Today is Monday, the 30th of March, 2020. The editorial cartoon above, from a recent edition of the Globe and Mail, is of Canada's Minister of Health, Patty Hajdu, just after the stay at home declaration.
I want to recognize two people whom we've met in our recent travels who are either working on the front line or directly supporting the front lines in dealing with this pandemic. Both of these people crossed the Atlantic, albeit in opposite directions, in order to provide our communities with vital services.
The first, Nino Lombardi, recently retired from working in a virology lab.
o-o-o-o-o
We met Nino Lombardi and a gathering of Canadians, some of whom were newly-arrived at Laguna Resort, our home away from home in Portugal. Nino and Suzanne had recently arrived and, little did any of us know that he would be pulled out of retirement to provide critical support in dealing with this pandemic.
Nino worked in the Public Health Ontario Virology Laboratory for 35 years before recently retiring. During that time experienced a number of outbreaks. The first was the Hepatitis C tainted blood scandal of the early 1990's, where worked under a scientist who developed and put into use a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) molecular test for us to screen patients' bloods.
Later on, in 2000, because of his PCR experience, he was pulled out of the virology lab to work on the Walkerton's E-coli O157 outbreak.
Once again, in 2003, SARS-CoV hit Toronto. Nino told me that, not only was it was it the lab's first experience with a Coronavirus outbreak, but it was also, at the time, the most stressful period that we had experienced.
Finally, in 2009, the Novel Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) -- also known as the 'Swine Flu' -- occurred, and they had to deal with that specialized testing as well.
With all those years of experience and memories under my belt, Nino finally decided to retire at the end of last year.
Nino told me that he and Suzanne felt so lucky to have gone on a beautiful vacation to the Algarve in Portugal. Two weeks after returning, he received an emergency call to see if he was available to return to work and join in this latest battle.
Nino reports:
At our lab, we've been testing for this COVID-19 (2019 Novel Coronavirus) using an in-house developed rRT-PCR (real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) assay. This is a specific molecular test for the COVID-19, but similar in nature to the test we use for many other viruses (Measles, Mumps, Ebola, Norovirus etc.)
The past couple of weeks have been very stressful as testing is dependent on reagents and they too can be limiting as they're needed in many other laboratories around the world and so the challenge is to look at other platforms in an attempt to keep up with the volume.
We are all fortunate to have Nino working to protect us and Bonnie and I feel particularly fortunate to have met these wonderful people.
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