Matt Gurney: Health officials can reassure us all they want, but our system failed

If there was one message Canadians were meant to take away from the update by Health Canada officials on Sunday morning, one day after the announcement that a presumptive case of Wuhan virus has been isolated in a Toronto hospital, it was that we have a system.

The actual information presented at the conference, featuring Health Minister Patty Hadju and Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, can be summed up concisely. The patient, a man in his 50s, had recently returned to Toronto from China. He was showing symptoms while on the flight to North America, but still got through the enhanced screening in place at Pearson International Airport. He went home and, a day later, to hospital, where he was immediately isolated.

That didn’t happen here, and it probably can’t. We have to be realistic. Any system that relies on honestly and self-reporting by people with a strong reason to lie isn’t going to be 100 per cent effective. That’s not the government’s fault. The grim truth is that what we know so far about this still-unnamed virus suggests that it’s going to be difficult to contain, if not impossible. The Chinese experience so far shows that it can spread rapidly.

mattgurney People will always decline to self report. Does not mean you quarantine thousands for weeks. Influenza kills many more Canadians yet the uptake in immunization is very low.

Ignorance knows no boundaries!

mattgurney You probably have this but your readers in Ontario may be interested:

“The system isn’t working, and probably can’t work, but we have one.” Matt, that sounds like “the sky is falling”. I look forward to your “head for the hills!” piece. ⛰

Excellent column, Matt.

mattgurney We dont do the right things because we are afraid of china and it's bad for the airlines.

Great article!

Thanks for telling it like it is. Most don’t get the fact that by the time it’s hear it’s too late. Officials are more concerned about being PC than protecting our citizens. Our elderly and those in poor health will be at risk if this spreads here.

mattgurney

mattgurney I would think this is a Customs issue as much as a Health system issue.

Civil liability has to be cast on federal government.... Trudeau, health minister. After the first case why are flights not cancelled?

Obviously this person was not screened at Pearson.

True. But can it not be fixed? It can be. It’s just that our physicians make it a bigger mess. The treat symptoms ... not the actual diseases. They are reactive ... not proactive.

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to reoognize that incoming passengers (and crew) on an aircraft coming direct from an epicentre of a virus like this should all be quaranteened as soon as they land. A few people being inconvenienced in this way would provide significant protection

Good article. What should have been done was to ban all incoming flights from China. That wouid have stopped this guy and others like him from getting into Canada and spreading the contagion.

Our health officials assured us 'all is well' yet three days later we learn about sick person was on direct flight Chinese airline no one spotted person leaving China entering Canada ? Well that is some assurance ,,,

mattgurney So we should have medical teams checking every passenger coming off a flight? Ban all flights from China? Let's have some faith in the experts dealing with this.

Exactly mattgurney. I got H1N1 on flight back from Europe in 2009; so, I know about airport screening fails. Also, public health authorities haven't been using plain & simple language in communications. 'presumptive confirmed' , “presumptive positive' are contradictions.

Funny thing is the response from public is that the local system failed us because of fordnation but yet it was the only part of process that functioned as intended. Yet no-one is lifting a finger to point at cbsa and airport screening

TheRoyGreenShow

Sunnybrook TOPublicHealth during the news conference stated that the person was not symptomatic on the plane, we're learning that's irrelevant. They also stated that the paramedics had prepared when transporting this man with the illness. That was not the case. 416TPSUnit

The Fed Minister of Health has an Arts Degree.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Second U.S. coronavirus case confirmed in ChicagoA Chicago woman has become the second U.S. patient diagnosed with the dangerous new virus from China, health officials announced Friday. The world is trying to stop the spread of coronavirus and SD8KootenayLk in BC is welcoming 30 students from China and endangering the lives of thousands, or more. Greed! $$$ bill gates via his china PRC commie allies unleash their bio weapon to hasten the NWO... I’m against travel bans generally but for the sake of North America one may become necessary. The incubation period is quite long which makes it that much harder to track. I hope the CDC and WHO are coming up with some sort of plan. This could easily turn into a nightmare
Source: CTVNews - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »

Canada prepares for the new coronavirus as the death toll in China keeps risingAs the new coronavirus claims more lives in China, health authorities in this country are trying to reassure Canadians that plans and procedures are in place to protect them. Good luck finding masks. They're being bought up and sent back to China. Have we banned travel to and from China yet or are we gonna wait? How are we getting prepared? Has Canada put a travel ban from China. Would be infected travelers could be roaming the world as we speak. Not to say the rest of North America are doing their part to contain the flu.
Source: CTVNews - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »

Canada prepares for the new coronavirus as the death toll in China keeps risingAs the new coronavirus claims more lives in China, health authorities in this country are trying to reassure Canadians that plans and procedures are in place to protect them. That’s Korean
Source: CP24 - 🏆 30. / 67 Read more »

The New Coronavirus Will Likely Hit Canada. Here's What To Know“This is the new normal in the sense that we live in a globalized world where people are travelling and carrying pathogens and bacteria with them, which do not carry passports. So we just need to be prepared.” coronaoutbreak coronavirus Or stop creating Babel.
Source: HuffPostCanada - 🏆 61. / 53 Read more »

Coronavirus Q&A: Common symptoms and everything else Canadians should knowThe World Health Organization stopped short of calling coronavirus a global health emergency last week, while officials here have said Canadians are at low risk of contracting the illness. Here's the Patent for the virus. NWO Depopulation agenda? I think so... Can it be transferred under auditory & visual hallucinations pervasive in Toronto or is just cancers and stuff? ,Just more susceptible? Why does the government do this to citizenry? How about those passengers on the same plane? Do they inflected?
Source: CTVNews - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »