3 years into the COVID-19 pandemic, are we ready for what comes next? 2 experts aren't sure

Looking back on the past three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Simon Bacon is worried.

In some ways, we're in the best shape we've been in terms of the virus itself, said Bacon, a professor of behavioural medicine at Concordia University in Montreal, who studies how people respond to public health policy.

He pointed to COVID vaccines that have helped to slow the number of deaths and hospitalizations, and the dominant circulating Omicron variants, which, although highly transmissible, are not as severe as previous strains.

"There's a general euphoria, I think, for most people because they get back to what they were doing before," he said.

But it's a growing sentiment over the past year that "COVID's not really a thing anymore," that causes him concern.

He noted there are still about 20 COVID deaths a week in Quebec.

"So it's like a small minibus of people that we lose every week because of COVID. So it's still around," he said.

"Best case scenario, this is the last variant that we have of any note and any other variants are very minor deviations and it sort of just fades away over time."

Worst case scenario, according to Bacon, is if a new, more infectious, more potent variant emerges.

He said the country will be "back to square one," because "nobody is really engaging in any preventative behaviours in any significant way" and governments have said they won't reintroduce mandatory measures.

"If it does come back are we ready to mobilize?" he asked.

"I'm not sure we are, which is a real shame, because we've just lived the last three years through this. You'd think if any time ever, whether we would be most prepared, it should be now. But we're probably not."

Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Toronto, agrees.

"I think we are less smart than we were at the beginning of the pandemic, less prepared for the next thing," he said.