TORONTO — — As the head of the World Health Organization says the end of the COVID-19 pandemic is ‘in sight’, some Canadian experts warn it would be premature to declare an end to the crisis global health.
Their comments come after the WHO said the number of global deaths attributed to COVID-19 over the past week had reached the lowest point since the start of the pandemic, and urged governments to stay put. vigilant to avoid backsliding at a pivotal moment.
“Psychologically, many people in the public and in government felt they wanted to move on,” said Dr. Fahad Razak, who led the recently disbanded group of scientists advising the Ontario government on COVID. -19.
“The question is: are we there already? And there are many parts of the system that suggest it’s premature to make that call.
Variants of the coronavirus have traditionally sprung up during fall and winter, leading to increased cases and deaths, Razak said, and it stands to reason that could happen again this year.
If we don’t see a new surge during the peak COVID season, he said experts may be more willing to declare the pandemic over in the spring.
“I would like to see us go through the fall and winter with stability in our system,” he said. “And part of that means getting the virus under control… to give our healthcare system a chance to function fully through the fall and winter.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Wednesday that deaths had fallen by 22% in the past week, with just over 11,000 reported worldwide. There were 3.1 million new cases, a drop of 28%, continuing a decline in the disease for weeks in all regions of the world.
“We’re not there yet, but the end is in sight,” he said, likening the effort to that of a marathon runner approaching the finish line.
“It’s the worst time to stop racing. It’s the time to run harder and make sure we cross the line and reap all the rewards of our hard work.”
Dr. Anna Banerji, an infectious disease specialist and associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, also called for vigilance.
“Many people, myself included, think there is going to be another wave in Canada with kids going back to school without masks, and kids can go back to school with COVID,” he said. she declared.
Banerji said the WHO should be careful not to act too quickly in declaring the pandemic over.
“If it’s not quite over, announcing it a little prematurely would mean people don’t get their shots, they don’t get their boosters,” she said.
And Colin Furness, who also teaches at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, noted that the lack of data on COVID-19 in Canada makes it difficult to prove that things are really improving.
“When we stopped testing for COVID, we made it much more difficult to diagnose people with COVID. And when we made it more difficult, we made it very difficult to count people who died from COVID,” a- he declared.
He said the lack of information means the WHO should temper its language.
“I think it’s dangerous for the WHO to make big sweeping statements, when we have a global phenomenon that just isn’t happening the same way at the same time everywhere,” he said.
And Neil Seeman, a health communicator and lecturer at the University of Toronto’s Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, said that by listening to WHO messages, it’s all as important to pay attention to the second part of their statement – that we can’t let our guard down – as is the case for the first – that the end is in sight.
“What it is is galvanizing. A call to arms,” he said. “This is by no means an indication that things are over.”
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on September 16, 2022
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