D I P L O M AT I C A| QUESTIONS A SKED Mona Nemer: Canada’s chief science adviser
COVID-19: ‘There was no reason to think [Canada would] be spared in a major way’
Diplomat magazine: When did you first
start talking to the prime minister about COVID and what was your initial advice? Mona Nemer: Well, when things were happening in China, towards the end of January, beginning of February, we started talking about being prepared for [this] emerging virus, and more broadly, on the science and research front. As soon as the government set up a special COVID-19 cabinet committee, I set up the experts’ group of multidisciplinary scientists to advise us on the very fastprogressing science of COVID. [In the group], there are epidemiologists, mathematicians who do modelling, psychologists, risk people as well as virology and infectious disease clinicians — so it’s really multidisciplinary. DM: Did you expect it to develop to the
point of lockdown? MN: I was hoping that we wouldn’t need to do this, but realistically, just seeing what was happening in other countries, there was no reason to think that we’d be spared in a major way. DM: Do you advise on COVID relief
measures or do you stick to the scientific questions? MN: We’ve advised on a number of the issues — it’s the science and the evidence 18
that will support certain measures. Early on, the committee identified socio-economic hardship, as well as stress increase, possible increases in domestic violence, issues with homeless people, and so on. At times, we provided specific advice and other times, we just made sure there were no blind spots. DM: What is your best guess for when
we’ll be able to start fully socializing again? MN: Oh, I don’t dare guess anything. There have been criteria that have been developed and accepted by various governments and countries as well in terms of when you ease measures. It has to do with the situation of the epidemic itself — decreasing the number of cases and ideally [seeing] very few new cases — the capacity of the health-care system as well to cope with any eruption in COVID cases, while it’s caring for non-COVID patients as well. Unfortunately, people are still getting sick from other diseases. The third [criteria] is the ability to test and trace. That is really essential because this is how we’re going to be able to maintain a lid on another rapid propagation. But I don’t think we’re going overnight from one to the other. You have to ease measures and then look at the outcome. And as for the outcome, we’re not going to see it for two to four weeks — which is why most governments are doing that first easing and then waiting two to four weeks. That’s how long it’ll take to see the effects in the community. DM: What is your best guess for when
we’ll be able to travel domestically and internationally? MN: I think that’s another level of complexity. It’s one thing to go back to work and for businesses to open. And, as you’ve been hearing, there are a number of measures that need to be put in place — be it at stores or at workplaces. When you start talking about commercial travel — whether trains, planes or airports — then you get into another new complexity because you have to watch for what’s happening in each country in terms of the infection, but you also want SUMMER 2020 | JUL-AUG-SEPT
JAMES PARK
Mona Nemer is the chief science adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as well as to the minister of science and cabinet. She’s charged with ensuring that science factors into policy decisions and that government science is available to the public. Prior to taking on this role in 2017, after Canada had been without a chief science adviser since 2008, she was a professor and vice-president of research at the University of Ottawa and director of the school’s Molecular Genetics and Cardiac Regeneration Laboratory. She has a PhD in chemistry from McGill University and did post-doctoral training in molecular biology at the Institut de Recherche Clinique de Montréal and Columbia University. A leader in molecular cardiology, she has discovered several genes essential for normal heart development and function. She sat down with Diplomat’s editor, Jennifer Campbell, to talk about COVID-19.
