Thank you.
As you all realize, I tend to run down the clock all on my own with my lengthy questions.
Let me first of all say that this is for Dr. Tam and Dr. Stewart, so I hope you'll listen.
I want to ask about therapeutics. Like all of you, I know that health care is primarily a provincial jurisdiction. However, I think we'll all admit that the federal government has put billions and billions of dollars into helping the provinces in dealing with the pandemic. There's also a national therapeutics task force, so here's the question.
The question is around bamlanivimab, a monoclonal antibody made here in Canada by AbCellera. Several studies have shown that it seems to be effective when used early in the disease by high-risk people in preventing them from going on to have severe COVID. There have also been a number of other studies with other monoclonal antibodies. As infectious disease people have pointed out to me, there are no studies that have shown that it isn't effective.
The problem, at least in Ontario, has been in getting this treatment out to people. It would certainly be useful, especially in a place such as Thunder Bay, where our ICU is filling up with COVID cases, but they've been unable to use it—and this is all provincial.
I know that for a month across Ontario, six groups of infectious disease people were trying to access it and weren't able to do so. People with transplants have a 20% mortality rate when they get COVID, but they couldn't access it. All across Ontario, and I think all across Canada, people are having difficulties accessing this medication, and with the funding to administer it, because you have to bring people into heated tents or something and transfuse it over a couple of hours.
Given the fact that this is a problem all across Canada, are we aware of this problem, and what can we do to help the provinces in order to get this potentially important treatment out to them?
As for the certainty of its use, as one infectious disease person told me, he felt that an informed physician treating an informed patient should be able to use it, but it's not getting out there.