Front Burner - Coronavirus: WHO says COVID-19 is a pandemic

Episode Date: March 11, 2020

What does it mean that WHO is now calling COVID-19 a pandemic? And what’s behind the idea of “flattening the curve”? Plus, Prime Minister Trudeau has announced measures to fight the outbreak, including $1 billion in spending. So is Canada doing enough? We’re joined by CBC senior health writer Adam Miller to explain all that and to break down the latest news.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem, brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi everyone, Jamie here. So for the last few weeks, we've been following the spread of the coronavirus really closely. Today was a big day with the World Health Organization calling COVID-19 a global pandemic. The story is moving really fast. And you know, people in my life, they have so many questions about the virus and what's going on. I do too. And I'm guessing you might as well. So to tackle that, we've decided to start releasing extra episodes of

FrontBurner. They'll be shorter and they'll focus on COVID-19, and they will be available in the evening so you can listen on your commute home. We'll start with two extra episodes a week. Our normal morning episodes will still be released as well. Okay, thanks. Wash your hands. Don't touch your face, although I know that that is much, much harder than it sounds. Here is the show. Okay, so let's get straight into it. I'm here with my colleague, Adam Miller. Adam is a senior writer with the Health Unit here at CBC, and he'll be joining us regularly for this podcast. Adam, thank you so much. Thank you. And so, as I mentioned at the top of the show, the WHO is calling this a pandemic right now. And I know that they were hesitant to put a label on this outbreak before, which came to the surprise of many people. Some people might be listening to this, the idea that this is now being called a pandemic

and they might be alarmed. So let's start with a definition of a pandemic care. What should people make of this? Sure. So the WHO defines it as the consistent spread of a new disease, right, around the world in a population that doesn't yet have immunity to it. We don't have a vaccine for this. So it basically means that we need to assume that this is everywhere now. It's every country in the world can expect to see cases of COVID-19. It's not something that essentially can be contained like we thought it could initially, but it doesn't mean that it's over and that we're, you know, giving up and throwing up our hands. It just means that every country in the world can expect to see some transmission from this virus. Okay. And I think the latest stats are that we're now seeing cases in more than 100 countries.

So we are sort of well on our way. Yeah. I mean, they said in the past two weeks, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside of China has increased 13 times. And the number of infected countries has tripled. So as of Tuesday, 118,000 cases in 114 countries and 4,200 people have died. So yeah, it's getting to the point where it's not going to be surprising when it's in almost every country in the world. So I know that the WHO is hesitant to call this a pandemic. Some people wanted them to call it a pandemic earlier. And why were they so hesitant? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of speculation as to why they did it. There's a lot of politics in the way that

the WHO operates with these huge global health emergencies. They essentially waited because they wanted countries to keep actively fighting it. They didn't want people to give up. And they still think that in some ways, this can be contained. It's just we may see it everywhere. They just want the world to respond to this globally as unified as possible and to treat this as if it's something that, you know, we can still stop. They don't want to just let countries say, well, it's a pandemic. Let's just throw up our hands and say this is, you know, not something we can do anything about. The idea that like they might feel that it's futile. The WHO is saying this doesn't change what they do, but that it's a call to action, which I don't really understand.

Like, what's the point then of calling this a pandemic if it doesn't change what you do? It's a good question. I mean, in Canada here, we've basically had a pandemic response since late January. In Canada here, we've basically had a pandemic response since late January. The Public Health Agency of Canada has a pandemic plan that they've been rolling out for weeks. A lot of hospitals across the country are testing people who have symptoms regardless of travel history. It's just something that it's a classification. We've never had a coronavirus labeled a pandemic before, which is really significant. I want to read you this quote from the director general of the WHO. This really made me and our producers take pause today when we heard this.

Quote, we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction. We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic. And do we have a sense of who he's talking about here when he says alarming levels of inaction? Well, we don't know specifically, right? There is a lot of speculation that he could be talking about the United States, though. That's what experts are saying. That's what we're hearing. But he didn't say it. So we don't really know for sure. But the facts are that more than a thousand cases have shown up in the United States. New York State's in a state of emergency. They've got more than 170 cases, and that's climbing right now. Governors have called states of emergency. They've

created containment zone around a cluster of cases in the suburb of Westchester. zone, around a cluster of cases in the suburb of Westchester. Yeah, like the National Guard is being called in. Exactly. And so what are the facts that have led to these criticisms at the United States? The U.S. has taken a lot of criticism. A lack of effective testing initially. You know, there was some concern that, you know, the U.S. government wasn't taking this as seriously as they should have right off the bat bat when a lot of other countries were really looking to this as something that was going to land on their shores. I think the CDC took a lot of flack for the testing problems that it had initially.

