The Federal Conservative Party’s Ontario caucus used a COVID-19 serological control that has still been approved through Health Canada, according to Conservative MP Scot Davidson.
Davidson, president of the Ontario caucus, said the caucus had used the “for safety” device before a recent withdrawal from the caucus. COVID-19 cases are expanding dramatically in some parts of the country, adding Ontario, and party leader Erin O’ Toole, his wife and at least one of his own tested positive for the virus.
O’Toole’s wife, Rebecca, won a positive result in overdue control on Monday after developing symptoms over the weekend.
The leader of Bloc Québécois, Yves-Fran’ois Blanchet, has also tested and now all his caucus is isolated.
An O’Toole spokesman said the Ontario caucus invited approval from a Canadian Health Canada company to distribute its serological control to attend its regional meeting.
Interested MPs had the opportunity to take advantage after seeing a presentation from the company selling the device, he said. The spokesman said he had already obtained approval from the U. S. Food and Drug Administration. But it’s not the first time
“We tested all of our MPs who came here to our Ontario caucus retreat,” Davidson told the conservative caucus assembly this morning.
“We had an uns selected check awaiting approval from Health Canada. So we want the government to act and speed up the approval procedure for those checks. We check 28 MP in 39 minutes with the results.
See: Conservative MP Scot Davidson Says Conservatives Used COVID-19 Check Approved Through Health Canada
O’Toole spokesman said conservatives, “like all Canadian Arrays . . . are involved in the Trudeau government’s delays in approving new methods. “
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said he discovered it was “completely unbelievable” for Ontario’s conservative caucus to agree to meet with the company and introduce a device that has still been approved through Health Canada.
“I have to say that conservatives have broken their credibility,” Singh told reporters.
“The fact that a company comes to filter them with a verification device, then use that verification device that did not get approval from our Canadian approval process, and then boasts of having used that service or those checksArray . . . sounds like a story, reading in Canada, ” he said.
A serological check or antibody control such as that used through the Ontario Caucus is not used to diagnose an active coronavirus infection.
Antibodies are produced through the immune formula in reaction to an infection. Antibodies can take several days or weeks to expand after infection and may remain in the blood for several weeks or more after healing.
For example, antibody tests, which use a blood pattern of a finger prick, are reserved for others looking for a coronavirus infection sometime in the past.
The FDA warns that these tests “diagnose an active coronavirus infection at the time of the test or show that you do not have COVID-19”.
Health Canada says it “is aware of any serological control that has been validated to diagnose COVID-19.
“However, serological testing will play a role in Canada’s overall screening strategy, providing evidence to assess the true extent of COVID-19 in the general population. “
Several public fitness experts have suggested that the federal government conduct more testing in Canada at a time when many people, specifically in Ontario and Quebec, face long waiting hours for testing as a component of the traditional lab process.
Dr. David Naylor, co-chair of the federal government’s COVID-19 task force, said he would like to see more immediate controls in Canada that could be administered in pharmacies, schools and other high-risk workplaces to mitigate the burden of expansion in control centers run by hospitals.
Unlike serological ones, immediate antigenics have been used in some countries, such as the United States, to produce diagnostic effects in as little as 15 minutes.
Canada has yet to pass any immediate testing or antigenic device.
Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford said he spoke to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland last night about the province’s preference to see more immediate evidence passed for use in Canada.
Freeland was aware of the importance of these devices in facilitating access to testing at a time when the number of instances was increasing.
“Health Canada, it’s just that we get those tests done quickly,” he said. “Nothing is more critical than getting this approval. I can’t strain that enough. “
Health Minister Patty Hajdu said last week that Health Canada was not yet happy with any of the features it had intended for COVID-19 immediate verification devices, and that they will not be implemented across the country until regulators are required to meet a limited standard.
While the U. S. Food and Drug Administration has not been able to do so. But it’s not the first time Approved two antigen testing devices months ago, Health Canada is not in a position to apply its seal of approval in such tests, Hajdu said.
A Health Canada spokesperson stated that authorized COVID-19 verification kits can only be used through fitness professionals or trained operators, and that the sale or advertising of fitness products that make false or misleading claims is illegal in Canada. “The branch takes this factor seriously and will use all the mechanisms and equipment at its disposal to prevent such activities,” the spokesman said. “When a breach is demonstrated through Health Canada, a number of compliance and enforcement features must be in place to address or mitigate the breach. a threat to Canadians, including, for example, site visits, recalls, public communications and product seizures. Health Canada would possibly also refer tariffs under the Food and Drug Act to the Canadian Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPSC) for imaginable prosecution. “
Rapid antigenic tests, which, depending on the device, use fabrics collected from a nasal or throat pattern, require the use of a laboratory to generate results.
Although much faster, these controls are less accurate than the “gold standard”: the polymer reaction verification (PCR) procedure that has been used lately in Canada.
If administered correctly, PCR tests are very accurate, identifying positive cases nearly one hundred percent of the time. Antigen testing is also very accurate, but they are not as delicate as molecular PCR tests performed in a laboratory.
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John Paul (P. J. ) Tasker is a journalist with the CBC MP in Ottawa. We can succeed in him in john. tasker@cbc. ca.
With Janyce McGregor of CBC
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