The only recommendations missing from a provincial government-sanctioned report on Alberta’s COVID-19 pandemic response was a medical return to bloodletting and leeches.
Commissioned for $2 million in 2022 shortly after Danielle Smith became premier, a task force was formed and directed to review Alberta’s response during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report was publicly released in late January, despite being in the government’s hands since last spring, and made recommendations that fly in the face of evidence-based medical information and can be seen as a further continuation of growing vaccine hesitancy.
Among the recommendations were refraining from future mask mandates for respiratory-related illnesses, criticizing lockdowns to control the spread of COVID-19, not using rapid tests to screen the population for future pandemic responses and promoting herd immunity.
It further recommends the provincial government stop COVID-19 vaccines without fully disclosing their risks since it argues there’s not enough evidence that they’re safe. It promotes treatments such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine despite having been debunked several times over.
The report is a further move by the provincial government to back away from scientific evidence and data and placate to a specific section of its membership base.
When Smith announced the report, she said a wide range of viewpoints was needed and people “shouted down in the public sphere” were to be included. The report does that and then some.
The chair of the task force, Dr. Gary Davidson, is former chief of emergency medicine at Red Deer Hospital.
Davidson, however, was notable during the pandemic for accusing the province of exaggerating COVID-19’s impact on people. He argued the number of people admitted to hospital due to the pandemic was manipulated and overblown to have strict public health restrictions.
Other members of the task force, such as Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Blaine Achen and David Vickers, were also critical of COVID-19 public health policies. Several other members also resigned from the task force at different stages of the work being completed, with one ultimately requesting his name be taken off the final report.
Of course, a major boon to Smith’s rise to being premier came due to her opposition to public health restrictions, echoed by many people in the province. It’s also not without political success after Smith earned 91.5 per cent support at a leadership vote last November, showing her moves have been applauded by the party’s base.
The report is another continuation of an attack on public health care in Alberta. Alberta Health Services (AHS) board was fired by the province for a second time mere days ago, while new agencies are being created to take over the incinerated remains of AHS.
Last November, a COVID-19 review panel chaired by former Reform Party leader Preston Manning recommended the government consider “alternative scientific narratives.”
The continued anti-science messaging creates mistrust in the healthcare system, particularly at a time when vaccine hesitancy is continuing to gain momentum.
Among groups who have condemned the report are the Canadian Pediatric Society, Canadian Medical Association and Alberta Medical Association. An open letter from roughly 70 medical doctors, researchers and health policy experts dismissed the report saying it “inaccurately reflects the body of scientific evidence.”
In addition, a chorus of medical experts from across the country have publicly rejected the report, with many saying it contains misinformation.
In Canada, Alberta was the epicentre of COVID-19 denial and pushback against public health restrictions.
More than 4,500 people in Alberta died from COVID-19 and nearly 600,000 people had confirmed cases during the pandemic.
While it’s important to hear a range of perspectives, in the scientific and healthcare field there is a right and a wrong based on centuries of medical data.
When you’re wrong, people needlessly die.
