Infectious disease expert calls global COVID-19 response an 'unmitigated disaster'
An infectious disease expert believes the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been an "unmitigated disaster" and the rapid spread of the Omicron has made another variant a near certainty.
"The whole world is a playing field for the virus right now," Dr. Madhukar Pai, an expert in infectious diseases at McGill University, told CTV National News.
Pai warned that "there will be mutations" after allowing millions of unvaccinated people across the globe to become infected. He says they're now "incubating" billions of different virus particles.
"There is no saying what that next variant might look like," Pai says. "We just lucked out with Omicron."
The solution to slowing the spread of COVID-19 remains the same as it's always been, according to Pai, and that's ensuring global equity and access to vaccines.
However, Pai isn't particularly optimistic about an improvement in global coordination, saying that most world leaders have proven "simply incapable" of looking outside "national boundaries."
"Each country has gone isolationist," he warned. "Each country has bought into populism as a way forward."
Watch more of this interview by clicking the video at the top of the article.
COVID-19 COVERAGE
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Prince Charles and Camilla kick off three-day Canadian tour in St. John's today
Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, are in Newfoundland and Labrador's capital today to begin a three-day Canadian tour focused on Indigenous reconciliation and climate change.
Average price of gas in Canada tops $2 a litre for first time
Gasoline prices are showing no signs of letting up as the average price in Canada tops $2 a litre for the first time. Natural Resources Canada says the average price across the country for regular gasoline hit $2.06 per litre on Monday for an all-time high.
Top 6 moments from the 2022 Ontario election debate
Ontario’s four main party leaders were relatively civil as they spared at Monday night’s televised election debate in Toronto.
Attacking schools, Russia deals a blow to Ukraine's future
The Ukrainian government says Russia has shelled more than 1,000 schools, destroying 95. Intentionally attacking schools and other civilian infrastructure is a war crime. Experts say wide-scale wreckage can be used as evidence of Russian intent, and to refute claims that schools were simply collateral damage.
Tim Hortons and Justin Bieber set to launch Biebs Brew
A match made in marketing heaven between Tim Hortons and Justin Bieber is back with a new French vanilla-flavoured chilled coffee. Biebs Brew is the pop star's rendition of the coffee chain's cold brew coffee launched last year.
Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre denounces 'white replacement theory'
Pierre Poilievre is denouncing the 'white replacement theory' believed to be a motive for a mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., as 'ugly and disgusting hate-mongering.'
Rising cost of living worries Canadians, defines Ontario election
The rising cost of living is worrying Canadians and defining the Ontario election as prices go up on everything from groceries to gas.
Online diary: Buffalo gunman plotted attack for months
The white gunman accused of massacring 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket wrote as far back as November about staging a livestreamed attack on African Americans, practiced shooting from his car and travelled hours from his home in March to scout out the store, according to detailed diary entries he appears to have posted online.
Man killed in California church shooting called a hero
A gunman motivated by hatred against Taiwan chained shut the doors of a California church and hid firebombs before shooting at a gathering of mostly elderly Taiwanese parishioners, killing a man who tackled him, authorities said.
Canada
-
Prince Charles and Camilla kick off three-day Canadian tour in St. John's today
Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, are in Newfoundland and Labrador's capital today to begin a three-day Canadian tour focused on Indigenous reconciliation and climate change.
-
Milgaard pushed for action on Indigenous sisters' wrongful conviction claims
David Milgaard was actively helping people who claim they have been wrongfully convicted right up until his sudden death, including two Indigenous sisters who have been incarcerated for nearly 30 years.
-
Top 6 moments from the 2022 Ontario election debate
Ontario’s four main party leaders were relatively civil as they spared at Monday night’s televised election debate in Toronto.
-
Kenney visits Washington, pushing stronger energy ties between Alberta and U.S.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney begins his two-day blitz in Washington today, hoping to convince U.S. lawmakers his province is best positioned to strengthen North American energy security.
-
Ontario driver who killed woman and three daughters sentenced to 17 years in prison
A driver who struck and killed a woman and her three young daughters nearly two years ago 'gambled with other people's lives' when he took the wheel, an Ontario judge said Monday in sentencing him to 17 years behind bars.
-
'Absolutely disgusting': Team leader critical of RCMP mental health support after N.S. shooting
The RCMP's treatment of their tactical team in the days following the April 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia was characterized as "absolutely disgusting" Monday during testimony before the public inquiry examining the killings.
World
-
Man killed in California church shooting called a hero
A gunman motivated by hatred against Taiwan chained shut the doors of a California church and hid firebombs before shooting at a gathering of mostly elderly Taiwanese parishioners, killing a man who tackled him, authorities said.
-
Ukraine mounts effort to rescue last of the Mariupol steel mill fighters
Efforts were underway Tuesday to rescue the last of the defenders inside the Azovstal steel plant in the ruined city of Mariupol after Ukrainian officials said the fighters had 'completed their mission' and there was no way to free the plant by military means.
-
Heavy rains trigger flooding, turn deadly in northeast India
At least eight people have died in floods and mudslides triggered by heavy rains in India’s remote northeast region, officials said Tuesday.
-
Attacking schools, Russia deals a blow to Ukraine's future
The Ukrainian government says Russia has shelled more than 1,000 schools, destroying 95. Intentionally attacking schools and other civilian infrastructure is a war crime. Experts say wide-scale wreckage can be used as evidence of Russian intent, and to refute claims that schools were simply collateral damage.
-
White 'replacement theory' fuels racist attacks
A racist ideology seeping from the internet's fringes into the mainstream is being investigated as a motivating factor in the supermarket shooting that killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York. Most of the victims were Black.
