Thank you very much for the invitation to speak here.
The COVID-19 pandemic is revealing what we in the field have known for decades—that is, despite the tremendous advances in medicine over the past century, we remain highly vulnerable to infectious diseases. We knew this because of the lessons of other pandemics, epidemics and outbreaks that we experienced in recent memory. These include HIV/AIDS, Ebola, the first SARS epidemic, MERS, H1N1 influenza and now COVID-19.
My own research is focused primarily on addressing the other pandemic we are simultaneously experiencing, that of antibiotic resistance, or AMR. AMR is slower-moving than COVID-19, but it has the potential to be even more deadly and create greater economic burdens than the current crisis. I will return to AMR in more detail later, but first I want to frame my remarks around what I see as the current reality.
Despite these past experiences with epidemics and pandemics, we must be honest and recognize that we have, time and time again, failed to learn that we must continuously support research and development in infectious diseases to be prepared for the next problem. To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, in infectious disease there are the “known knowns”, the things that we know are a problem, like AMR. There are the “known unknowns”, the things that we know will happen but can't easily predict, like a new viral pandemic such as the one we're experiencing. Then there are the “unknown unknowns”, the things that we don't even see coming, like the emergence of prion infections like mad cow disease, which took us all by surprise.
The only way we can prepare for these eventualities—that are, eventually, going to occur—is to support a robust, nimble and multidisciplinary community of infectious disease researchers in Canada.
The parallel to fire departments is often made. We as a society support the purchase of fire trucks, the very best and reliable equipment, and employ well-trained firefighters, because we have learned to be prepared for fires. We value this protection. Even though we hope that as individuals we never need it, if we do, then we sure are happy that we invested in it.
To be prepared for the next challenges in infectious disease, we need to invest in and develop a vibrant community of scientists, clinicians, engineers and social scientists who will dedicate their careers to solving our current problems and the ones that we know will emerge. However, given the lack of sustained funding in this area, our best and brightest young researchers and clinicians do not see great opportunities to thrive—