Dear Editor:
I have 40 years of experience in the international pharmaceutical industry and feel it is my public responsibility to comment on COVID-19 testing in Canada and Ontario.
This is a call for action by the federal government, specifically the federal health minister Patty Hajdu, to direct the health protection branch to prioritize their review of COVID-19 tests that are PCR based.
I would ask that Adam van Koeverden, MP, Milton, and Michael Chong, MP, Wellington-Halton Hills, take action on this.
Generally there are two major categories of tests: antigen-based tests and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.
Currently the approved tests are antigen based and apart from rapid results (ie. – 15 minutes), they do not even compare to the PCR tests for reliability or convenience. The main criteria in assessing tests is specificity and sensitivity.
A test that has a poor specificity will often result in false positives, meaning a person may be told they have COVID-19 and should immediately isolate themselves unnecessarily. A test that has poor sensitivity will not pick up miniscule levels (ie. – asymptomatic persons) and this will result in false negatives, when they will be told they do not have COVID-19 and may return to normal activity and a high risk of infecting others.
The Abbot tests and others approved in Canada, while somewhat helpful, are not even close to the specificity and sensitivity of the PCR tests, yet the Canadian government has purchased hundreds of thousands of these tests.
Furthermore, the PCR tests require a simple sputum sample, and do not even require a health professional to administer.
I am shocked that our experts are not looking closely at this reality. Time is critical and we are on the brink of massive infections, particularly with Christmas and New Year celebrations approaching.
While vaccines are coming, this will take time and, for a number of other technical reasons, testing will continue to be important in the foreseeable future.
Please, for the sake of Canadians, let’s get the PCR tests approved quickly. This is not intended to be a political commentary and let me also state that I believe the COVID-19 issue has been handled quite well by our politicians and the Canadian public.
Glen Duff,
Rockwood