itstargetnews
This story is part of the second opinion of CBC Health, weekly analyzes of news of health and medical sciences e -on Saturday morning. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do it Clicks here.
Many top scientists in the US are now out of work.
Health Minister Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It aims to reduce 20,000 jobs at agencies such as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and FDA Food and Medication Administration).
Not all scientists, but Canada could play a role in ensuring that US scientists are able to continue their research, researchers on both sides of the border say.
Anecdotal, Canadian academics say they hear every day from American colleagues who seek job opportunities in Canada.
One of the examples: Dr. Madhukar Pai, Director of the McGill Global Health Program, told CBC News that he expects a record number of applicants for a new job in his ward, which opens in the coming weeks. It is a field hit particularly difficult in the middle Post cuts at the US Agency for International Development that reduces life rescue programs around the world dealing with diseases like HIV and malaria.
Scientists who monitor cancer research, vaccinations and medicines approves, regulations on public health and tobacco are also among the 10,000 already released. Public health experts say mass shootings could have catastrophic influences on the US and the world.
“Some of the world’s best public health experts have just lost their jobs,” said former CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden.
Without CDC, more people will get sick of infectious diseases and die potentially, in the USA worldwide -including Canada, he said.
“There are risks for Canada – and the possibilities to enhance Canada.”
Kevin Griffis, a former CDC Communications Director, resigned in protest two weeks ago at the agency. He said the mass shootings were widely felt and could have unexpected consequences.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a vaccine critic who has committed to fighting a chronic illness, was declared a US secret health minister on Thursday after prevailing the resistance of a medical institution and Congress members with the promise to limit his role in vaccination policy. Dr. Joss Reimer, president of the Canadian Medical Association, says “disinformations do not respect the boundaries,” adding that any misinformation is very worrying.
If the agency was supposed to hold a press conference today about great public health threats, “There is no one who knows more to start a sound. Because they fired a studio team,” he said.
Reducing research funding in the US will also create gaps in evidence as less research will be financed and conducted as a whole, says Kirsten Patrick, editor-in-chief of the Canadian Medical Association (CMAJ) magazine. Because of this, Canada is increasingly important to enhance her research financing, she says.
“If we have a situation where, down in the south, the research did not finance well as it should be, and some research is not even done, then we have to have a strong research system in Canada,” she said.
Provinces ‘draw a welcome rug’
Canadian provinces are already trying to attract American health experts suddenly from work.
Manitoba “performed a welcome rug” for US doctors, nurses and researchers affected by a decrease, said the Minister of Health ASAGWARA in a statement to CBC.
The province is currently talking to a dozen doctors in the US who are interested in the move, said Asagwar.
They are also in the process of developing “Fullsome US Employment Campaign in the coming weeks.”
British Columbia also says he watches the latest events in the US. The Ministry of Health spokesman said in a statement that he would “provide what support (IT) could” “American colleagues, so they can continue their key work. And BC actively hires American healthcare professionals.
In Toronto, the university health network should also publish its strategy to attract top scientists on Monday.
However, other groups also try to hire the same scientists: Frieden, former CDC director, has already expanded the offer to an abandoned government scientist for the non-profit organization he now runs, decides to save lives.
Local and state governments in the US are also trying catch Federal workers released – not to mention universities around the world.
But Canada is well positioned among the competition. We have already hit above our weight when it comes to research, says Stephanie Michaud, CEO of Biocanrx, a research network that focuses on the development of immunological therapy for the fight against cancer. Federal funding received $ 40 million between 2015 and 2019 – and $ 109.5 million of financing others, such as industrial partners, provinces and charity organizations.
“We have excellent researchers and excellent clinics who are already working here,” she said, noting that Canadian researchers tend to publish.
Where Canada could better, he says, translate detection into treatments through clinical trials and, in the end, into practice.
“What is needed in terms of investment to find the discovery found, published in the Canadian lab and took it according to a clinical trial. Here is Canada (there is) harder,” she said.
While American scientists look at other countries to continue their work, Canada is an opportunity to deal with this weakness, listening to scientists and clinics and investing in multiple research – which makes Canada more attractive to top talent.
Canada is funded by much less research than the United States per capita, according to analysis from the Canadian Neuroscience Association. From 2020 to 2021, he finally funded approximately $ 55.7 billion in the study by CDN. The Canadian Institute of Health Research, compared to funded $ 1.44 billion. Even since the US population is about nine times larger than Canada, this is a 39-plow difference.
“I think we have all the real ingredients, we just need to put together all the pieces,” Michaud said.
Increasing research funding
Another strategy of Canada could take: facilitating researchers working in Canada to retain lights in their laboratories, says Dr. William Ghali, a research vice president at the University of Calgary.
In Canada, if the researcher receives federal support, the government also allocates some money to cover costs such as employment of auxiliary staff, work and maintenance of laboratory or payment of computer/data servers.
But universities are paid annually, unrelated to any individual researchers or grants – and in the end it is not enough money to cover the cost of everything that allows you to explore, Ghali said.
Ghali says it’s a good time for Canada to review our approach. He says that these indirect costs make a big difference for researchers – and a guarantee that good indirect financing will attract top talent outside Canada.
This will benefit all the Canadians in turn, says: Scientific growth leads to economic growth.
Research partnership, changed
But supporting a sense of possibilities, there is also sadness.
But scientists who leave the US because they do not feel safe or supported in their country is sad, according to Ghali, who says he feels like a blow against global cooperation.
Dr. Pai, Director of the McGill Global Health Program, says he feels uncomfortable with the idea of gathering American scientists.
“American scientists deserve to work in their country, not leaving their families, they feel safe in their country, adequately funded (and) dear and rewarded,” he wrote at Bluesky.
But it is a new reality that the world is addressing: now it cannot be dependent that they are fulfilling the role it has for decades. It is economists of learning lessons after the “Liberation Day” tariff. Scientists warn that the same lessons are waiting for health and medical research.
“Canada there is an opportunity to transform his global partnerships, he may get closer to connection with Europe, it may become stronger in terms of cohesion in Canada,” Ghali said.
