Canada needs to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic: just-released report

An expert panel of doctors and researchers say Canada needs to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and take action before the next health emergency strikes.

An expert panel of doctors and researchers say Canada needs to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and take action before the next health emergency strikes.

One of the six experts, Dr. Fahad Razak, says most scientists believe it's "only a matter of time" before another global health crisis hits.

The panel's report, called "The Time to Act is Now," says disease surveillance, hospitalization data and research findings need to be communicated much more effectively between the provinces, the territories and the federal government.

Razak, an internal medicine specialist at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, says it's critical to share evolving health information much more quickly with the public to build trust and combat the spread of disinformation.

The report says Canada also needs to address inequities among people who are hardest hit during emergencies, including people who are racialized, Indigenous communities, people who are homeless and residents of long-term care homes.

It says more investment in research on how to better prioritize and support these groups, including addressing underlying health needs, is necessary.

Canada also needs to create a single, permanent scientific advisory group -- something that's been done in the U.K.-- instead of trying to pull together that expertise in the middle of an epidemic, said Razak, who was the scientific director of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.