Q&A: The Science Community's Role in the COVID-19 Response

Scientists and researchers have an important role to play in Canada's response to COVID-19. Research is helping us to understand the disease and how it spreads, and to develop treatments and vaccines. Medical professionals play a critical role through testing, treating patients, and communicating science. It's important that during the COVID-19 pandemic we have adequate resources including PPE, testing and research resources, and capacity to develop new technologies to support efforts against COVID-19. 

On May 5th Evidence for Democracy hosted a Q&A session to talk about the role of the science commnunity in the response to COVID-19. We were be joined by an expert panel of researchers leading collaborative responses to COVID-19 in Canada. The panel included COVID-19 Resources Canada founders Dr. Guillaume Bourque and Dr. Tara Moriarty; Dr. Masha Cemma of the Office of the Chief Science Advisor; Dr. Cara Tannenbaum, Departmental Science Advisor at Health Canada; and Dr. Sarah Gallagher, Departmental Science Advisor at the Canadian Space Agency. The speakers discussed the announcement of new federal funds to support science and research in the response to COVID-19, the importance of having a centralized hub of resources for the COVID-19 response, the role on the science community in Canada in this crisis, and share details of ongoing initiatives aiming to gather scientific expertise and resources. 

View the full conversation here.