Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 14, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A2 VOL 150 NO 36 Winnipeg Free Press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 2020 Winnipeg Free Press, a division of FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership. Published seven days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2X 3B6, PH: 204-697-7000 Publisher / BOB COX Editor / PAUL SAMYN Associate Editor Enterprise / SCOTT GIBBONS Associate Editor News / STACEY THIDRICKSON Associate Editor Digital News / WENDY SAWATZKY Director Photo and Multimedia / MIKE APORIUS NEWSMEDIA COUNCIL The Winnipeg Free Press is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an in- dependent organization established to determine acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please send them to: editorialconcerns@freepress.mb.ca. 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WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMA2 READER SERVICE ? GENERAL INQUIRIES 204-697-7000 The Free Press receives support from the Local Journalism Initiative funded by the Government of Canada CIRCULATION INQUIRIES MISSING OR INCOMPLETE PAPER? Call or email before 10 a.m. weekdays or 11 a.m. Saturday City: 204-697-7001 Outside Winnipeg: 1-800-542-8900 press 1 6:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. Monday-Friday.; 7 a.m. - noon Saturday; Closed Sunday TO SUBSCRIBE: 204-697-7001 Out of Winnipeg: 1-800-542-8900 Doctors Manitoba spokesman Keir Johnson told the Free Press the pro- cess has been "very frustrating" to date - evidenced by the organization hearing from "dozens and dozens" of eligible doctors who haven't had any success in booking a time. "These are older, more at-risk doc- tors caring for patients in higher risk areas such as ICUs, COVID hospital wards or personal care homes," John- son said in an emailed statement. Since the inaugural shipment of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine expected this week is limited, only 900 appointments are being made available to Manito- bans. The patient criteria includes health- care workers who work in critical care units and were born on or before Dec. 31, 1970; those who are employed in acute or long-term care facilities and were born on or before Dec. 31, 1960; and medical professionals with jobs at COVID-19 immunization clinics. As of midday Sunday, approximately half of the slots remained available. "The province is reminding Manito- bans to call only for an appointment if you are an eligible front-line health- care provider," the province said in a prepared release Sunday. "Since opening yesterday, the book- ing service has received more than 100,000 phone calls and some callers were screened out as they did not meet eligibility criteria." Johnson said Doctors Manitoba is hopeful an improved scheduling sys- tem will be in place in the future. Bob Moroz, president of the Mani- toba Association of Health Care Professionals, shared those sentiments Sunday. In a statement, Moroz said, "it is im- portant that frontline allied health pro- fessionals and others are able to access the vaccine smoothly and quickly." A provincial spokesperson for the COVID-19 immunization clinic told the Free Press that more operators will become available. As the vaccine supply increases and more appointments at different loca- tions become available, "the system will adapt," the spokesperson said, add- ing the province is still in the planning stages. The first vaccinations in Manitoba are expected to take place at the Uni- versity of Manitoba's Rady Faculty of Health Sciences campus on McDermot Avenue in Winnipeg this Wednesday. That means health-care profession- als outside Winnipeg, who can secure an appointment, will have to find a way to travel to the clinic before early doses run out. The first jabs are sched- uled this week and follow-ups are to take place in the new year. A single appointment is expected to take between 30 to 45 minutes, with a 0.3 ml shot into the muscle of an arm. Individuals must also wait for 15 minutes afterwards in the post- immunization observation area before they leave. - with files from Temur Durrani maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie VACCINE ? FROM A1 Results from Winnipeg-led trials is merged with international data and used by physicians to learn what treat- ments are working across the world - a patient here could inform treatment in Turkey, a patient in Brazil could inform treatment of someone here - and con- tinues to grow in scope. Work done by Zarychanski's team has been integrat- ed into trials internationally, and there are currently more than 2,000 patients in the ATTACC and REMAP trials around the world. "I think that it's comforting to know that you don't have to just hope for the best and get a comfortable bed and oxy- gen, that there are therapies," he said. "And their participation could help save their life, but also will help save lives around the world." There's about a 50 per cent chance that someone who agrees to be part of trials will actually receive the treat- ment they sign up for, based on a com- puter allocation. If they sign up for multiple treatments, it increases their chances at getting at least one. If they are part of the group that doesn't re- ceive an experimental treatment, they receive the current standard of care. In this way, scientists get an unbiased look at the effectiveness and safety of the