COVID in Canada: Data sharing improvement needed, report says [Video]

TORONTO –

An expert panel of doctors and researchers say Canada needs to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and take action before the next health emergency strikes.

One of the six experts, Dr. Fahad Razak, says most scientists believe it’s “only a matter of time” before another global health crisis hits.

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The panel’s report, called “The Time to Act is Now,” says disease surveillance, hospitalization data and research findings need to be communicated much more effectively between the provinces, the territories and the federal government.

Razak, an internal medicine specialist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, says it’s critical to share evolving health information much more quickly with the public to build trust and combat the spread of disinformation.

The report says Canada also needs to address inequities among people who are hardest hit during emergencies, including people who are racialized, Indigenous communities, people who are homeless …