HEALTH
Dr. Henry and the rise of B.C.’s pro-COVID protests
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by Charlie Smith
n February 4, the Guardian published a remarkable story about several British scientists. In front of the world, they admitted their errors in assessing how the COVID-19 virus is transmitted, the effectiveness of masks, and school closures. We have not seen humility anywhere close to this level from the B.C. government. On the second anniversary of the first COVID-19 diagnosis in B.C., Dr. Bonnie Henry and Adrian Dix were given an opportunity by a reporter to say what they might have done differently in responding to the pandemic. “I’m not sure I’m at the point where regrets are what we need,” Henry said on January 28. Then she added a caveat about how major policy changes might have been communicated better. Dix talked about how well B.C. had responded to the pandemic in comparison to other jurisdictions. Neither of them uttered a word of sorrow for never seriously educating the public about the airborne nature of the disease and for not launching media campaigns emphasizing the importance of keeping windows open. They had no regrets about not providing higher-quality masks to teachers and health-care workers who administered vaccines. There was not a concern expressed about spurning demands from educators for HEPA filters and carbondioxide monitors in classrooms. They weren’t feeling bad about not taking significant amounts of time in their
Over the past 12 months, B.C.’s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, and Health Minister Adrian Dix have not launched advertising campaigns highlighting that COVID-19 is airborne.
lengthy and frequent media briefings to talk about scientific evidence suggesting that COVID-19 is a vascular disease that first presents as a respiratory ailment. Nor did they express remorse about not driving home the point that COVID-19 has been associated with serious neurological problems. The best that Henry could do was to declare that the Omicron variant is “not innocuous” on January 21 after highlighting for several weeks how it was considered to be milder than the Delta variant. A week later, Henry didn’t express any sorrow for enraging some people by being photographed without a mask at a B.C. Lions game in August 2021. This was even after published research in peer-
reviewed journals had demonstrated that the COVID-19 virus can remain in the air. So, naturally, the obstinacy of Dix and Henry in fessing up to any shortcomings led to another torrent of criticism over Twitter by their well-educated critics. Dix and Henry’s response to the question about regrets was reminiscent of the lyrics of “My Way”, written by Canadian Paul Anka and made memorable by Frank Sinatra. Now, let’s move to the present. There were 91 reported deaths from COVID-19 in B.C. in the first week of February. A February 8 update from the Ministry of Health also indicated that there are 986 people with COVID-19 in hospital and 146 in intensive care. Yet as the official death toll continues
to mount at an alarming rate—91 in the first week of February—there were what were essentially pro-COVID demonstrations in Vancouver, Victoria, and Kelowna on February 5. I use the phrase “pro-COVID demonstrations” because if you want all mandates dropped, including the wearing of masks, you’re endorsing the unimpeded spread of the disease across the province. Therefore you are pro-COVID. (The term came from a Twitter user.) These pro-COVID protests were attended by many sad and ignorant people who don’t have a clue what COVID-19 might do to their health. Even more importantly, they have little idea of the potential impact of the virus on the health of anyone with asthma, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, cancer, and other serious diseases or anyone in their circle of acquaintances who is over the age of 50 or under the age of six months. They probably have no idea that those who were born prematurely are also at higher risk of serious complications from COVID-19. That’s not just regrettable; it’s a disgrace. And if these so-called convoys turn into superspreader events that end up overrunning local hospitals with COVID-19 cases, the provincial government can only blame itself. Maybe at that point, Dix and Henry would then express regrets for not being more forceful in highlighting the true nature of this illness. Just like the scientists who were quoted in the Guardian article earlier this month. g
Notable jump in COVID-19 child hospitalizations by Charlie Smith
In the first three weeks of January, the number of children under 10 hospitalized with COVID-19 rose by 36 percent from the pandemic total until January 1, 2022. Photo by Atoms/Unsplash.
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nother 25 children under the age of 10 were hospitalized in B.C. due to COVID-19 in the week ending on January 22. The numbers were revealed in the latest B.C. COVID-19 Situation Report published by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. It showed that since the start of the pandemic, 245 kids under 10 have been hospitalized with COVID-19. That was up from 220 in the previous week’s report. Over the past three weeks, 65 children under 10 have been hospitalized in B.C. with the disease. That marks a 36-percent increase in total hospitalizations of kids under 10 from the start of the pandemic in March 2020 to January 1, 2022. Twenty of the 245 children hospitalized ended up in the intensive-care unit, with four of those occurring this month, according to the BCCDC reports. There have
been two deaths from COVID-19 among B.C. kids under 10 year of age. In the week ending on January 22, nine youths and young adults from 10 to 19 were hospitalized with COVID-19 and one ended up in the intensive-care unit. Nobody between 10 and 19 years of age has died of COVID-19 in B.C. The number of child and youth hospitalizations in B.C. has so far fallen short of a very rough estimate offered by University of Toronto health researcher Colin Furness in a discussion with a group called Protect Our Province B.C. on January 6. He suggested that based on U.S. child and youth hospitalizations, as many as 800 B.C. children and youths could be hospitalized over a one-month period from January 6. There are still two weeks to go in the reporting periods to determine if Furness’s admittedly “back of the envelope” calculation will prove to be accurate. g
FEBRUARY 10 – 17 / 2022
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
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