COVID-19 UPDATES

We began this podcast series by exploring the behavioural and perceptual effects this pandemic has had on us and what will be the lasting impact. We learned that changes will actually come slowly, but the changes will be long lasting – perhaps even generational.   We’ve learned that the future of work is no longer about working from home. It’s now about living at work.   We’ve learned that our behaviour drives outcomes. Physical distancing, wearing masks, sneezing into our elbows are behviours that determine whether we’re fighting the curve, flattening the curve or crushing the curve.   We’ve also learned that our expectations of government and corporations are framed by their behaviour. How have our leaders responded to your needs? How have corporations and brands addressed my concerns about your safety and your well-being?   How has COVID-19 changed the language of business and brands? How has it moved the messaging?   Graeme Newell is President of 602 Communications and an expert in DECISION SCIENCE. He joins us from his studio in Portland, Oregon. He says things haven't really changed. In fact, we've simply reverted to a more primitive, instinctive means of communication.

We know there will be a second wave of COVID-19. And it’s likely to hit us before the end of this calendar year. We also know that some countries, like Canada, have managed to crush the curve. Still, there are regions of the world where the curve continues to rise – particularly in Brazil, India and the United States. So, the daily news can be exhausting at best and grim when we consider the worst case scenarios. But there is some reason for optimism. Four months into the pandemic and more than 6 months after this strain of the coronavirus was first detected in China, the World Health Organization says there are currently 147 COVID-19 vaccines in development. At least 17 are now into the human trial phase. One of them is being developed in Australia. Professor Nikolai Petrovsky is the Chairman of the company called VAXINE Pty.  He says their results to date are more than promising.

Some good news, if not great news, on the research front. There are 147 COVID-19 vaccines in development and 17 of them are into the human trials. Professor Nikolai Petrovsky is the chairman of VAXINE – an Australian based company that is undertaking an international effort to develop a COVID 19 vaccine.  He and his team started human trials on July 1st, 2020

The past few episodes of the NEXT NORMAL have focused on the SECOND WAVE of the COVID pandemic – likely to hit us in the next 4 of 5 months.   While there’s still a lot we don’t know about this strain of the coronavirus, we have learned a lot since it was detected in December of last year.   Much of that knowledge has come from an historic and piercing international scientific focus on COVID-19. There are hundreds of efforts underway to develop a vaccine and we know that some are well on their way towards human trials.   But there has also been a great deal of research being done on pharmaceutical treatments that don’t immunize us but could help mitigate and minimize the symptoms and effects of COVID-19.   A Halifax-based firm is doing just that. Appili Therapeutics is an infectious disease company that tests drugs currently in use to fight other diseases to see if they have any effect on COVID-19.   It sounds like they’ve found one.   Dr. Armand Balboni is the CEO of Appili Therapeutics. He says they are moving into phase two of trials to evaluate the drug called favipiravir as a preventative treatment against the coronavirus. And they are targeting a very specific – at risk demographic.

Economies are in various stages of reopening across the country. But we do so with one eye on the SECOND WAVE which is expected to hit in the late autumn and last into the winter of 2021. Are we ready for it. We’ve been asking that question of late from a number of perspectives. In this episode, we look at some of the science lessons and medical lessons we’ve learned during the course of the pandemic so far. We talk to Dr. Mitch Shulman, and emergency medicine specialist in Montreal and the medical correspondent for iHeart Radio Canada, and our iHeart Radio Canada Science correspondent Professor Dan Riskin to get some clarity on whether we're seeing the start of the second wave already.

We often talk about the heroes of the pandemic and that brings our front line healthcare workers to mind almost immediately. What does the Next Normal look like for them as we approach the possibility of a second wave of COVID-19? What the learnings they have had as they've faced down the COVID crisis? Tim Guest is President of the Canadian Nurses Association.

Mark Henick is a Mental Health advocate and host of the podcast So Called Normal. There are some voices and expert thinkers among us who believe the "second wave" of the coronavirus pandemic may not be as severe as we had originally expected. But they do say it's coming and with it we will begin to see the true fallout of the "first wave" - the businesses that have gone bankrupt, the real job loss once government programs run out. And all of that will add up to an echo pandemic of mental illness. Are we prepared? Can we prepare?

They’ve been dubbed the “COVID Cohort”. They are the high school grads, the class of 2020, who had fully intended to attend the college or university of their choice in September. But the pandemic upset those plans as it has done in almost aspect of our lives and livelihoods.   Post-secondary institutions across the country and around the world are moving from on-campus to online learning. It’s a move that makes sense from a public health perspective but it’s not what students signed up for; so many are reconsidering whether they’ll attend, many saying they’ll opt for a gap year – preferring to have the full campus experience rather than a virtual gathering.   Anna-Marie Musson from Musson Law says, the COVID Cohort is creating a whole new set of unexpected challenges and pressures for couples and families trying to navigate Family Law in this country.