Looking further into NB’s mystery brain disease
A Mount Allison researcher is going to help contribute some clarity to the confusion over New Brunswick’s mystery neurological disease. Math and computer science professor Matthew Betti wants to survey and study the cluster of cases being investigated as related to a possible new neurological disorder.
In a recent episode of CHMA Talks, Matt Betti explained the motivation for his study, and how it would differ from the publicly available work done to date by New Brunswick Public Health. Later in the episode, we spoke with journalist Matthew Halliday about his coverage of New Brunswick’s possible new mystery disease. Hear that episode here:
Matt Betti specializes in infectious disease modelling and has worked for Health Canada throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Betti says the matter of a potential new neurological disorder needs independent study. “As we’ve seen over the last few years, something as simple as a communicable disease can be highly politicized very easily,” says Betti. “I think it’s important to to make sure that the science is done right, without undue influence of politics, or outside interests.”
“That’s part of the reason why we have this infrastructure that is academia,” says Betti, “to do ideally unbiased, independent research, from which you will not see negative consequences from your employer, from government, etc.”
Betti says he’s interested in further exploring the data about the possible new disease, and that the surveying done to date, as published in a report by New Brunswick Public Health, has been preliminary, not extensive enough to draw conclusions about the existence or not of a new disease.… Continue