Toronto’s SARS Outbreak Provides a Cautionary Tale of Lifting a Lockdown Too Soon
WKSU: Mark Cameron, an associate professor in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, spoke about working on the frontlines of the SARS outbreak, when the virus spread from China to Toronto, seventeen years ago; he and other health workers isolated every infected person and quarantined everyone they had come in contact with because, “even one person still carrying the virus is enough to start a pop up or another cluster of infection,” said Cameron. “[A] lesson from Toronto is the other side of the peak is just as lengthy as the rise to the peak.” The latest models show Covid-19 cases in Ohio peaking by the end of April, then slowly trailing off. As to when to lift the lockdown: “We’re not talking about April anymore,” said Cameron, of the latest data. “We’re not talking about May anymore. We’re talking about mid-summer.”