"The war is when we create sharper weapons": My interview with Dr. Kate Barrett
A wide-ranging discussion on immune health, cancer and telemedicine, vaccine development, and how the coronavirus may change healthcare for the better.
Hi all,
I met Dr. Kate Barrett the first week of March. We were at a yoga class at Soho House Malibu, on a terrace overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It was the early days of the pandemic (i.e. hand sanitizer but no social distancing).
Dr. Barrett is the founder of Blueguide, a telemedicine service for cancer patients and their families. Based in Canada, she brings a unique perspective from her work treating cancer patients as an oncology physician-specialist.
Since the pandemic began, I have spoken with more than 100 doctors and healthcare leaders. I’ve learned how the pandemic has exposed the shortcomings of our nation’s healthcare system. At the same time, it’s opened up new ways for medical experts to communicate with the public and share information.
I was excited to reconnect with Dr. Barrett. We recorded a wide-ranging, 90-minute conversation about the coronavirus pandemic, medical perspectives on the virus, how governments are responding, and the path forward.
I’ve included a few highlights below. (You can view the full transcript here.)
How to strengthen your immune system
“Being proactive about your health will help you develop immunity to disease and help you fight infection. There are several contributors that we know affect immune systems directly: sleep, diet, exercise. It's the combination of all of these things together that give your body the best fighting chance.
It’s about making sure you get enough protein so your body can produce antibodies, which are completely made of proteins. Making sure your diet consists of all the amino acids and essential vitamins and minerals, eating lots of fruits and vegetables, things that are nutritious to give your body the building blocks to be able to build those host defenses when the time comes. Whether it's through that innate immune process or the adaptive immune process—these pathways are metabolically linked.”
Telemedicine and virtual care
“We’ve seen a big increase in telemedicine and digital health. There is a lot of caution about going into the emergency department or the hospital. People are limiting trips to the hospital to only what’s necessary. But they are learning new ways to connect with doctors through telehealth.
People should be proactive about their health and reach out for medical resources. Just because of the coronavirus they shouldn’t forget about the rest of their health risks.”
Does the coronavirus increase cancer risk?
“We've seen reports that cancer patients are more prone to a severe infection from coronavirus than the general population—almost twofold in manifestations, morbidity, and mortality. The corollary is when we see the physical manifestations and then try to associate that with the pathophysiology of the virus affecting so many different organ systems beyond just the respiratory tract and how it affects the blood vessels.
The virus generates progenitors that will form new blood vessels in a very rapid way. That’s a bit of an unnatural process for the human body with cells replicating so quickly and this concept of angiogenesis that the virus environment creates. We see a lot of errors being made in those cells.
Because of that, you could see how rapidly dividing cells, prone to developing more mutations that maybe one of those mutations could become a cancer. That's kind of the pathway that happens normally due to inflammation. The inflammatory process is a contributor to the development of cancer cells.”
How to safely reopen schools
“We need better testing and tracing. It would be amazing to see how many people are exposed to the virus, how many actually become infected after exposure, how many after exposure and infection develop immunity, and is that immunity lasting? Does it prevent a reinfection? Are people immune for life if they develop these antibodies that are detected?
If you’re looking at contact tracing in combination with population data and evidence on what’s happening in individuals in terms of transmission, I think that would be incredibly enlightening. It would be useful for evaluating decisions about getting kids back into school. I think it would have huge ramifications for getting people back into the workforce as well.”
When will we get a vaccine?
“Everybody wants a vaccine. We’re crying out for it. A lot of people look at a vaccine as something that will bring reassurance and restore life to somewhat normalcy. We’re seeing major efforts to try and expedite that 10-year process such that they’re even overlapping phase trials.
It brings into question, what is the real safety and efficacy here when we’re seeing publications and the population under study is of 10 people? Is this really enough power to instill confidence in the scientific community?
You’ve got a spectrum of people that are very critical of the vaccines. If you think that there’s an archetypal anti-vaccine person, it’s all education levels. It’s all different types of society. I think because of that, this is going to be a huge barrier to the implementation of a vaccine across the globe.”
How the coronavirus may transform healthcare
“The war is when we create sharper weapons and more effective weapons. I think that we are in a war. I think it's humans against the virus and all of the umbrella effects around that, that are surfacing and bringing to light these issues into public awareness. The concept of ‘it gets worse before it gets better.’
I think there is going to be a resurfacing and a remodeling of healthcare systems and especially telemedicine and digital health. I think that’s going to play a bigger role and hopefully reinforce the necessity of cross collaboration and availability of information.
There's nothing better than being able to be anywhere and receive information, receive comfort and receive lifesaving medications from no matter where you are. I think these things are going to be really exciting. And I think they're going to change in pretty amazing ways, and quicker than we ever thought before.”
You can watch the full video of my interview with Dr. Barrett here. A full transcript of the discussion is here.
If there are other people you’d like to see me interview, please shoot me a note!
Until next week,
By Daniel Zahler
I’m Daniel, a healthcare and life sciences consultant based in Santa Monica, California. Every week I write an email newsletter with perspectives on health and wellness trends, and strategies & tactics on how to optimize cognitive, physical and emotional health.
Enjoy this?
There are a few things to do:
Hit the “like” button
Follow me on Twitter.
Become a subscriber!