Thank you very much for the question.
First, I am here representing the 80,000 members of the Canadian Medical Association, who have been on the front line tirelessly for the last nine months. I want to thank them and acknowledge their service and commitment.
I also want to emphasize and acknowledge what they are currently dealing with. They have already had high levels of burnout, as we showed earlier in 2018. However, during this pandemic, they've had to deal with uncertainties around PPE, and we hear that this still exists in some parts of the country. They have concerns for their families and for themselves. They care daily for people with COVID-19, but also for people impacted by what you've heard from previous speakers about COVID-19.
For them, we call upon government to establish a COVID-19 virtual care task force to look at their impacts, and to make a strong commitment with public education messaging around the need for support for health care providers.
Other populations that have been profoundly impacted—and you've heard most eloquently from previous speakers—include our seniors.
I want to put some emphasis on our youth. In my practice, in the last 30 years, I saw an increasing level of anxiety among adolescents and even pre-adolescents. That impacted their schooling, their relationship with family and their relationship with friends. I and their parents struggled to find adequate resources to serve their needs.
I can only imagine what COVID-19 has done with that age group in terms of the disruption in the types of schooling they're having, in terms of loss of social contacts with concern about the pandemic, and in terms of who's in and who's not in their bubble and whom they can or cannot see.
Again, we're calling upon enhanced social supports and services in a coordinated way, between all levels of government and health authorities, to service this population, as well as seniors, our indigenous communities, and people living in rural and remote Canada.