And we've just seen this growing number of cases there without this real urgency from the leadership, from the government. And I think that's why we're seeing this speculation that the director general of the WHO was perhaps talking about the United States when he was talking about inaction. Right. And when you say the CDC taking heat, this is the Centers for Disease Control, they were taking a lot of heat for like essentially faulty tests at the beginning. Yeah, ineffective. It really slowed things down initially at a time when a lot of experts are saying that they could have gotten this under control and been more prepared for this. So it is definitely something that I've, you know, looked into in terms of we've

spoken to some experts who've said that this could put Canada at risk as well. This lack of effective testing and initially really taking this as seriously as it was. I mean, you've seen the statements from the president. You know that obviously it's not something that was really effectively dealt with initially in terms of testing, in terms of information getting out there. And we've seen community transmission in the U.S. as well, more significantly than in Canada. Again, at long-term care homes in Washington State, we saw a severe outbreak there with a number of deaths. So it's something that the U.S. has taken a lot of criticism for. And lots of criticism, correct me if I'm wrong, directed at Iran's response and certainly at Italy's response in the beginning, although now they are making these pretty

draconian measures, locking down vast majorities of the country. Both Iran and Italy saw an explosion of cases initially, like, you know, a really high number of deaths. And Iran has taken a lot of criticism throughout this. Italy has taken some pretty draconian measures, I guess you could say, similar to China's. They've really shut down the borders at this point and avoided all mass gatherings. You know, we've seen that in other countries as well, like South Korea, they've done widespread testing. So whereas Italy may have taken some flack initially for their response and lack of preparedness by hospitals and healthcare workers, they've really set a precedent in terms of responding to this in a really effective way and saying, we're going to shut this down.

And a lot of people are saying that this is what Canada should be looking to in the future as well. Okay. How well positioned are we here? How are we doing? I think we're doing, you know, all things considered quite well. B.C. has been catching cases from countries that, you know, weren't exactly even flagged initially as countries of concern. Iran, Egypt, these cases were coming up and we were catching them, right? This is like early testing. This is the benefit of early testing. Right. So like I said, in Ontario and BC, there's a lot of hospitals who are just taking those extra measures, testing anyone who has symptoms. I think, you know, part of our

pandemic response is researching a vaccine and contributing funding. I mean, Trudeau announced a billion dollars in funding today. These are things that, you know, on the practical side, on the research side are being done. But, you know, in terms of on the ground, I think Canada's done a good job of catching cases early. I mean, even the case today in Ontario that was announced, we didn't essentially know that the patient had contracted it at this mining conference and why that was significant. Right. This is a case in Sudbury, right? Right. Tell me a little bit more for people who might not. Sure. So it was a man in his 50s from Sudbury who attended this international mining conference in

Toronto. You know, high profile people in attendance like the Prime Minister, Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario. And last night, public health officials found out, you know, they confirmed through testing that this man had COVID-19. This was really significant because we didn't know that there were any cases tied to this mining conference. You know, this is like a major international conference. There's countries from all over the world. Tons of people. Yeah. So, you know, they've said that they don't think that this is a case of community transmission, but it is something that's really concerning. And community transmission, this is something that we've talked about on the podcast before.

This is the idea that we're seeing cases where we cannot trace the source of the case. And this is when it becomes very concerning. This is when SARS went from bad to worse in Toronto. This is what's happening in the United States right now. And my understanding is you only have one case of community transmission, and that was in B.C. Right. And this case in Sudbury, they thought it could have been, but they seem to be able to trace the source of it now. So that's kind of where

they're standing. I want to talk to you a little bit more before we go today about the $1 billion that Trudeau announced. So he announced this $1 billion. Some of that money is going to go to helping people who might have to stay home and aren't getting paid so they will be compensated if they have to go into quarantine. There was something else he said in this press conference that I want to zoom in on. And it's this idea that Canadians can make a difference here. And I think that this is connected to this graph that I'm seeing all over social media. And you know, this term that I'm hearing all the time called flattening the curve, right? And talk to me about this. So China took monumental efforts to

shut down the outbreak that was happening in Wuhan. And what they did was they quarantined millions of people, entire cities, shut down transportation, you know, built hospitals in a matter of days. They pulled out all the stops to really get this under control as well as they could. And a lot of people were critical. A lot of experts, infectious disease experts, were really critical that, you know, there's no way we can contain this. And what China did is signal to the world that these efforts can have a massive impact. And just to be clear, you know, we're talking about the curve. Like, what are we talking about here? What does that mean? So it's essentially called an epicurve. And what that is, is a graph that shows the frequency of new cases over time based on new infections per day.