experimental treatment. "It's immune to our emotions, it's im- mune to our best intentions: the data at the end of the day will speak for itself," Zarychanski said. The trial process has been proven to work. The current standard of care in- cludes the use of corticosteroids, which was proven through clinical trials to re- duce mortality in COVID-19 patients by as much as 12 per cent. "That is incredible," he said. "All those people, that 12 per cent differ- ence, got to go home and see their hus- band again, or wife, or kids." Zarychanski also co-led the Can- adian arm of a study that eventually dismissed hydroxychloroquine, a treat- ment lauded by U.S. President Donald Trump without evidence, after a proper clinical trial proved it made no differ- ence in the prevention or treatment of COVID-19. He bristled when discussing the cur- rent standard of experimental treat- ment in the United States, where thou- sands of Americans have received convalescent plasma as a treatment, for example, at a cost he estimates as "probably billions," without a clinical- trial structure similar to the one being used in Canada and much of the rest of the world. "If they're right, it's irresponsible, because the world still doesn't know if it works," he said. "If it didn't work after 5,000 or 6,000 patients, whatever it took, then the United States could have stopped in- vesting, donors could have stopped donating, and they could have gone on with their lives and re-invested their time, energy and resources into find- ing an effective therapeutic. Totally ir- responsible. It's actually even indefens- ible, the strategy taken." Our southern neighbour has found it- self an outlier, Zarychanski suggested, owing to pressure put on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by the cur- rent leadership. "It's a supreme person having total authority in the setting of a re-election year," he said. COVID-19 has changed nearly every aspect of health-care administration, some temporarily, others permanently, and the shift to clinical trials becoming integrated into day-to-day healthcare is a new process Zarychanski hopes will become standard. Zarychanski's team is working to move the province to a system where clinical research is embedded into clinical care, but that transition has oc- curred slowly, and reflects a cultural shift in the way health care is provided - in that regard, he said, COVID-19 has provided a "wedge opportunity" to show Manitobans a learning health system. "It was a great time to launch, in the setting of COVID, because we had no other therapies. If we were doing things typically, where we carefully plan trials, we launch them slowly and deliberately, get people on board, it can take years," he said. "Or we could say, 'Look, we don't know what works, but instead of throw- ing drugs that may or may not work in a setting of people's emotions and best in- tentions, we're going to embed clinical trials into clinical care.'" Nora Choi is used to 12-hour days at this point. As a research co-ordinator of Mani- toba's COVID-19 clinical trial team, her life was turned upside down in a unique way when the virus hit Manitoba. Pre- viously focused in nursing home re- search, she joined the clinical-trial team after realizing there was a chance to provide on-the-ground support to pa- tients. "This is probably, hopefully, a once- in-a-lifetime opportunity," she joked. She's responsible for all COVID-19 admissions at Grace Hospital. First thing in the morning, she checks for updates on the clinical trials underway. Next she checks the intensive care unit to find out which patients are COVID-19 positive and eligible for the clinical trials. Then she speaks with the patient - or their family, if the patient is un- able to speak - about participating. She collects data on their response to treatment and follows up with patients daily, both during their stay and after they're discharged. "A lot of screening eligible patients, and a lot of data collection... it's really great, because everyone's really will- ing to help each other out," she said. Patients are admitted Monday through Sunday, and as hospitaliza- tions continue to spike, her workload gets more extensive. Long days in full personal protective equipment and dir- ect contact with COVID-19 positive pa- tients are a new reality. She calls the ordeal "stressful," but also approaches her position with a cool rationality - the work has to be done, and if someone has to do it, why not her? "I think someone needs to do the job, and as hard as it is every day, I honestly don't mind," she said. "I know some people are quite afraid of it, but I think the research has to get done." Fellow co-ordinator Quinn Tays echoed the sentiment. A chemistry student and researcher, he works with COVID-19 patients at St. Boniface hos- pital, work he calls "really rewarding." "The first few times on the ward are definitely a little jarring, but then I started to realize - it's just patients that are sick, and getting care like most other hospital wards," he said. "There's always COVID looming at the back of your mind and you're tak- ing extra precautions, you're wearing full PPE in there, but it comes down to it just being a hospital ward." Tays has never been part of a clinical trial before this, and said he was proud that his first had such a widespread im- pact. "Being part of international trials is great," he said. "We often feel like small-town Manitoba, but it