Let’s listen to Dr. Lyne Filiatrault and start saving more lives in B.C.
I’m encountering more people who are contracting COVID and some of them are seniors. This is becoming the norm when we have fall elections in B.C. just as the number of COVID infections is increasing.
Health officials would have known about the rising caseload in September when wastewater data showed high levels of the virus in many regions. But the provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, kept quiet about this. Perhaps she didn’t want to inject COVID into the conversation during a provincial campaign.
Now that the election is over, people can talk about COVID again. That was drolly noted on X by the province’s premier public-health advocate, retired emergency physician Dr. Lyne Filiatrault.
In the midst of the campaign, Dr. Filiatrault wrote a sensible open letter to Premier David Eby. Sadly, it was ignored by virtually every candidate running for public office in B.C. except me.
Dr. Filiatrault called for three things to reduce the spread of COVID:
1. Improve COVID prevention in healthcare facilities. “Doing so will significantly relieve pressure on hospital beds and reduce the number of health care workers off sick,” she declared.
2. Ensure that British Columbians gain immediate access to new updated COVID vaccines. “This would prevent COVID-19 hospitalizations, lessen transmission and disease severity and would also protect health care providers and keep them on the job,” Dr. Filiatrault wrote.
3. Bring masks and clean air into all healthcare settings. “Yes, you can still wash your hands, but to prevent COVID infections, it’s the air that matters,” she stated.
This morning, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry will offer an update about “respiratory illness season”. Yes, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control continues referring to COVID as a respiratory illness. In reality, COVID later causes immune dysregulation in at least 10 percent of severe infections. In some people, it increases the likelihood of heart attacks and brain injuries.
I don’t expect Dr. Henry to speak about these serious long-term consequences of contracting COVID. That’s because she has consistently underplayed this topic in her previous briefings. But wouldn’t it be amazing if the provincial health officer actually endorsed Dr. Filiatrault’s three common-sense recommendations to the premier?