EDITORIAL: Canadians need to demand better from public health

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Canadians have become increasingly cynical about some of the guidance being issued by their public health officials.

We acknowledge and appreciate these officials’ expertise in their field. We also appreciate the considerable efforts they’ve been putting into their jobs throughout the course of the pandemic.

However, we share Canadians frustrations with some of the messaging and attitudes that have come out of public health reps in recent months.

While COVID-19 has been called a “novel coronavirus,” it’s not that novel anymore. We’ve now had over 12 months to learn about this virus and up our game.

To the credit of medical researchers, we’ve learned a lot — from genome sequencing to vaccine development.

To the credit of critical care medical staff, we’ve learned a lot about how to treat people who are hard hit by the virus.

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For a brief period of time, entering the hospital with COVID-19 was seen as a death sentence. That’s no longer the case.

The problem is public health officials are not evolving their response in the same way other elements of the medical profession have been doing.

For example, lockdowns were always supposed to be short measures introduced to keep a lid on the virus until we knew more about how to deal with it. It was about grabbing our bearings.

That’s happened. We know more. The hospitals are not currently overwhelmed. And, if they are about to get overwhelmed, it’s the job of hospital administrators and the government to manage capacity.

Telling Canadians that all of society needs to be shut down again just doesn’t cut it.

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Yet Dr. Theresa Tam told Canadians on Friday that “enhanced” measures were needed because her “rocket ship” graph forecasts a wild increase in cases in the weeks ahead.

While those forecasts have been called into question by experts, even if they prove true Canadians should still demand better from public health than calls for even worse lockdowns.

We need more honesty from our public health officials about what’s really going on what should really be done to protect high-risk persons while safely re-opening society.