Covid-19: Opinion Piece
Dr. David Mikulis, MD, FRCP(C) is a staff Neuroradiologist, Full-time Professor at the University of Toronto, and Senior Scientist at the Toronto Western Hospital Research Institute.
“What we have learned during this pandemic is that the recurrent theme of warnings based on science continue to be ignored. It turns out, despite these repeated warnings, we were woefully unprepared to manage a pandemic. Even though we have made enormous strides in biomedicine, we still cannot fight viruses effectively.
The good news is that this pandemic will mobilize us in a way that new viral challenges will be unlikely to have as much success as COVID is having. Also on the positive side, as I was walking by Lake Ontario, the water has become crystal clear and I can clearly see the Toronto skyline from Oakville for the first time – the brown haze is almost gone. How fast the environment seems to benefit from a decrease in human activity.
Interestingly, our animal “friends” seem to be enjoying this, as a group of coyotes in the neighbourhood has been howling at midnight almost every night! I just hope that the science indicating great concern for the environment is not ignored. This will be the next and maybe most important challenge we ever face. The fact that we have shown the ability to work so well together to stop the virus is a paradigm for this next challenge. Let’s not stop with that. Let’s take the groundwork we have laid fighting the virus as an opportunity to work as a united team to ensure that we, and our “animal friends,” have a healthy and sustainable environment to live in.”
Dr. David Mikulis, MD, FRCP(C) is past president of two societies including the Eastern Neuroradiological Society and the American Society of Functional Neuroradiology (ASFNR). He was recently recognized in 2019 as an inaugural founding fellow of the ASFNR. In 1993, Dr. Mikulis established one of the first fMRI labs in Canada and has continued as the Director of this functional neuroimaging research lab in the Joint Department of Medical Imaging at the University Health network. In that role he has supported over 250 researchers, mentored over 50 university degree candidates, and authored 300 peer reviewed papers. He is currently involved in developing translational neurovascular imaging methods with two major program arms. The first is cerebrovascular blood vessel wall imaging, and the second is quantitative measurement and clinical application of cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) forassessing deficiencies in brain blood flow regulation. Both of these programs have led to successful translation into the clinic.
The deVeber Institute thanks Dr Mikulis and every member who is working on the frontline in the face of Covid-19.