SASKATOON -- CTV Saskatoon has been asking for your COVID-19 questions - and on Thursday we answered them in our first COVID-19 town hall.
Anchor Sean Leslie was joined by Dr. Joseph Blondeau, a clinical microbiologist and head of clinical microbiology at Royal University Hospital, and Dr. Paul Masiowski, a neurologist who also teaches at the University of Saskatchewan.
One of the questions Masiowski tackled was: What are the differences between COVID-19 and the regular flu?
“That’s my favourite question,” he said. “This is a situation that comes up a lot. It does have something in common with the flu in that it’s a virus and it spreads through the population and it can cause a problem with a cough and pneumonia-type lung infection. But there are some major differences. Probably the biggest one is that it spreads so rapidly, that we have no previous experience with it before so everyone is vulnerable to it. We have no vaccine to limit the spread. And then a significant number of people are getting very sick and dying from this virus. So the threat from it is very real.
“Beyond the death rate, which is itself an important question, we are increasingly aware that COVID-19 is causing other serious complications in people who have had it, including people who survived. They can have problems with blood clotting that can lead to clots in the lungs or strokes, they can have other sorts of neurological problems. They can lose their sense of smell which can affect their sense of taste. And that change can be permanent. So it is a different virus. There are parallels and see why people make the comparison, but it really is a different kind of thing and we have to take it very seriously.”
Watch the full video for answers to several more questions, covering subjects such as antibody testing and whether more Saskatchewan residents may have been infected than have been reported.
