Answering Canada’s questions about COVID-19 on YouTube

Editor’s note: This guest post is authored by Dr. Howard Njoo, Deputy Chief Public Health Officer of Canada

The COVID-19 situation in Canada is changing rapidly and we are learning more about the virus every day. As Canada’s Deputy Chief Public Health Officer, a large part of my job of late has involved speaking directly to Canadians to help them get the information they need about COVID-19. We’re working hard to share with you important updates on everything from our country’s caseload number, to explaining social distancing, to providing general health advice and guidance to Canadians.

It’s important that the Public Health Agency of Canada and the entire Government of Canada share factual and authoritative information with all Canadians in a timely manner. To do so, we need to reach Canadians of all ages and on various platforms.

That’s why I ‘virtually’ sat down with four Canadian YouTube creators, each one very different from the next, for a new video series on Healthy Canadians, Public Health Agency of Canada’s and Health Canada’s YouTube channel.

In my interviews with Simply Nailogical, Peter McKinnon, jayaddict & The Sorry Girls, I answered questions about COVID-19 and helped shed light on issues that mattered to their audiences, whether that’s debunking conspiracy theories, sharing tips on how to make helpful DIY masks or how to actually put social distancing in practice.

We are making progress but we can’t back down from the measures we’ve put in place so far. We want to help Canadians understand and prepare for what is coming by arming them with the authoritative information and answers they need during this unprecedented time.

Check out the interviews here. Remember to #plankthecurve and stay safe, Canada.

For additional information on COVID-19 in Canada, please visit the Government of Canada’s webpage, available here.