Public Health Measures (February 2022)
With the recent announcement by the provincial government to remove public health measures related to COVID-19, I want to take some time to talk about what Edmonton City Council will be doing.
I’m going to start by highlighting three common themes from the feedback I’ve received before covering options that will be available to us. While I don’t want to oversimplify the feedback over the last six months, I believe there have been three different themes that have been shared by three different groups.
The first theme is that any type of public health measures, including vaccines, are killing people and this would often be followed by sharing commonly debunked conspiracy theories. This correspondence would often include more derogatory language with thinly veiled threats about what would happen if we continued with any of the measures that have been in place for the last two years. Here’s an edited version of one some of the messages I have received in the last 24 hours,
“EVERYONE IN EDMONTON WILL GET A COPY OF THIS GENOCIDE PLAN WITH TRUDEAU'S NAME ON IT
TELL SOHI TO GET THE F$@! AWAY FROM OUR KIDS WITH HIS EVIL MANDATES AND TO F$@! RIGHT OFF TO JAIL!!!!!!!!”
I receive these messages about as often as those who email about the second theme. To be clear, the people emailing above are not the same as those emailing feedback that covers the second theme below.
I should also note that the peer-reviewed studies, the feedback from our experts at Alberta Health/AHS, and the feedback from the nurses and doctors working in our hospitals clearly prove that many lives have been saved over the last two years due to public health measures and vaccines.
The second theme is the concern related to the ongoing impacts of various public health measures and a desire to see all measures end immediately. These concerns can vary from mental health impacts on children and seniors to economic impacts. Those are very valid concerns and cannot be ignored when considering all of the options available to us.
Occasionally, some of the messages received from this group have referenced information that isn’t true or isn’t peer-reviewed but is used to reinforce why they would like to see the public health measures removed. I don’t fault people for sharing that information. We can often look for information that reinforces our perspective, especially when we are dealing with very stressful situations.
Sometimes people have suggested that the omicron variant is no worse than the standard flu or that we should ‘follow the science’. Although I don’t want to spend this entire post debunking every piece of information sent to me, I want to tackle a few specific points.
I’ve shared two pieces of information from the Alberta Health website (as of February 9th, 2022). The first image is the total number of deaths over the last 120 days. There have been 1,401 COVID-19 deaths in the last 120 days. To put that into perspective, in an average year there are around 58 deaths due to the regular flu.
The second piece of image shows COVID-19 deaths per capita in the last 120 days. This clearly shows the benefits of vaccines when it comes to severe outcomes. The peer-reviewed evidence and feedback from the medical experts at Alberta Health/AHS demonstrates that vaccines are still very important when it comes to minimizing the chance of severe outcomes.
The final piece of information I want to share relates to the suggestion that people who have received the vaccine can transmit the virus at the same rate as those who are unvaccinated. The peer-reviewed evidence for the Delta variant shows that those who have been vaccinated have a much lower rate of transmission than those who have not been vaccinated.
I asked AHS’ Edmonton Zone Chief Medical Officer of Health what information he has seen regarding the new variant. It does not appear there have been any peer-reviewed studies just yet but there are some studies that are undergoing peer-review that suggests those who are fully vaccinated are less likely to transmit the virus than those who are unvaccinated and those that are boosted are even less likely to transmit the virus. The Edmonton Zone Medical Officer of Health also stated in the meting that he believes that transmission of the omicron variant would closely mirror the Delta variant when comparing those who are vaccinated and those are who are not.
I share all of this information not to suggest there shouldn’t be a removal or easing of public health measures but to make sure that we are all starting from the same point when determining how to thoughtfully remove the current public health measures. I also share that to reinforce that there are still serious health impacts from this virus.
I have had some very thoughtful conversations and emails with residents who are worried that public health measures will never be removed and what that might mean for themselves and for their loved ones. In particular, I hear from parents who are concerned about how certain public health measures will impact children. They talk about how masks may impact their social development or how certain measures did not allow them to participate in all the same activities they normally would. Those are very valid concerns and we need to think about that when planning our next steps.
Some of the very thoughtful conversations and emails with residents also included talking about the economic impact of public health measures. Some people have lost their jobs during the pandemic, others may still have a job but have lost income. There has been a significant economic impact on most people during this pandemic, and similar to the impact on children and the mental health impacts, we have to think about that when planning our next steps.
The final theme I heard is from those who have concerns about removing public health measures too quickly. This makes up the majority of people I’ve spoken with and was one of the most common issues raised at the doors during the municipal election and since the start of this current wave.
I spoke with people who lost loved ones to COVID-19. The pain they were still dealing with was quite evident in many of the discussions I had at people’s doors.
I spoke with many people, especially seniors, who have had surgeries delayed or canceled because of the strain on the healthcare system. This included hip replacement surgeries so that seniors would enjoy greater mobility. It included exploratory surgeries to help determine what type of cancer treatment may work. These cancellations and delays have negatively impacted their quality of life and in some cases, have prevented them from getting the necessary treatment to continue living.
I spoke with nurses and doctors working on the frontlines in our hospitals who have been overwhelmed for much of the last two years and are burnt out and are still dealing with some significant issues right now. The exhaustion they are dealing with is unlike anything any of us could imagine and they need to know that our society is still there for them.
