Latest podcasts
- Can your pets get COVID-19?
Wednesday, April 29th 2020
It might be time to start teaching that old dog new physical distancing tricks. With the news of two pet cats catching the coronavirus from their owners in NYC last week, public health authorities have revised their advice on what people who are sick with COVID-19 should do with their pets. As this virus is believed to have come from bats, there are plenty of questions about what might happen if it moves back to other animals. Raju Mudhar speaks with Scott Weese, chief of infection control at the University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College, for a look at the animal kingdom in the time of a pandemic.
- What it’s like in—and once you’re out of—jail during COVID-19
Tuesday, April 28th 2020
There have already been COVID-19 outbreaks in correctional institutions across the U.S., British Columbia and Quebec. In Ontario, the largest outbreak has centred on the Ontario Correctional Institute (OCI), where of 109 inmates, 80 have tested positive, as well as 21 correctional officers. But it’s not just inside the jails and prisons, as the government is letting many low-risk offenders out to ease the burden on the system, and many are entering a different world, with less post-release support facilities in place. To discuss the prison pandemic, Raju Mudhar is joined by Alyshah Hasham, the Star’s courts reporter who has been following this story. As well, he talks with Derrick Peachey, a former inmate at the OCI, who was released in early April, about his experience inside the prison, and dealing with a very different world outside.
- How COVID-19 could remake transit and transportation networks
Monday, April 27th 2020
The way people move around and commute in cities has changed, perhaps forever. Is the time of COVID-19 actually the perfect moment to remake the transit and transportation networks in cities? Some say the countries that are preparing to make the streets more accessible, post-pandemic, are the places that are built to grow and succeed, not merely recover from it. Adrian Cheung talks to Ben Spurr, Toronto Star’s transportation reporter, on what Toronto and other major, dense cities are doing to adapt to big changes in transportation networks, and the very nature of how a society lives and moves in a city.
- Why you shouldn’t avoid the ER
Friday, April 24th 2020
“It shouldn’t be a deterrent to seek emergent care because of COVID,” says Dr. David Carr. “You need to come here. We’re a safe place for you to come.” Some doctors and the Canadian Medical Association warn of a backlog of other serious illnesses, including cancer and heart attacks, that could be going untreated. Some of this is because potential patients themselves are worried about COVID-19 risks at hospitals and are not going to ERs until it’s too late. Adrian Cheung talks to Dr. David Carr, an emergency room doctor in Toronto, about why hospitals should restart for non-COVID-19 patients and the worries behind the “collateral damage.”
- Do we have the data we need to reopen Canada?
Thursday, April 23rd 2020
Does Canada have the data and the planning in place for an exit strategy that will help get through this crisis sooner than later and with minimal causalities? Saba Eitizaz talks to Amir Attaran to find out where we’re at in the fight against the virus. Attaran is a biomedical scientist, lawyer and professor at the University of Ottawa’s School of Epidemiology and Public Health, and was part of a cross-border study that revealed Covid-19 numbers are actually much higher than the government has predicted.