just feels like we're really representing ourselves and doing our part for science and to fight the pandemic." Choi laughs when asked what she plans to do when COVID-19 is more of a distant memory than a constant pres- ence, but the answer also comes quick- ly: she wants to take some time off. "Maybe travel a bit; I know that's been put on hold for most people," she said. "Just getting back to my regular schedule, having more regular days." No matter where the future of COVID-19 treatment goes, Zarychanski stressed, Manitoba will have been on the frontline of it, thanks to research- ers such as Tays and Choi. "It takes a toll on them too - my God, I don't even know how to thank them enough. it's exhausting to wear an N95 for 12 hours a day, and they're doing it every day," he said. Zarychanski believes their service, and the work they've produced, speaks to a wider cultural attitude among Manitobans. "We're big blood donors, we're big volunteers," he said. "We're big con- tributors when we can in times of need." malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: malakabas_ RESEARCH ? FROM A1 PHOTOS BY MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Research co-ordinators Nora Choi, outside Grace Hospital, and Quinn Tays, outside St. Boniface General Hospital (below), are working with a team of researchers from other Winnipeg hospitals co-ordinating clinical trials with COVID-19 patients. Quinn Tays, research co-ordinator, outside St. Boniface hospital, is working with a team of re- Knott said he is currently awaiting responses about requests for govern- ment support to evacuate high-risk individuals to the capital to quarantine, tests for all community members, and helping hands, whether they be from the Canadian Red Cross or military. "We are deeply concerned by the rise in COVID-19 cases among Indig- enous peoples in Manitoba," states an email from the office of Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller. The minister's office indicated Sun- day Indigenous Services Canada has daily calls with community leadership to ensure First Nations have the infra- structure and medical staff necessary to address an outbreak. Ottawa is ready to provide additional support to Red Sucker Lake as needed, a spokes- person said. Also Sunday, a provincial spokes- person said in a statement Manitoba is working with federal partners and First Nations leadership to support pandemic efforts in several Indigenous communities. Members of the military have already arrived in Shamattawa First Nation, where the chief indicated this weekend that 25 per cent of residents continue to test positive for the virus. A team of more than 60 in total, including nurses, medical technicians and other Canadian Armed Forces members, is being deployed to the reserve. The boots on the ground are ex- pected to assist local health authorities to establish an isolation area, support people in quarantine, and provide general duty support until the situation improves. Isolation units will be set-up at a school in the community. That's also an option in Red Sucker Lake, which already has a 20-person camp for people in quarantine and is considering converting an old nursing station into quarantine units. The Department of National De- fence did not respond to requests for comment before deadline Sunday. Meantime, in the Interlake-Eastern health region, Berens River First Na- tion is grappling with what one local councillor called an "unmanageable" situation. According to the Manitoba First Nations COVID-19 Pandemic Response Coordination Team's latest weekly bulletin, which is dated Dec. 11, there have been at least 1,559 cases on re- serves in the province. The report states 59 First Nations people have died of the virus, both on-reserve and off; 2,680 cases have been identified among First Nations people living off reserve. The province's Sunday update listed seven new fatalities, which include a woman in her 70s from the Interlake- Eastern health region, whose death is linked to the Kin Place outbreak in Oakbank, a woman in her 60s in the North, and five deaths in Winnipeg linked to various outbreaks. A man in his 60s in Winnipeg died in connection to the St. Norbert Personal Care home. A woman in her 70s died in connection to the Charleswood Care Centre outbreak. A man in his 70s died in connection to the outbreak at the N3W unit at Concordia Hospital. And two men in their 80s died - one whose case is linked to the Maples Long Term Care Home outbreak; the other became ill in connection to an outbreak at Park Manor Care. Manitoba's current test positivity rate is 13.5 per cent. It is 13 per cent in the capital. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie FIRST NATIONS ? FROM A1 FOURTEEN Venezuelan mi-grants drowned and six are mis- sing after a failed bid to reach Trinidad and Tobago by boat. Eleven bodies were recovered Saturday, and another three corpses were found on a Vene- zuelan beach Sunday, the nation's government said in a statement. The vessel departed from the Venezuelan town of Guiria on Dec. 6 with 20 people, according to the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard. In recent years about five mil- lion people have fled Venezuela to neighbouring countries, to es- cape the longest and deepest eco- nomic slump in modern history, aggravated since 2017 by U.S. sanctions. - Bloomberg News Migrants drown fleeing Venezuela A_02_Dec-14-20_FP_01.indd A2 2020-12-13 10:19 PM ;