Hamilton doctor reflects on COVID-19 pandemic on its second anniversary

On the second anniversary of the global COVID-19 pandemic, an infectious diseases physician in Hamilton is reflecting on the inspiration of medical innovation today.

Over 88 per cent of eligible Canadians are at least partially vaccinated against the virus that has killed more than 37-thousand people in the country.

“The fact that [most] of us have three doses of vaccines in our systems two years after a pandemic started, which has largely changed the game in terms of mortality, gives a lot of hope for the future,” Dr. Zain Chagla said in an interview on Morning Live Friday.

The grim anniversary comes at the tail end of the biggest wave of COVID-19 yet, and provinces have started lifting many public health measures.

The latest announcement came on Wednesday when Ontario’s top doctor announced the province will remove most mask mandates, including in schools and child-care settings on March 21.

While Ontarians will still be required to wear masks in certain high-risk settings, Chagla said people now need to assess their individual risk when it comes to the virus.

“It does signal that we have a lot more ability to deal with this virus today than we did in 2020,” he said.

“Some of that is reflected in how we’re approaching society, restrictions, day-to-day life and using individual risk assessments as compared to full blanket measures for the population.”

Deputy chief public health officer Dr. Howard Njoo is using this bitter anniversary to remind people to remain vigilant.

He said he is looking forward to a more normal summer but he’s bracing himself for the fall and says Canadians should be too.

Njoo said it may be a challenge to determine what level of risk Canadians are willing to accept over the long term, since it doesn’t look like COVID-19 is going away.

The only thing anyone can do heading into a third year of the pandemic is to hope for the best and prepare for the worst, he said.