Quid in Quarantine

I have started and discarded this Letter from the Editor twice already, as the developments around the COVID-19 virus change drastically from one hour to the next. The first version was written right as the NBA decided to suspend their season, and we were left wondering if the NHL would do the same. The next version focused on why McGill wasn’t following the lead of the Ivy League schools in shutting down all operations, but later that afternoon we learned that the Law Faculty was cancelling all Friday classes. Today, on March 13th, the Quebec government announced that all schools will be closed for the next two weeks. By the time you read this, there is a risk that this entire article may be completely outdated, which is why I’ve tried to focus on some larger elements of the COVID-19 response that will likely endure over the next few weeks.

Social Responsibility in the Internet Age

Reliable information is the key to being prepared in these difficult times, and unfortunately but predictably, social media has been a hub for erroneous facts, minimization of risk, and outright horrible trends. As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads, more and more data points to its particular danger to the elderly. This morning, petty millennial disdain for the Baby Boomer generation reached a confoundingly repulsive level, with #BoomerRemover trending as one of the top Twitter hashtags in Canada. The level of ageist deference from many of my classmates on social media has been incredibly shocking, and I have heard too many friends say, “I’m not worried, the coronavirus won’t have any effect on me.” There seems to be a significantly different response to the pandemic from students depending on if they are a Montrealer or not. If you are not from here, you likely have a social circle that only includes other students and people of your age. Despite calls for social distancing, I continue to see Instagram Stories of non-Quebecois students partying in large groups because classes have been cancelled, or saying that the world is overreacting because the virus “only kills old people.” Despite their limited social circle, the actions of these students may potentially have devastating effects on this community that they chose to study in. For those of us from here, we’ve begun having to think twice about visiting our grandparents or having dinner with our parents. My concerns are not about how the virus will affect me academically or its potential for “cancelling St. Patrick’s Day drinking,” but rather I worry about how the carelessness I’ve witnessed on social media will affect the health of Montrealers I know and love. With the coronavirus’ high rate of transmission and the ability to carry the virus with few symptoms, please be responsible and spend the next few weeks indoors, even if you “feel healthy.” As the political scientist Yascha Mounk wrote recently, “the reason to act is not that the apocalypse is nigh; it’s that the right steps will save lives and allow us to weather the storm.”

Bill 21 is an incredibly unpopular piece of legislation in our faculty, and rightly so. However, this does not mean that everything François Legault says or does is inherently wrong. Thus far, Premier Legault’s response has been impressive and ahead of his fellow premiers. The CAQ Government says they will be providing daily updates to Quebecers over the next few weeks. The information that is shared is of high importance for your safety and protection, and it is essential to listen to the advisories and warnings of our government leaders, even if you disagree with 90% of their political positions. Polarization is one of this era’s biggest trends, and I have already heard comments dismissing the government’s advice for the sole reason that it came from Legault. In the coming days Legault is likely to announce more stringent measures to “flatten the curve” of COVID-19, and this is a time where we should be listening to our experts, not trying to score political points on social media.

Finally, I am worried that people are not taking COVID-19 seriously because of online disinformation. Popular posts on Instagram and Facebook have pointed to the annual mortality rate of the flu, and have labelled people worried about COVID-19 as “overreacting.” These posts are often a variant of the message, “thousands of people die from the flu every year and no one blinks an eye.” This message is among the most popular mistaken facts of the coronavirus. Dr. Anthony Fauci testified before Congress last week that the flu has a mortality rate of 0.1%, and COVID-19 has a mortality rate of at minimum ten times that of the flu. Further, COVID-19 is a new virus that our species has never contracted before, and there are several unknowns surrounding this coronavirus that experts simply do not have for the annual flu. Other popular memes shared in recent days on Instagram have some variant of the message “climate change will kill millions more people than this virus, where is the similar response?” or, “Boomers have ignored our panic for climate change, why should we panic for their COVID-19?” These messages minimize the actual risks of the coronavirus, downplay its impact on young people, and scream of petulance. If you claim to take the science of climate change seriously, you should take the sciences of epidemiology and immunology seriously as well. Social distancing can get boring, and Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter may be helpful diversions, however none of them should be your primary source of information on COVID-19. Rather, I recommend the ongoing coverage on Radio-Canada, La Presse, the New York Times, and updates from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and Santé Québec. I also highly recommend the articles and updates shared online by Dr. Nicholas Christakis.

Stop the Illegal Wildlife Trade, Stop New Viruses

One issue that has not received much attention is the need for a global crackdown on open air animal markets. Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins, notes that the overwhelming majority of emerging infectious diseases emanate from exotic animals. The origins of COVID-19 stem from the wet markets of Wuhan, where experts believe that the virus jumped from bats, to pangolins, to humans. Those who know me are familiar that one cause I’ve been passionate about for years is the plight of the pangolin, the most trafficked mammal on Earth. An animal that most people didn’t even know existed three months ago is now making the news on a near daily basis, and that gives me hope that we may see stronger international cooperative efforts to crack down on global smugglers, poachers and traffickers of endangered and exotic species.

