Health committee  Those are great points and great questions. I completely agree with your points about looking at the relative efficacy of these vaccines, because they're not direct head-to-head trials. Certainly, the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines were studied in an era that was not the varian

Health committee  I have done the sound check, and I've been told that it's A-quality. I do not have a headset, but I do have a special microphone that is of high quality.

Health committee  Thank you so much. Good morning, everyone. My name is Isaac Bogoch. I'm an infectious diseases physician and scientist based out of the Toronto General Hospital and the University of Toronto. Thank you for inviting me to speak at this committee meeting regarding the COVID-19 seco

Transport committee  I honestly think the medical and health care professionals are our own worst enemies. I sit on some of these committees and we hear some of the debates about how and where we should use this. From a medical standpoint, we have to be extremely careful. From a public health standpo

Transport committee  Really quickly, congratulations. I think it was largely successful. I appreciate there have been some hiccups; however, with good leadership and good public health, the Atlantic bubble has essentially been able to harness its demographic and geographic advantage. I think it wou

Transport committee  Yes, it's actually pretty interesting. It's going to be different for different planes. It probably won't be as good on the smaller planes that you're flying on, unfortunately. Sorry.

Transport committee  I really think this pandemic is going to wind down. It's going to take some time, but if we just look at the Canadian perspective, as 2020 rolls on, and as more and more people get vaccinated, we will see less and less of this, and less of an impact on the health care system and

Transport committee  I would say that the masks are certainly helpful, but I really like to think of this as a bundled approach. The use of masks, distancing when possible, the ventilation system on the plane and hand hygiene are really parts of a bundled approach. It's hard when you start teasing

Transport committee  I certainly think it's a possibility. I just think we really have to have a firm understanding of what the values of Canadians are concerning that. Certainly, we know people who are vaccinated are very unlikely to get this infection, and if they do get this infection, they're pr

Transport committee  Oh my God, that's the hardest question. I really have been thinking about that a lot over the last couple of days. I honestly can't give you a good answer just yet. We definitely need documentation. We need to ensure public health and public safety. We need to know if people are

Transport committee  If we had good data demonstrating a negative test on arrival and a negative test at seven days, we are going to have very few slip through the cracks. I think it would be completely reasonable.

Transport committee  I think we're going to see a significant impact way earlier than what people think. If we get through our nasty level one group, which is indigenous populations, those who live or reside in long-term care facilities and front-line health care providers, we're going to alleviate s

Transport committee  Yes, I'm not surprised that it's getting a lot of publicity, because the world is watching closely. I'm not really concerned about these allergic reactions. We just have to be open, honest and transparent about what we know and what we don't know. We're going to see some things

Transport committee  Yes, I certainly would. I wouldn't do it now because the public health guidance is to stay at home. I think the fundamental principle is to adhere to federal, provincial and local public health guidance, so I certainly would mention that, but if I had to travel, I would, and I wo

Transport committee  I'd mention two quick points. First, we're talking about pre-travel testing and post-travel testing. We're now talking about post-travel testing, just to clarify things. Second, we don't necessarily need rapid diagnostic tests for that. You can use conventional diagnostic tests a