AHEAD OF HIS TIME
Doctor wrote about ‘killer flu’ outbreak in 2005 novel
Fifteen years ago, the protagonist in Vancouver’s Daniel Kalla’s hit novel Pandemic knew the world was well overdue for a “killer flu.”
Now, here we are, and Kalla, who is an emergency room doctor and the head of the ER department at St. Paul’s Hospital, isn’t biting when asked if he is the prescient type.
“First of all, I didn’t predict anything quite like this, but even if I did, it was predictable. It’s happened before (and now) it has happened again,” said Kalla, adding people have stopped him in the grocery store and suggested he predicted the world’s current struggle with COVID-19.
“Some people seem angry. Like, I’m partly responsible for this,” added Kalla, who had the bubonic plague at the centre of his 2019 novel We All Fall Down.
“I honestly have, at times, felt like I stepped into the chapters of one of my books. Or into somebody else’s book,” said Kalla, whose new novel The Last High, out in May, looks at Vancouver’s opioid crisis.
A prolific and best-selling author, Kalla was supposed to be on sabbatical from his hospital job working on his 12th novel, but the coronavirus has changed all of that.
Now, it is all hands on deck as we face this ever-changing global threat — a threat Kalla says we have amazingly avoided for a very long time.
“You know, we’ve actually been fairly lucky as a planet. You know, the Spanish flu, which is really the last thing we can compare this to, it was 100 years ago,” said Kalla, pointing out that flu viruses such as H1N1 and SARS caused very little damage.
“This is the first one that really is causing the death and the mayhem and the terror that the Spanish Flu caused and that the Black Death caused.”
COVID-19 is made even more terrifying by how quickly our lives are changing. That, “the new standard yesterday is different from today,” adds Kalla.
One thing that is certain though, is the front-line health workers have been amazing and deserve every shout out and all the cheers and applause they get.
“There’s a purposefulness to the job. We are making important decisions,” said Kalla.
“I have a kind of pride in the health care system that I haven’t felt in a long time. Not that I was ever embarrassed about the health care system, but people are rising up. Almost everybody is running toward the burning building rather than away from it. Nobody is shirking their duty in response. Everybody wants to know how they can help.
“There’s a camaraderie and a kind of collective sense of bravery that also I’ve written about, but I’m now experiencing for the first time.”
Part of Kalla’s job is to stay on top of information to make sure his staff and the hospital is fully up-to-date as the situation evolves.
He singles out social media as a place where a lot of goofy conspiracies and chilling claims are made.
“It’s misinformation and information that’s spiralling out of control sometimes. So it’s impossible to know what to believe,” said Kalla.
“As an administrator, it’s very important to focus on what is known and what is trusted, and what are the current and most up-to-date recommendations.
“It’s really hard because it changes day-to-day.”
What he does know, on this day, is we will survive this crisis. And he advises people to believe that and to follow all the recommendations being made by the health care professionals.
“I’m 100 per cent sure it will pass, and it’s just a matter of how long it will take. Not everybody’s gonna die from this. Most people will be fine,” said Kalla.
“But, you know, as I heard somebody say, never has there been more of a crisis. I mean, with an earthquake or a war or whatever there is very little the average civilian, the average layperson can do.
“But in this crisis, they can do everything just by following the incredibly important infection control.
“First of all, personal hygiene and, second of all, social isolation and distance,” added Kalla.
“You don’t need medicine to stop this. You need common sense among the public and the masses.
“So, in a bizarre way, never have we ourselves been in such control of a catastrophe before.”
There’s a camaraderie and a kind of collective sense of bravery that also I’ve written about, but I’m now experiencing for the first time.