When government goes off the rails, what follows is that lives are in jeopardy

The NPC Healthbiz Weekly is here to keep on informing you through Q2 of 2021. It's your weekly briefing on topics pertinent to healthcare marketers and executives published in cooperation with Peak Pharma Solutions. 

⇒ Issue #181 (In numerology, 181 is all about self-reliance.)
⇒ Worldwide Covid cases as of 04/22: 143,962,157*
⇒ Worldwide Covid fatalities as of 04/22: 3,061,478*
⇒ Confirmed Covid cases in Canada as of 04/22: 1,155,053*
⇒ Confirmed Covid fatalities in Canada as of 04/22: 23,761*
⇒ Number of vaccine doses administered to Canadians as of 04/22: 10,798,150*

April 22, 2021—Welcome to the Thursday edition of the CurveFlattener. Today, Editorial Director Allan Ryan is rattling the keyboard, wondering how the government of Ontario became as rudderless and without direction as it seems to be.

Since the pandemic began, the Ontario government has claimed its actions regarding Covid-19 are based on recommendations from key medical personnel, including the province’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Williams and the Covid-19 Science Advisory Table. Last Friday, the province dropped some bombshells that not only threatened to overturn the Science Table but that forced some chiefs of police to refuse to enforce the government’s policies.

Let’s begin with the police. At a news conference last Friday (04/16) addressing new measures to limit the spread of Covid-19, Ontario Solicitor General Sylvia Jones said: “Moving forward, police will have the authority to require any individual who is not in a place of residence to first provide their purpose for not being home, and provide their home address.” Then she added: “Police will also have the authority to stop a vehicle to inquire about an individual’s reason for leaving their residence.”

By Saturday afternoon, the government was backing down in a hurry as police forces from across the province said they had no interest in enforcing the stay-at-home order.

According to this CTV report, the Ottawa Police Service said it would not be conducting random stops of citizens.

“We are very mindful of the perceptions of the broader public as well as within our more marginalized, racialized and/or Indigenous, Aboriginal, Inuit peoples,” said Chief Peter Sloly. “The [Ottawa Police Service] will continue to use a combination of education, engagement and enforcement. We do not want these powers to impact public trust.”

In Hamilton, Ont., the local police service released a statement saying it wanted to “assure Hamilton citizens that our members will not be conducting arbitrary vehicle and person stops for the sole purpose of enforcing the stay-at-home order.” Similar statements were issued by police forces in Niagara, Brantford and Halton.

But the government was in for more open rebellion as members of the Ontario Science Advisory Table claimed to have been sideswiped when their recommendations were ignored. In the face of burgeoning Covid-19 cases that have placed hospital intensive care units at capacity, members of the Science Table said they had expected the government to finally address what they consider the root causes of the rapidly increasing Covid caseload. But the government did not.

“It was mind-boggling. I’m still in shock,” Dr. Andrew Morris, a member of the Science Advisory Table, said in this interview. The infectious disease specialist at the University Health Network in Toronto called the Ontario government “morally bankrupt” and said the lack of support for so-called essential workers was “criminal.”

 
“Our provincial government did everything other than implement restrictions and offer support that would help curb the spread. So they essentially did nothing useful. They rejected all of our recommendations, like implementing support for essential workers,” Dr. Morris said.

Dr. Peter Jüni, director of the Science Advisory Table, was so frustrated by the government’s announcement that he considered resigning on Friday. He said the government continues to ignore the advice to implement better protection and paid sick days for front-line workers disproportionately impacted by Covid-19.

For Dr. Jüni, the main factor is that the government is ignoring paid sick leave. “If you want to get the pandemic under control, you need to address this root cause… and if the province wants to get this under control and tries to do that without efficient paid sick leave, it won’t work,” he said in this CTV report. “It’s as simple as that.”

As today’s CurveFlattener went to press, some municipalities in Ontario have announced they are investigating providing paid sick leave to their residents on their own, without government backing.

(There is a federal program to replace lost wages for those who have to quarantine due to potential Covid exposure, but members of the Science Advisory Table say it is too cumbersome, slow to pay and does not provide enough compensation to make it effective.)

The NPC Podcast is back for another season. The National Pharmaceutical Congress organizers are proud to release our new weekly podcast series, hosted by Peter Brenders. Peter's most recent guest is Sheryl Groeneweg, Director General of the Manufacturing and Life Sciences Branch of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. Listen here now, or download the episode and play it at your convenience. The NPC Podcast is presented in cooperation with Impres Pharma

COVID CHRONICLE 04/22/2021

• U.K. researchers have determined there are differences in the immune response to Covid-19 in people with no symptoms than those who had a more serious reaction to the virus. In a paper published in Nature, they examined blood samples from 130 Covid-19 patients. In people with no symptoms, there were increased B cells that produce antibodies found in mucosal passages, such as the nose. These protective B cells were missing in people with serious symptoms.
  
  
• A study from Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York suggests that although Covid-19 has neurological effects, the virus itself likely does not infect the brain. “We were unable to find any signs of virus inside brain cells of more than 40 Covid-19 patients," James E. Goldman, professor at Columbia University and lead author of the study, said in a press release. The authors concluded: “These findings suggest microglial activation, microglial nodules and neuronophagia, observed in the majority of brains, do not result from a direct viral infection of brain parenchyma, but rather likely from systemic inflammation, perhaps with synergistic contribution from hypoxia/ischemia.” The study was published in Brain.
  
  
• The U.S. National Institutes of Health has announced that it will fund—to the tune of US$155 million—a large, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase 3 clinical trial (ACTIV-6) designed to evaluate some existing prescription and over-the-counter medications that people with mild-to-moderate Covid-19 disease could self-administer. In this announcement, NIH director Dr. Francis Collins said: “While we’re doing a good job with treating hospitalized patients with severe disease, we don’t currently have an approved medication that can be self-administered to ease symptoms of people suffering from the mild disease at home, and reduce the chance of their needing hospitalization . . . ACTIV-6 will evaluate whether certain drugs showing promise in small trials can pass the rigour of a larger trial.”

TODAY CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON

Our Chronicle.Academy e-learning unit is at work on the latest program for Life Sciences professionals, "DTC Marketing Version 2.0". Our Katherine Brenders, Jeremy Visser, Cory Perla and Dhiren Mahiban are working with an exceptional international faculty of academics, pharma professionals and communications experts to create three learning modules as part of a meaningful experience in pharma career growth. The program begins in late May 2021. More details will follow.

IT'S ARTS AND CRAFTS TIME

David Marriott was on the third day of enforced quarantine at an Australian hotel and going a tad stir crazy when his lunch arrived in a brown paper bowl. “Aha. That’s a hat waiting to happen,” he said, likely to himself. Marriott, an art director, had just returned from his father’s funeral in the U.K. and was in quarantine for two weeks. As the paper delivery bags piled up, Marriott constructed a cowboy outfit for himself and built a horse named Russell (based on an ironing board). In addition to an ironing board, the horse was also a sounding board for philosophical conversations during his quarantine, Marriott, now known as the Paper Cowboy, said.

HERE’S TO FRIDAY

Tomorrow, publisher Mitch Shannon will be back at the helm. On Monday, watch for the Skin Spectrum Weekly e-newsletter, and on Tuesday, the NPC Healthbiz Weekly will be distributed. Wednesday is the launch of the 4th season of the NPC Podcast. Watch for it.