With morale among frontline workers hitting a low, after years of adapting to the virus, our frontline workers are sadly met with verbal abuse in efforts to enforce mandates and protocol to ensure safety of Edmontonians. With regards to our city amenities, employees are encouraged to take on a stance of education rather than enforcement but are still met with abuse.
The miscommunication and lack of coordination between orders of government places our frontline workers at a higher risk of abuse as workers could be met with backlash and verbal assaults for enforcing their own protocols as patrons will be able to point towards direction from the province regardless of what may be implemented at a city level.
I spoke with parents who have uncertainty about if this virus could have long-term effects on their children.
Similar to those who reached out with concerns about continuing with public health measures, these people have also raised very valid concerns that need to be considered when determining the best next steps.
Prior to the provincial announcement, the City of Edmonton amended our face coverings bylaw. The City’s bylaw states that we will review the bylaw 30 days after the later of the following:
The provincial government removes their public health order for masks.
The day on which the number of active COVID-19 cases in the City of Edmonton has been less than or equal to 100 per 100,000 population, as reported by Alberta Health, for 28 consecutive days.
When that review takes place, council will be able to decide whether to continue with or repeal the bylaw. This discussion would include a review of all the available public health data as well as the advice of AHS’ Edmonton Zone Chief Medical Officer of Health who usually attends every council meeting where we discuss public health measures. I’m very comfortable with the current face coverings bylaw and believe the metrics used to trigger a review are thoughtful.
The other option that we will be considering is whether to require businesses to continue using the Restrictions Exemption Program (REP) and/or an active screening program for COVID symptoms. This active screen process is underway as of this morning at City recreation centres.
Similar to almost every decision we make, a municipal REP has pros and cons.
On one hand, we know that the REP was successful in driving up vaccination rates at a time when our healthcare system was overwhelmed during the fourth wave. That was also the case with programs like this across Canada. As noted above, we also know that there is a benefit in reducing transmission from those that have the vaccine which improves the safety of our community.
Having a program like this can also help with businesses that want to have a program in place to protect their staff and customers but are worried about the abuse that staff may take when enforcing it. Those who want to express their concerns about this can reach out to their elected representatives but encourage that no one hurls abuse.
When it comes to challenges, we know that if Edmonton is the only municipality that has a version of the REP, that can create challenges for businesses in the city and in the region. Inconsistent public health measures aren’t ideal although Edmonton has taken different approaches at times.
If the QR code system is removed by the provincial government, it would mean the City of Edmonton would potentially need to create a new system which might not be possible. While I don’t expect the QR code reader will be deactivated anytime soon, it is something that we have to think about if we were to go down this path.
Another challenge is whether having this in place would help increase the number of vaccinations in our city. As noted above, the REP made a big difference across the province but things have started to level off. Consideration could be given to including the booster in the REP and I imagine that will be one of the options that council will consider if we decided to go down this path.
The last two years have not been easy for anyone. Tensions continue to rise and that can cause people to lash out. When it comes to important decisions like this, it’s crucial to think about all of the information above.
I’ve had some people write to me and suggest that all public health measures should be removed tomorrow because ‘the majority want them removed.’ If that was going to be the only criteria to use, the vast majority of feedback I received over the municipal election, and since that point, has been to retain public health measures. I was fortunate enough to meet with thousands of people during the campaign and have a large sample size based on that experience.
With that said, decisions cannot be made exclusively based on that majority opinion of the people in the ward. For example, when dealing with issues related to public health, we need to hear from the experts and factor their advice into the decision that we make.
Another concern with trying to make decisions based exclusively on the majority opinion is that it’s challenging to know exactly what the majority of people think at any given time. While I regularly engage residents in many different ways, it’s impossible to reach every single person. The municipal election is always one of the best ways to reach the greatest number of people but opinions can shift as new information becomes available. So the loudest voice in the room is not always the majority voice in the room.
These public health measures cannot remain forever. To date, I’ve never met anyone who thinks they should. But we need a thoughtful approach that carefully considers the consequences of our actions. A few days ago I offered an example of some questions we should answer and I’ll quickly summarize that here. The stats above show that COVID-19 deaths are much higher than the flu and this has a larger impact on seniors. Is COVID going to replace the standard flu? If so, how many more seniors will we lose every year? Is there an increase that society would deem acceptable in order to address the mental health and economic impacts of public health measures on children and adults? Who makes that decision?
We haven’t answered those questions yet and for people of all ages, we need to have a serious discussion about that.
Finally, Edmonton City Council has asked the provincial government for the recommendations provided by Dr. Hinshaw to be made public. Part of why tensions are so high is the provincial government has not released that information so we are unsure of what the Chief Medical Officer of Health has actually recommended. That’s unacceptable and I hope the provincial government shares that information with all Albertans because when it comes to our public health, we deserve to know what information is being used to guide the decisions.
Considering how our healthcare professionals have raised concerns about the pace of reopening during multiple waves and were unfortunately always proven right, I don’t think it’s an unreasonable request to ask the provincial government to show their work this time.
Thank you for taking the time to read through this post and I look forward to your respectful feedback and hope that you have taken the time to consider all of this information.
