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HALIFAX, N.S. —

Three Dalhousie University researchers are among dozens of scientists getting quick-response federal funding to study aspects of the novel coronavirus.

The projects associated with the Halifax school received a total of $1.9 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research as part of its rapid research funding initiative examining the outbreak of COVID-19.

The funding was announced Friday. In total, $27 million went to 47 research teams across Canada.

The effort is aligned with those of international partners, including the World Health Organization and the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness, according to a news release.

The program was launched Feb. 10, with an application deadline of Feb. 18.

Speed is of the essence, said one of the funding recipients. Lessons were learned fighting the SARS coronavirus in 2002-03, according to Dr. David Kelvin (Faculty of Medicine).

“When this coronavirus outbreak happened, CIHR already had some experience in putting together rapid responses,” he said during a phone interview Saturday.

Kelvin was already working with two colleagues in Wuhan, China, a city of 11 million in the province where the current coronavirus emerged.

“As the outbreak evolved, we were in constant communication with them,” he said.

“Our goal is to try to help ER docs make the decision, by identifying biomarkers which would indicate which patients would have the highest chances of developing severe illness, so they could give those patients priority to either hospitalization or priority to ICU.

“Really, what we want to do ultimately, is have a point-of-care device that in a short period of time, say 20 minutes, can designate which patients should go to hospital.”

The work will be conducted through the Canadian COVID-19 Research Network, which also includes researchers from China, Vietnam, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Cote D’Ivoire, Mozambique and the United States.

Kelvin, whose grant is for $1 million, said his team is looking at a couple of different models for a device that could make a determination about patient care.

“In Canada, we do have a couple of programs for pandemic preparedness, and I think, because of our experiences with SARS, many of the clinicians and scientists and even the politicians understand the need to be prepared. One good example is this grant system, where we recognize that money has to be put into research right now.”

Social science

Dr. Scott Halperin (Faculty of Medicine) leads a project looking into social science aspects of the disease. The findings gathered in Canada (Nova Scotia, British Columbia and Ontario), Bangladesh and China (Guangdong) will be used to improve the processes that shape public health policies.

The work, which got $500,000 in funding, will include focus groups and surveys co-ordinated by about 15 people.

“It’s one thing to do research but it’s another thing to get the research used, and there’s oftentimes a big gap between when research that’s done and actual implementation of those results,” said Halperin during a phone interview Saturday.

“What we would be doing is consulting with and reporting our results to public health policy makers. We’ll obviously be doing the typical academic thing of reporting this in the medical literature and peer-reviewed journals but also talking to advisory bodies, talking to policy makers, and giving them the results.”

Halperin said his team’s work will also include examining the role sources of misinformation play during crises.

“We’ll be looking at traditional print and broadcast media but also social media. That is a very big part of it. Social media is a lot bigger now than it was in 2003, with the SARS outbreak.

“It’s critically important in a country like Canada that we do have people trusting public health officials and that public health officials are transparent and clear.”

The third Dalhousie researcher receiving funding is Dr. Jeanna Parsons Leigh (Faculty of Health). The project she is leading will examine socio-cultural implications of COVID-19, according to a news release.

The ultimate goal of her work is to educate, engage and empower members of the public to be informed stewards of health knowledge in relation to the outbreak, the release said.