Sunday House Call, #733, April 4, 2020: Transparency through the COVID-19 Looking Glass.

I wanted to talk about the political, sociological, medical, and individual responses to the pandemic.  They are different and have led to some trying to prey upon the anxious and vulnerable with snake oil cures to politicians providing inaccurate medical advise, to those that act in paternalistic fashion and purposefully withhold information from the public under the aegis of being fearful of the public response. In totalitarian countries like Turkmenistan, dictators ban the use of the word coronavirus to make it disappear as well as the individuals who discuss it. And yet we have seen tremendous sacrifice, good will, cooperation, and cohesion amongst people.

What can and should we learn from this?  How can we use these observations of human behaviour in our own day-to-day lives?

Joining me today is Dan Gardner.
Keynote speaker, New York Times bestselling author (Risk/The Science of Fear, Future Babble, Superforecasting), and consultant (http://tactix.ca).

New COVID-19 portable testing device made in Ottawa.

One of the major problems we face during the pandemic is the availability of rapid reporting of COVID-19 tests. Health policy is based on accurate and abundant information that leads to modification of public health recommendations. Without it we work in the dark.

Locally an Ottawa-based company, Spartan Bioscience announced that they are at working on a portable device that can provide COVID-19 test results in 30 minutes.

Dr. Paul Lem, is an infectious disease doctor by training, is CEO of Spartan Bioscience and joins us today to talk about the company and its technology.