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The longer the pandemic goes on, the more questions people have. Is it okay to go for a scenic drive? Can I visit my family? What will summer be like – or fall?

“I can only use one word to describe this: ‘unpredictable,’” says Vivek Goel, the University of Toronto’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives, and a professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. “What we do know is that we're not going to be back to normal by the summer.”

For episode 12 of his podcast on the pandemic, we asked listeners what they’d like to ask Goel, a renowned public health expert and founding head of Public Health Ontario, which was set up in response to the 2003 SARS outbreak. Among the questions he tackles: Should we be disinfecting our groceries?

“Research shows that the virus does not survive for very long on inanimate objects,” Goel says. “As long as you're washing your hands frequently and practising precautions like not rubbing your face, you don't need to be cleaning everything as you bring it into your home.

“Any virus that might have gotten onto those objects will not survive for very long.”

COVID-19: What’s Next is a bi-weekly podcast created by Goel in collaboration with a University of Toronto Communications team led by producer Lisa Lightbourn.

Note: The information in this podcast is current as of the posting date. Listeners should consult their local public health agency for the latest information in their jurisdiction.

See a complete list of all the podcast episodes