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- So in January of 2020,

I was teaching my fourth
year medical virology course.

And I was aware that there
was this new respiratory virus

that was infecting people in China

and spreading rather quickly.

And so, as a class, we would
watch this red dot in China

get bigger and bigger

and then these new red
dots were showing up

in all these other countries

and we kept asking, when is
it gonna show up in Canada?

- I think my moment was when
the virus jumped from China

to Iran and Italy in
very short succession.

- I think the data became
scary at the beginning of March

where certainly more countries
started to become affected,

nothing was being done
particularly aggressively

at that time.

And then the shutdown happened
and it kind of became real.

- [Man] We've always said,
there's a pandemic virus

out there.

It's going to happen again.

And we've seen examples and
I think we got overconfident.

We had SARS that was controlled.

We had another Coronavirus, MERS,

Middle Eastern Respiratory
Syndrome, that was controlled.

And I think we've assumed
that we can control things.

And we've realized that we can't.

- [Woman] The planning
that needed to be done

before the disease came to our borders,

did not seem to be done.

- I think people realize now
that any infectious disease

or emerging infectious disease can affect

any part of the world.

And also it can emerge
from any type of species.

I mean, who would have thought that MERS

could be transmitted from
bats to camels to people.

So you can't rule out any animal species

and you can't rule out the
fact that it can affect

any part of the world.

- One Health, to me, is
a collaborative approach

among multiple disciplines,

as well as other societal actors,

so community members,

potentially politicians,
those in industries,

and essentially looking at
complex or wicked problems

that occur at the
intersection of human, animal

and environmental health.

- Zoonotic infections are a prime example

of the One Health concept.

We are destroying habitat,

and that means that humans and animals

are coming into closer contact.

The more you destroy the habitat,

the more likely you are
to have this interaction.

And then, you know, again, it
could transmit human to human.

- This pandemic's also showing how we need

this broad intersect or
approach to infectious diseases.

It can't just be medicine
and veterinary medicine,

and it can't just be science.

It has to be a social
science, its behavior.

The bigger challenges
we're dealing with now

are things like vaccine hesitancy.

- I understand vaccine
hesitancy to stem from mistrust.

If we don't have buy-in from the public,

if they don't trust the product,

if they don't trust the policy
makers and the providers,

then the best vaccines may never
make it into people's arms.

We have a lot of access to media

and many of us have a lot of
time to spend on the internet.

And we got to see the mess of science,

what it looks like before
things are established,

before things are settled.

There will be people that say,

"You see the scientists don't know

what they're talking about".

When it might be the case
that they are changing

their directives in light of new evidence.

And that's a sign of good science.

- I found the University of Guelph

to be extraordinarily collaborative,

a really a great environment
to build relationships

and do work with other researchers

outside of your own discipline.

I think we also have a
really unique combination

of expertise here.

We have the veterinary
college and One Health

has really taken leadership
out of the veterinary field.

We have, you know, the
Agricultural College

strong biological sciences,

strong environmental focus,

and then really strong social science,

which is incredibly
important when we think about

the entire One Health approach.

- Our research actually
has expanded considerably

after we demonstrated
that our vaccine platform

works against SARS-CoV-2.

This is actually kind of
taking the One Health approach

and flipping on its side.

We're taking an animal pathogen

and turning it into a
benign vaccine vector,

which can protect humans.

But interestingly, we
can also use this vaccine

to vaccinate production animals.

- Optimizing this vaccine platform,

I first and foremost,
feel grateful and honored

to be a part of this team.

The University of Guelph
plays a significant role

in the prevention of the next pandemic.

Just incorporating or
being a part of One Health

is the first step towards that.

- My work just deals
with infectious diseases

and we're always on the
lookout for something new.

We really focus on that interface

between humans and animals.

So we track current diseases,

we track what we think
are emerging diseases

and we track things that are just unusual.

- I think my research can help us prepare

for the next pandemic in
really providing more evidence

and continuing the conversation

on how important the environment
and environmental health

and wildlife health are in preventing

any kind of disease
event that we might see.

- Health requires this
kind of broad perspective.

And there isn't one
discipline or one researcher

that can bring in all the
necessary perspectives

and all the necessary tools.

- I think if we reflect
on the entire situation

with the pandemic and
embrace a One Health approach

in our pandemic preparedness,

we can be prepared for the next one.

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