Canada must fix pandemic gaps before next health crisis, experts warn

An expert panel of doctors and researchers emphasizes the need for Canada to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and take proactive measures before the next health emergency occurs.

Dr. Fahad Razak, one of the six experts on the panel, asserts that most scientists believe it’s “only a matter of time” before another global health crisis arises.

The panel's report, titled “The Time to Act is Now,” highlights the necessity for improved communication of disease surveillance, hospitalization data, and research findings among the provinces, territories, and the federal government.

Razak, an internal medicine specialist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, stresses the importance of quickly sharing evolving health information with the public to build trust and counteract the spread of misinformation.

The report also calls for addressing inequities faced by populations most affected during emergencies, including racialized communities, Indigenous peoples, those experiencing homelessness, and residents of long-term care facilities.

It advocates for increased investment in research to better prioritize and support these groups, focusing on their underlying health needs.

Additionally, Canada should establish a single, permanent scientific advisory group—similar to the model used in the U.K.—rather than attempting to assemble expertise amid an epidemic, according to Razak, who served as the scientific director of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.

“There’s only so much that you can do in the middle of a crisis. People are desperate, infrastructure does not work as well when there’s a crisis,” he said in an interview on Tuesday.

“A lot of what we saw globally when we compared (pandemic) responses suggests that preparedness is the critical part.”

The report points out that the “absence of pre-existing emergency protocols for science advice in Canada caused significant delays,” and underscores the need for improved coordination “within and across all levels of government.”

Having scientific advisory groups at the federal and provincial levels communicating separately “resulted in multiple streams of advice,” the report states, which was released on Friday.

Commissioned by Health Canada, the report from the independent panel of experts acknowledges some commendable aspects of Canada’s COVID-19 response, such as employing wastewater surveillance to monitor the virus's prevalence in communities.

“We were one of the pioneering countries and we certainly advanced it at scale beyond what many other countries were able to achieve,” Razak noted.

However, he expressed concern that some provinces, including Ontario, have made significant cuts to their wastewater surveillance programs, leaving many communities with “almost no data.”