▶️🎧🎙️PART 2! Tools to use on the frontline and tips to engage your patients in 60 seconds or less. We untangle the complex web of the COVID-19 pandemic and plot a course for the journey ahead with 𝐃𝐫.Alan Kaplan and Dr.Marla Shapiro who break down all  you need to know.

✔️✔️We take an in-depth look at the unfolding chapter of the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the global health emergency phase over, yet COVID-19 remains a persistent adversary. . Seems like a contradiction, right? We're dissecting this communique and explore how to break it down on the frontlines. We ask, where are we headed now?

✔️✔️We delve into the questions on everyone's mind: Do our current vaccines shield us against the elusive XBB.1.16 variant? What does the end of the 'emergency phase' actually mean for us on a day-to-day basis? And with the virus still lurking in our midst, how do we navigate this new landscape of coexistence?

✔️✔️We examine the WHO's Technical Advisory Group (TAG) proposal to retire the original COVID-19 strain from future vaccines and explore what this could mean for the future of public vaccination strategies.

✔️✔️We're also talking the latest research on hybrid immunity and how to translate this for your patients in a meaningful way. What happens when natural infection immunity meets vaccine-induced immunity? Does this 'hybrid immunity' offer us an extra layer of protection?

✔️✔️Keeping the conversation light, the information insightful, and the health advice actionable to navigate the road ahead.

Let’s dive in!

Dr.Alan Kaplan

Dr.Alan Kaplan, MD,  CCFP(EM), CPC(HC) is a  family Physician practicing in York Region, Ontario, Canada.

Regional Primary Care Lead, Central Regional Cancer Program

Chairperson of the Family Physician Airways Group of Canada

Alan is a practicing family physician and the Medical director of LHIN Pulmonary Rehabilitation clinics in Ontario, Canada. Alan chairs the Family Physician Airways Group of Canada (www.fpagc.com) and is also an Honorary Professor of Primary Care Respiratory Medicine of the Observational and Pragmatic Research Institute, Singapore.

Alan’s other positions include Co-Chair of the Health Quality Ontario COPD Community Management standards committee, Member of the Health Quality Ontario Asthma community management standards committee, Vice President Respiratory Effectiveness Group and Senate member of the International Primary Care Respiratory Group

Alan is also a Clinical Lecturer at the University of Toronto in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, while being a Member of the Physician Advisory Panel of the Medical Post, the Medical Advisory Committee of the Pulmonary Hypertension Association of Canada and a Member of Section of Allergy and Respiratory Therapeutics, Health Canada. Alan has authored 136 Peer Reviewed Articles and 104 Conference Abstracts.

Dr. Marla Shapiro C.M., CCFP, MHSc, FRCPC, FCFP, NCMP

Professor, DFCM, University of Toronto

Dr. Shapiro completed medical school at McGill University and trained at the University of Toronto for her Masters of Health Science. She concluded her specialty training in Community Medicine, receiving her Fellowship in Preventive Medicine and Public Health from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. She also holds a Fellowship in Family Medicine and is currently a Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is a credentialed expert in Menopause from the North American Menopause Society.

Dr. Shapiro is seen on CTV NewsChannel as the medical expert. She is the author of the bestselling book, Life in the Balance: My Journey with Breast Cancer.

Dr. Shapiro is a member of several advisory boards, having been a member of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, Research Canada and the Board of Trustees of the North American Menopause Society. She was the President of the North American Menopause Society in 2017 and the Scientific Chair of the 25th anniversary of NAMS.

Currently she sits on the Board of the Terry Fox Research Institute and the Board of Trustees of the International Menopause Society. She received an Award of Excellence from the College of Family Physicians of Canada, and was awarded the Excellence in Creative Professional Activity by the University of Toronto. Dr. Shapiro was also chosen in the top 10 of the 50 most powerful doctors in Canada by the Medical Post. In 2015 Dr. Shapiro was named a Member of the Order of Canada for her contributions as a family physician and trusted source of health information. One of this country’s highest civilian honours, the Order of Canada recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to the community, and service to the nation.

Virological characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron XBB.1.16 variant