-
'Copycat' mass shootings becoming deadlier, experts warn after Buffalo attack
An 18-year-old white man suspected of fatally shooting 10 people in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, appears to be the latest in a line of 'copycat' gunmen carrying out deadlier mass shootings inspired by previous attackers, experts warned.
Politics
-
Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre denounces 'white replacement theory'
Pierre Poilievre is denouncing the 'white replacement theory' believed to be a motive for a mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., as 'ugly and disgusting hate-mongering.'
-
Federal commitments still outstanding, nearly a year since first residential school burial site discovery
Almost a year since the first reported discovery of a burial site at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, the federal government provided an update on the promises it has made since to 'lift up the truth,' many of which are still a work in progress.
-
Canada prepared to send ships to Romanian ports to help export Ukraine's wheat: Joly
Canada is poised to send cargo ships to ports in Romania and neighbouring countries to help Ukraine get its wheat to Africa and the Middle East, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Monday.
Health
-
U.S. reaches deal to reopen shuttered baby formula plant
U.S. officials on Monday reached an agreement to allow baby formula maker Abbott to restart its largest domestic factory, though it will be two months or more before any new products ship from the site to help alleviate the national shortage facing parents.
-
First patient in Quebec gets approval from Health Canada for magic mushroom therapy
In Montreal, a pioneering clinic in the emerging field of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is about to become the first health-care facility in Quebec to legally treat depression with psilocybin.
-
FDA announces it will make it easier to import some baby formulas to ease shortage
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Monday that it is making it easier to import certain infant formulas as it works to address a nationwide shortage.
Sci-Tech
-
Elon Musk's China ties add potential risks to Twitter purchase
Elon Musk's ties to China through his role as electric car brand Tesla's biggest shareholder could add complexity to his bid to buy Twitter.
-
Total lunar eclipse creates dazzling 'blood moon'
The moon glowed red on Sunday night and the early hours of Monday, after a total lunar eclipse that saw the sun, Earth and moon form a straight line in the night sky.
-
Whale shark study finds collisions with large vessels may be factor in population decline
A new study out of the United Kingdom is pointing to collisions with large marine vessels as a possible reason for the years-long decline in whale shark populations.
Entertainment
-
Tim Hortons and Justin Bieber set to launch Biebs Brew
A match made in marketing heaven between Tim Hortons and Justin Bieber is back with a new French vanilla-flavoured chilled coffee. Biebs Brew is the pop star's rendition of the coffee chain's cold brew coffee launched last year.
-
Amber Heard says she feared she would not survive Johnny Depp marriage
'Aquaman' actor Amber Heard told jurors in a defamation case on Monday that she filed for divorce from Johnny Depp in 2016 because she worried she would not survive physical abuse by him.
-
Machine Gun Kelly dedicates Billboard Music Awards performance to his 'wife' and 'unborn child'
Was Machine Gun Kelly trying to tell us something? During his performance of the song 'Twin Flame' at Sunday's 2022 Billboard Music Awards, Kelly said 'I wrote this song for my wife.'
Business
-
Average price of gas in Canada tops $2 a litre for first time
Gasoline prices are showing no signs of letting up as the average price in Canada tops $2 a litre for the first time. Natural Resources Canada says the average price across the country for regular gasoline hit $2.06 per litre on Monday for an all-time high.
-
Tim Hortons and Justin Bieber set to launch Biebs Brew
A match made in marketing heaven between Tim Hortons and Justin Bieber is back with a new French vanilla-flavoured chilled coffee. Biebs Brew is the pop star's rendition of the coffee chain's cold brew coffee launched last year.
-
Rising cost of living worries Canadians, defines Ontario election
The rising cost of living is worrying Canadians and defining the Ontario election as prices go up on everything from groceries to gas.
Lifestyle
-
Quebec teen breaks national record for fastest Rubik's cube solve while blindfolded
A Quebec teen has broken a national record for the fastest time to solve a Rubik's cube while wearing a blindfold.
-
Ontario retiree buys 'cheapest home in the GTA'. This is what she got
A retiree in Ontario has just purchased what is being called the 'cheapest home in the GTA'—a caboose located on a commercially zoned parking lot near Milton.
-
Potted plant 'performs' music at Indigenous art gallery on Vancouver Island
When Rande Cook first spotted the potted plant, he 'hired' it on the spot. There was something about the snake plant that seemed to speak to him.
Sports
-
'Great for all of Alberta': Flames, Oilers prepare for battle in second round
Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk weren't even born the last time the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers met in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but they still understand how much the Battle of Alberta means to fans of both teams.
-
No. 2 Medvedev back on ATP tour after Wimbledon ban
Watching the recent news from Ukraine is 'very upsetting,' No. 2-ranked tennis player Daniil Medvedev said Sunday of the war that led Wimbledon organizers to ban him and other Russians from their tournament.
-
English soccer player Jake Daniels says he is gay
English soccer player Jake Daniels said he is gay on Monday in a trailblazing moment for the European men's game.
Autos
-
Renault sells Russia's Avtovaz stake, but leaves room for return
Renault will sell its majority stake in carmaker Avtovaz to a Russian science institute, the French carmaker said on Monday, adding that the deal included a six-year option to buy back the stake.
-
Leclerc crashes Lauda's historic F1 Ferrari in Monaco
Formula One championship leader Charles Leclerc again crashed in hometown Monaco, this time in a historic Ferrari.
-
Saudi man charged after Maserati driven down Rome's Spanish Steps
A man who this week drove his rented Maserati down Rome's Spanish Steps now faces charges for allegedly causing damage to the landmark, according to police in the Italian capital.
