After a slow start, Canada’s vaccination rates are now among the highest in the world. As a result, Canadians have enjoyed the dual benefits of low case numbers and loosened restrictions this summer. But with Delta rising, we are now in a fourth wave of this troublingly contagious variant. 

With schools set to reopen on September 9, there is growing uncertainty about what this means for children under 12 who are not yet eligible for vaccines. Preparations have been made but there are still many unknowns. What are the latest statistics about the virus and ventilation in classrooms? What is the process if there’s an outbreak? And what benchmarks would trigger a lockdown?

Host Manjula Selvarajah leads a timely discussion that will examine what the numbers say about Delta’s impact on the classroom and on the broader community. 

Register today to get the livestream link. Please send your questions to the panel by Thursday, September 9 at 10 am to

Speakers:

Dr. Lydia Bourouiba

Prof. Bourouiba founded and directs The Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is also associated faculty of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) Faculty and Affiliate Faculty of Harvard Medical School, among other visiting and membership positions. Prof. Lydia Bourouiba is a physical applied mathematician with research interests and activities that span a broad range of applied mathematics approaches at the intersection of physics, mathematics, and biology, including problems in fluid dynamics and biophysics at various scales, mathematical modelling of population dynamics and infectious disease transmission. She joined the Department of Mathematics at MIT in January 2010 as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow and Instructor. She previously worked at the Centre for Disease Modelling in Toronto, Canada on the modelling of influenza. Recently, Prof. Bourouiba appeared on ABC News in the US to discuss her research using 3D models to show how the virus can spread in a classroom of unmasked students. More research here lbourouiba.mit.edu and on the topic discussed today here healthy-teaching.org

Dr. Ashleigh Tuite

Assistant Professor at Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

Ashleigh Tuite is an infectious disease epidemiologist and mathematical modeler. Dr. Tuite’s research program focuses on the use of mathematical modeling and other quantitative methods to improve decision-making for emerging, re-emerging, and endemic communicable diseases. She uses models to project the spread of communicable diseases and better understand and quantify the health, economic, and social implications of different control measures and policies. She is particularly interested in the use of mathematical models to synthesize and communicate complex information and uncertainty.

Dr. Nisha Thampi

Associate Professor with the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Ottawa

Dr. Nisha Thampi received her Bachelor’s degree in Arts and Science at McMaster University and completed her medical training, pediatrics residency and subspecialty training in infectious diseases at the University of Toronto and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. She obtained a Master’s of Science degree in Public Health, with a focus on health economics, from The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and returned to Toronto to do a clinical research fellowship with the antimicrobial stewardship program at Mount Sinai Hospital and the University Health Network in Toronto. She joined the Division of Infectious Diseases at CHEO in 2013. Her academic interests are focused on the prevention of healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial stewardship.

Moderator:

Manjula Selvarajah

Manjula Selvarajah is a journalist, producer and syndicated tech columnist for CBC Radio One. In her former role, she was vice president of marketing at a Toronto-based tech startup and holds an engineering degree from Queen’s University.