How UWindsor researchers are preparing for the next pandemic

When COVID-19 changed everyday existence for so many people in 2020, it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime event. 

But, infectious diseases circulating are inevitable — and now the University of Windsor is setting up a monitoring system in the hope that, in the event of future outbreaks, policymakers can avoid measures like border shutdowns. 

The research team at the UWindsor secured a two-year $500,000 grant from the New Frontiers in Research Fund. The money will support an interdisciplinary team of researchers in creating a system that will ensure rapid scientific, as well as compliance, responses to potential pathogens.

The team includes specialists in chemistry, psychology, cross-border studies, among others. The ambition is that effective scientific responses, such as effective testing for diseases, can be coupled with research into human behaviour. This combination becomes all the more important in an area like Windsor-Essex, home to the busiest border crossing in North America. 

Kenneth Ng, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UWindsor, said that cross-discipline collaboration was essential in responding to COVID-19. 

"It was pretty clear it's not just a science problem, and it's not just a policy problem," he told CBC News. "It requires input from different places." 

Getting the public on side

But, with UWindsor's work into pandemic preparedness, researchers want to avoid blunt responses to outbreaks, and focus on monitoring the progress of any new disease.

There's a tendency to forget and not learn all the lessons we should learn- Kenneth Ng 

"For example, the psychology part [is because] we can only get people testing if they're motivated and they understand why testing is important," Ng said. "We discovered that during the pandemic ... If you can't get people to participate in a screening program, and if you're not targeting the right people who might be affected, you could have the best testing in the world but it's not really going to help." 

Ng said that another pandemic is inevitable, and frameworks need to be developed to tackle unpredictable future contagions. 

"There's a tendency to forget and not learn all the lessons we should learn," he said. "This was a warning."

Avoiding the worst

Yufeng Tong, an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, is focused on making accessible methods from which we can monitor the progress of infectious diseases. He has already developed a saliva based test for COVID-19 at UWindsor, as well as other respiratory illnesses. 

Developments such as these allow for citizens to have a much more accessible option, while researchers can also monitor new diseases closely. 

"Initially we used nasal swabs, and you have to put a stick in your nose and it's very uncomfortable," Tong said. "If you look at say a five-year-old kid you don't want to put a stick in their nose, so the compliance is definitely an issue." 

By melding scientific responses and easy-to-access public policy initiatives, the research groups hopes that the worst can be avoided, such as quarantines and shut downs. 

"We are in quite a unique position in this region in that we have scientists from almost all aspects of this discipline."