‘Like wartime’: Canadian companies unite to launch mass virus tests

TORONTO – As Canada’s frustration over the leading weight loss and the rapid pace of vaccinations escalates, a consortium of some of the country’s largest companies has launched a rapid testing program aimed at protecting their 350,000 employees to publish a playbook for businesses around the world. Canada on how to reopen safely.

The program is presumably the first of its kind among the group of 7 industrialized countries, and has already attracted the attention of the Biden government.

The twelve companies, including Canada’s largest airline and grocery chain, have been working together for four months, creating a 400-page operating manual on how to perform fast antigen tests in different work settings. They started launching the tests at their workplaces this month and expect to expand the program to 1,200 small and medium-sized businesses.

They also plan to share their test results with government health authorities, which will significantly increase the number of tests in the country and provide an informal study on the spread of the virus among asymptomatic people.

“It’s like wartime – people come together to do something that is in everyone’s interest,” Marc Mageau, senior vice president of refining and logistics, told Suncor Energy, the country’s largest oil producer, which was testing its employees this month. introduced.

The program faces some inherent challenges – after an outbreak last year in the White House, antigen tests have become known for arousing false negatives and a false sense of security. There is also a shortage of them in Canada, and some experts argue that they should be reserved for schools and nursing homes instead of non-essential businesses.

While vaccines are considered the world’s best weapon to defeat the pandemic, most experts believe it will take months, if not a full year, before Canada reaches vaccination levels that will enable workplaces to return safely to their forebears. -Covid operations do not.

Canada is in the grip of a second pandemic wave that has driven infections to record levels and deaths to about 19,800. In response, many parts of the country were locked up, with restaurants, theaters and non-essential shops closed.

The Canadian economy shrank by about 5 percent during the pandemic. Some industries such as real estate and manufacturing have performed well, but those who depend on public crowds, such as entertainment and hospitality, have seen their jobs decline.

‘Think of downtown Toronto: no one is there anymore. Entertainment – everything has stopped, ”said Joshua Gans, a professor of strategic management at the University of Toronto, who acted as advisor to the project and author of “The gap in the pandemic: the cruel economy of Covid-19.”

“The time has come to work out how to actually reopen the closed sectors,” he said.

The businesses in the consortium were brought together in the spring by Ajay Agrawal, the founder of the Creative Destruction Lab of the University of Toronto, which helps scientific and technological enterprises. They were inspired by the most Canadian music: Margaret Atwood, the author.

“How soon can we buy a cheap, self-administering test for the pharmacy?” During a virtual meeting last May, Ms Atwood asked business leaders and others to study the ideas for a brainstorming session for economic recovery during the pandemic.

The problem, according to the group, was the ‘information gap’ – as there was no way to say who an asymptomatic carrier is, everyone is seen as a potential threat.

Ms Atwood suggested something like a home pregnancy test.

“It would be a game changer,” she said.

When the group realized that the government was overwhelmed by the health crisis, the group decided to take on the task itself and form a consortium led by the Creative Destruction Lab.

The group focused on antigen testing because of their speed, price and usefulness: they can deliver results in minutes, require no laboratory, and can cost between $ 5 and about $ 20 in Canada.

But it is less accurate and yields more false negatives than the gold standard polymerase chain reaction, or PCR tests, which can cost 20 times as much. The three antigen tests approved for use in Canada show that 84 percent to 96.7 percent of people are infected with the virus.

In Britain, antigen tests used in a mass testing campaign identified only two-fifths of the coronavirus cases detected by PCR tests.

Therefore, many experts in Canada and elsewhere have initially argued that it is wiser to extend PCR testing. But as the pandemic spread and the country did not reach its test goals, thinking changed, said Dr. Irfan Dhalla, co-chair of the Canadian advisory panel on testing and screening for Covid-19, said. the use of rapid tests.

‘A fast antigen test is clearly better than no test, as long as it is not used as a free pass, ‘said Dr. Dhalla said. “Whether it’s a workplace or a school, you still have to wear a mask and you still have to physically give up as much as you can.”

Consortium members hope in the long run that the test program will help reduce infection rates enough to return to overcrowded restaurants and boardroom meetings. But in the meantime, they plan to use the tests as an extra layer of protection – in addition to wearing masks, they work at social distances and pre-screen employees so those with symptoms stay home.

The companies in the consortium also test their employees twice a week, which increases the chances of taking on positive business.

‘Everyone is looking for a silver bullet. We realized it did not exist. That’s not it either, ”admitted Laura Rosella, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Toronto and an advisor on the project.

In September, more than 100 employees of the consortium began working together at the expense of their companies to draw up a plan. Two retired generals volunteered to help manage logistics.

The group registered as a non-profit organization called the CDL Rapid Screening Consortium in November, and each company contributed $ 230,000 in operating expenses.

Work in teams, the employees examined about 50 different antigen tests around the world, analyzed what was needed for a screening program – from staff to the number of gowns – and estimated the total cost.

The resulting 400-page operating manual contains everything from an example of an employee invitation to join the program and a standard consent form to the detailed shopping list of materials needed to run a program.

One of the obstacles is obtaining tests. They had to get them from the government because they are not yet widely available in Canada, and there is a huge demand from schools and nursing homes.

“Let’s do tests there first,” said Dr. Dhalla said, referring to schools, nursing homes and essential workplaces. “If we gain experience, we can talk about getting people back to work, where working from home is an option.”

In January, five of the companies began launching the program in institutions that differ from pharmacies and radio stations. So far, about 400 employees have volunteered and nearly 1,900 tests have been done. According to Sonia Sennik, the executive director of the Creative Destruction Lab and the enthusiastic quarterback of the project, only three came back positive.

“They did not enter the workplace and possibly distribute anything,” she said. Sennik said. “We broke the transmission chain three times.”

The companies found that the program not only reduced workers’ worries, but also returned home every day, she said.

“I feel relieved,” said Mohamed Gaballa, an Air Canada employee who completed the test during a break at Pearson International Airport. Within 15 minutes it appears by e-mail: “Your investigation result is negative. You can continue with your day. ‘

“This is too long a missing piece in Canada,” said Dan Kelly, President and CEO of the United States Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, representing 110,000 small and medium-sized businesses.

Small businesses have many more obstacles to implementing a program like this, even if it is a 400-page manual, he said. There is the cost of the tests, but more importantly, the staff to administer them.

Mr. Kelly suggested to him that the program would not work at restaurants and busy stores – places where non-screened customers had far more than screened employees, unless the plan was to test it as well. But in kitchens, small warehouses, small manufacturing shops and offices, ‘this test can be very useful,’ he said.

“Under normal circumstances, the idea that small businesses do work tests for any person for anything is a fantasy,” he said. Kelly, who sits on the federal government’s advisory group for Covid-19 tests, said. “But in this case, there is a potential appetite for it, given the degree of desperation to be open among small business owners.”