So in China, as the outbreak was happening, there were some pretty to quarantine millions of people, we saw a huge break in that curve. And it was amazingly significant. I mean, Bruce Aylward, who was the head of the WHO's mission to China, he's a Canadian, he was blown away. Like, he stood in front of reporters a couple of weeks ago and said, look at this curve. Like it shows that you can do this. This is something really significant. If you take these extreme measures and the WHO said today, you know, we have to balance people's human rights. But if you take these measures, South Korea is trying to do this too right now. Hong Kong has been lauded for their efforts as well, which have been quite intense, right?

Yeah, you can really see the effect that it has and the drop off in the number of new cases per day. And so when Trudeau says that individual Canadians can make a difference here, like what kind of stuff is he talking about? He's essentially saying we need to really think about just completely shutting this down. essentially saying we need to really think about just completely shutting this down, social distancing, avoiding massive gatherings. You know, the mining conference is a great example of something that, you know, an expert I spoke to today said, if that was happening tomorrow, it probably would be avoided by a lot of people or if not entirely shut down, right? I think people, you know, need to take the necessary precautions personally. But as a society, I think what they're signaling is we need to come together and really look at this as something that we're going to see a lot of in this country. And we need to kind of come together and really shut this down in a meaningful way.

Right. And so, you know, for example, Shopify, a big tech company in Canada, announced that its employees will be working from home. And I want to talk about this a little bit more with you before we go today, because I think it's important that people don't panic here. Because my understanding of this notion of flattening the curve is not because, you know, this virus is killing, you know, everybody that gets it. Like we know that the fatality rate is relatively low compared to SARS, you know, but this is actually just about trying to limit the cases, trying to limit the spread, and trying to make it so that our healthcare system doesn't get overwhelmed here, like what happened in Italy, where you see this sort of explosion of cases, and then there are people who should have been able to get respirators that are now dying in Italy because they weren't able to flatten this curve early enough. Is that like a fair point?

Yeah. I mean, Italy was entirely caught off guard, it seems. Healthcare workers, hospitals, supplies. These are the things that when we talk about Canada having a pandemic response plan in place for weeks, these are the things that they've been looking at really closely, right? We don't want to cause panic. And the Public Health Agency of Canada does still say that the risk to average Canadians remains low. But the thing about social distancing and thinking about this as an entire country is that we need to protect our most vulnerable, right? So that case in BC, we've had our first death this week, was a man in his 80s who was in a long-term care facility.

Now that case was connected to a cruise ship and a person had gone to the facility and unfortunately we've had our first death from COVID-19. But I think it's really significant. And when we talk about, you know, the curve and slowing the curve, it's because we want to protect those people. You know, people that have compromised immune systems, elderly people are most vulnerable, right? So it's really important to think about, you know, when we're talking about social distancing, avoiding big gatherings, you know, maybe not visiting long-term care facilities or nursing homes. It's because we're trying to

protect people in society. And that's how we need to look at this, right? We can't just think about it like, okay, yes, I'm washing my hands. I'm coughing into my sleeve. You know, I've got my hand sanitizer. I'm doing all the personal things that I can do. I'm washing my hands. I'm coughing into my sleeve. You know, I've got my hand sanitizer. I'm doing all the personal things that I can do. I'm not panicking. I'm not buying up masks. You know, for the average person that has no real benefit, it's really about thinking about how can we protect everybody and how can we tackle this as an entire country, right?

Okay. Adam Miller, we're going to keep talking about this and we'll talk soon. Sounds good. Thanks. All right. So that is our special edition of FrontBurner today. We're going to continue to release these special podcasts focusing on COVID-19. For more information about the news today, The National is doing a one hour special tonight focused on COVID-19 and FrontBurner will be available tomorrow morning.

Our regular episode drops at 6 a.m. Thanks so much and talk to you all soon.