Sunday House Call, #731, March 22, 2020: COVID-19: You only have one shot. A followup interview with Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.
Questions we reviewed were:
- The doubling time of COVID-19 in Canada
- Do we know if people are immune after recovery?
- Is there evidence of viral shedding after symptoms have abated?
- How much time is needed to determine that the self-isolating and social distancing no longer is required?
- Why Public Health continues to have such narrow criteria for screening patients. If we know that in Ottawa there is community spread, shouldn’t we be screening everyone with viral symptoms?- the evidence in Korea and other places show this drives down infection rates further than just social distancing measures… Is the reason we are doing this to do with cost of tests, lack of tests?
Topics today include:
Many questions that you have brought up to me as Ottawa now faces about 4000 people in the community who have been infected. With a doubling time of 3-4 days, we will likely have close to 16,000 by the end of the week. Now it is most imperative that you do not do what I saw just outside the radio station after my show.
Your calls about:
- Should I use distilled water versus city water? No. Full answer on audio. More Quackery directed at the public.
- The use of hydroxychloraquine and chloraquine should not be promoted as a potential treatment for COVID 10. Here’s an more sober interpretation.
- The issue of asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19.
- How to use the washer/dryer room in a retirement residence.
- COVID-19 testing