewater testing as a method of tracking COVID-19 is a “key indicator to track transmission levels in communities.” That is especially true and important since the so-called “gold standard” of testing, PCR, has not been available to the public since Dec. 31, and will not be widely available any time soon.

In a recent provincial briefing, chief medical officer Dr. Kieran Moore said: “We are paying close attention to our wastewater surveillance.” The health minister said wastewater testing is the “canary in the coal mine that can tell us if there is something that we need to be concerned about that’s coming in the future.” The science advisory table has added wastewater to its list of list of important metrics, and numerous public health departments report on it.

But public health officials in Hamilton see it differently. In a statement which was reported by Spec health journalist Joanna Frketich, local medical officer of health Dr. Elizabeth Richardson said: “It’s not something that has worked in Hamilton to date.” In a statement about its unwillingness to release wastewater surveillance data, the public health department said it “does not support a greater understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic locally.” Pardon the expression, but: Huh?

Hamilton’s wastewater is being monitored and tested, including by a team at the University of Ottawa, which has been doing surveillance since July 2020. The head of that team, Robert Delatolla, calls the collected data “remarkable” and says he doesn’t think local health officials are “… using the resources that are available to them to understand the data.” Again: Huh?

The scientific director of the advisory table, Dr. Peter Jüni, seems to support what the researchers say. “I’m not aware of any evidence to suggest that the wasterwater data in Hamilton would behave differently than what we see in the surrounding public health units,” he told The Spec’s Frketich.

Both sides in this disagreement can’t be right. And we’re not talking some about esoteric science argument — this is about what we do going forward to stay on top of the spread and threat of COVID-19.

It sounds like local officials and the research team are getting closer to communicating and figuring out a strategy to ensure the data is being used effectively. That’s good. The last thing we need at this point is experts disagreeing with experts while we continue to tell people to trust the experts, and the data. This needs to be straightened out, post haste.

That’s no way to treat heroes

At one point, Premier Doug Ford referred to nurses, who have shed blood, sweat and tears through the pandemic, as “heroes.” He’s right, but he has a funny way of expressing his appreciation.

This week, nurses were offered a $5,000 retention bonus. Presumably this signing bonus is intended to make up for the fact that nursing salaries are limited to one per cent a year under Bill 124, the government’s austerity legislation.

Not surprisingly, the tactic worked as well as a screen door in a submarine. First, the bonus is only for full-time nurses. Second, half would be paid before the June election, half after, which prompted health-care unions to call it a “pay-as-you-vote gimmick.” Third, it doesn’t address the fact that under Bill 124, Ford’s heroes would be subject to wage suppression while other emergency workers — police, for example — are exempt. In short, the government laid a big fat egg here. Is it coincidence that also this week Health Minister Christine Elliott announced she’s not running again?