OTTAWA – Conservative leader Erin O’Toole on Thursday criticized the liberal federal government for not considering emergency approval for immediate VERIFICATION of COVID-19 after he and his circle of relatives joined a developing list of Canadians who were rejected after hours of waiting at overcrowded control centers.
O’Toole, his wife Rebecca and their children, Mollie and Jack, were luckier than most: after not being tested Wednesday in Ottawa, they were tested Thursday morning with a new program that fasts people run by the private sector. COVID-19 tests for parliamentarians.
But O’Toole said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants to explain to Canadians how, seven months after a pandemic began, Canada has not followed the United States and has not approved quick control kits that can produce effects in minutes instead of hours.
“The Trudeau Liberals created this mess by refusing to approve other test strategies, despite the fact that all of our allies have, for months, several tests, adding much faster and less invasive strategies,” O’Toole said in a written statement. .
“I am the thousands of Canadian families who line up today for testing.
Demand for checks soared last week as young people returned to school and checkup clinics across the country struggled to stay awake. In Ottawa, others reported waiting up to six hours for them to be checked, while others, like the O’Tooles, waited hours without even entering.
The O’Toole are remote waiting for verification effects after one of their staff members, with whom he was traveling, tested positive for COVID-19 this week.
O’Toole’s family circle presented an appointment through Ottawa Public Health for testing on Friday, but the House of Commons was able to schedule them a day earlier.
House of Commons spokeswoman Heather Bradley said that since March, MPs have had a doctor on call, for any consideration of COVID-19, and now that doctor can also conduct COVID-19 tests.
“As the pandemic progressed, space management helped meet the express wishes of members, including, exceptionally, COVID-19 testing,” Bradley said.
Tests are conducted privately and paid for through the House of Commons.
Health Canada has only approved molecular controls for COVID-19, which are looking for genetic curtains for the new coronavirus. Nasal swabs taken from control sites should be sent to a laboratory and checks take up to 24 hours to unload a result. not to mention the time it takes to get to a lab or the time it takes to enter the result on a computer and transmit it.
Rapid tests that look for virus antigens, molecules that attach to the outside of a virus and cause the body’s immune reaction, can be done without having to go to a lab in just 15 minutes.
Antigen tests are less accurate than molecular tests and more give false negative results.
Trudeau’s liberals created this mess by refusing to approve other methods
But being able to temporarily monitor other people with known symptoms or exposure to COVID-19 is imperative to managing the pandemic – if it takes several days to get the results of the review, it means it takes longer to identify imaginable contacts of a positive patient. and for those other people to be checked. Meanwhile, they can simply spread the virus without knowing it.
Health Canada is reviewing at least six antigen tests, four of which are “under review” and two are waiting for more data from the corporations involved. Health Minister Patty Hajdu said Wednesday that the government would compromise protection and speed power.
“The problem is that generation has not accelerated to the point where we have gained an approval check that is so accurate that we believe it is prudent to let it enter the Canadian market,” he said.
The U. S. Food and Drug Administration. It has issued emergency approvals for 3 antigen tests.
Health Canada passed an antigen check in May, but then retired when Health Canada decided it was not working well in the field.
Hajdu said having accurate evidence can make things worse.
“Can you believe a situation where other people can buy a quick check from a pharmacy, for example, and only have 50% accuracy?” he asked. We just haven’t arrived yet. We have not yet sent a check to Health Canada for approval addressing regulator considerations on accuracy. »
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