CBC | Health expert warns reopening provincial economies will be 'tricky'
Some provinces will begin reopening their economies next week, a move one public health expert described as a delicate experiment — because so little is known about how many people are immune to the COVID-19 virus, or how long such immunity might last. "This is all going to be tricky," said Dr. Catherine Hankins, who co-chairs the leadership group of the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force — part of the federal government's anti-pandemic research strategy. "These are natural experiments, in a way, that are going on around everywhere in the world, where we're seeing countries try to open up and see what happens." Hankins is a professor of public and population health at 91ÉçÇø in Montreal, one of the cities hardest-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. In an interview airing Saturday on CBC Radio's The House, Hankins said it would be better if questions about immunity and the creation of an effective vaccine could be answered before the restrictions are lifted.