In 2016, CITES voted to ban all commercial trade in pangolins, as all eight species are threatened with extinction. However, pangolins continue to be poached at an alarming rate in sub-Saharan Africa (an estimated 300 pangolins are poached each day) to meet demand from Asia, where their scales are believed to cure everything from lactation, to epilepsy, to arthritis. These remedies have absolutely zero scientific basis, as pangolin scales are composed entirely of keratin. Last April, authorities seized two 14-ton shipments of pangolin scales in Singapore, setting a dismal record for the largest pangolin goods seizure yet. These scales are believed to have come from 72,000 African pangolins with a market value of $90 million. In an under-reported story last year, two pangolins were seized in Montreal for a first time from a shipping container from Cameroon. The illegal wildlife trade is truly global and must be contained to reduce the spread of disease and the extinction of many species. For more information on how to protect pangolins, please visit www.pangolincrisisfund.org.

Wildlife wet markets are thriving in the 21st Century due to global trade and an increased desire to flaunt social status. Dr. Amesh Adalja calls these live wildlife markets a “powder keg” for viruses to jump from animals to humans, and they have been responsible for some of the worst recent epidemics, including Ebola (great apes), SARS (bats), and now COVID-19 (pangolins). Many of these animals are not consumed as traditional cultural meals, but rather as modern displays of wealth that have only become possible with global markets opening. Dr. Gabriel Leung, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong, notes that stopping the zoonotic jump of disease at source is critical. According to Dr. Leung, the wildlife market handling process is where the highest risk of diseases jumping from animals to humans occur, as animals’ immune systems are supressed under stress. If we want to stop the next pandemic, there must be a global attempt to shut these markets down.

A recent undercover 60 Minutes Australia investigation of a wet market in Bangkok found meercats, Saharan fennec foxes, African serval cat, South American marmosets, bats, iguanas, and porcupines all being sold within a closed confined space, leading environmentalist and human rights investigator Steven Galster to label the market a “Wuhan in-the-making.” Galster calls these wet markets “sleeping time bombs across the region,” and is calling for them to be  shut down not only in China, but across Thailand, Laos, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Burma as well. Without shutting down the wildlife markets, viruses like COVID-19 are destined to re-occur and expand.

What We Can Do

From all of us at the Quid Novi, please be smart, stay inside, wash your hands, and we hope to see you in a print-version soon. With exam season soon upon us, I worry that there is a strong possibility of exacerbating the pandemic. The stress of exams has been known to worsen sleeping habits and hygiene, which can lead to a weakened immune system. Worried students may not be washing their hands as often as they should because exam-logic dictates, “that’s twenty seconds of wasted study time!” With their immune systems lowered, it is also the time of year where students are brought in closer contact with one another. The Gelber Library becomes a packed house in the month before exam season, and putting people in close proximity with lower hygiene is a recipe for virus shedding. I implore the Faculty of Law to consider altering all scheduled in-class exams to take-home exams. We are lucky at McGill to have the online tools to facilitate take-home examination, and this should be a common-sense decision that can only help prevent students getting sick.

In these trying times, I’m worried that those with mental illness, homeless people, refugees, and others who rely on the city’s foodbanks and shelters will be the most severely affected by COVID-19 and social distancing. With people staying indoors and hoarding supplies from grocery stores, there is destined to be a drop in resources at foodbanks and shelters. Those who rely on these resources the most will be the ones forced to go without. To compound the problem further, with bars, arenas, restaurants, concert venues, and theatres closing, there is likely to be a spike in people who will need food, shelter, and social resources. I doubt landlords of businesses will give tenants a rent-break for this month, and imposed quarantine may cause several small businesses to fold. If this is the case, we may see thousands of Montrealers lose their jobs in the coming months, and I’m worried that our community organizations that take care of the most vulnerable will be understaffed and ill-equipped to deal with the large increase in volume. Please consider donating to Sun Youth, Moisson Montreal, Multicaf, Face a Face, Head and Hands, and the Women’s Centre of Montreal, or call them to see how you can help. A Facebook group titled “MTL COVID-19 Mutual Aid Mobilisation d’entraide” was recently started to provide resources for Montrealers in need, however please only donate your time to these groups if you are absolutely healthy. 

Finally, Health Canada has estimated that between 30-70% of Canadians will be infected by COVID-19. If we take the lower estimate, 11.28 million Canadians will contract the virus, of which approximately 5% (563,850 Canadians) will need ICU care. In 2016, the Canadian Institute for Health Information found that Canada had 12.9 adult ICU beds per 100,000 people. This means that there are roughly only 4,849 adult ICU beds available for Canadians. Combine the number of patients potentially sick with COVID-19 to the already prevalent hospitalization cases of heart attacks, cancer, and strokes, and it becomes abundantly clear that our ICUs are not equipped to handle the coronavirus without drastic measures. For people of my generation, the answer to this pandemic is not to feel safe that the virus won’t affect us. Rather, the answer is to be dependable. We have the incredible ability to save lives by simply limiting social interactions. This is an important responsibility, and one that we must all take seriously.