Open with care is public health plea
No one wants to see disease rebound
Many of the everyday things that have been missing for months are suddenly back, and the liberties surrendered to contain the coronavirus are slowly returning, but don’t get greedy or we’ll pay for it down the road.
As provinces lift their lockdowns, to varying degrees and at various speeds, public health experts don’t miss a chance to warn us that COVID-19 will be back with an unholy vengeance – and we’ll be back in lockdown – if we behave badly.
When it comes to message discipline – the art of saying what you’ve come to say, no more, no less, no matter what – the politicians who bask in their reflected glow could learn something from Canada’s newest class of celebrity – public health officials.
From British Columbia’s Bonnie Henry to Nova Scotia’s own Robert Strang, provincial and national public health leaders are keen for us to get back some of life’s simple pleasures, but they worry that too much of a good thing will put us back in the COVID soup.
Canada’s chief public health officer, Theresa Tam, reminded Canadians this week that their continued efforts are needed to contain the coronavirus, or Canada risks a second, “explosive” spike in COVID-19 cases, likely in the fall.
Progress has been made in beating back the coronavirus, Tam said, but until an effective vaccine or treatment is available, core public health measures – physical distancing, near-obsessive hand washing and discouraging or avoiding crowds – are not options. They are compulsory.
Tam won the admiration of fair-minded Canadians when she shrugged off a xenophobic attack from a snivelling race-baiter who’s on the ballot for the Conservative Party of Canada’s (CPC) leadership. His name is Sloan and he’s a first term – one term? – MP from Ontario.
His unprovoked, racist rant – he asked if Tam, who was born in Hong Kong, worked for Canada or China – was a transparent attempt to garner support from the CPC’S basket of deplorables, which must be larger than the party lets on because all four of its leadership candidates either pander to, or avoid alienating the basket-case Conservatives.
Anyway, enough about the wretched right-of-right and back to public servants who are actually serving the nation’s best interests.
Tam updated the federal COVID-19 modelling this week to show Canadians that if they maintain disciplined adherence to “core” public health measures, the COVID curve will stay relatively flat.
On the other hand, if we throw caution to the wind and get too cozy with one another or gather in crowds – that’s more than 10 people in Nova Scotia and over 50 most everywhere else – we risk fuelling a rebound of the disease.
The provinces have a critical role to play, as well, because detecting and isolating COVID-19 cases and tracing and quarantining contacts – the job of provincial public health officials – is essential to keeping the virus at bay.
“(W)e must carefully balance the risks associated with the spread of COVID-19 with the unintended social and health consequences of restrictive public health measures,” Tam said.
Getting that balance right is the tricky bit.
Health Canada also released updated data on the outbreak this week, and to the surprise of absolutely no one, Canada’s COVID-19 story – at least to date – is about our abject failure to protect seniors housed in long-term care and nursing homes. Residents of such places accounted for 82 per cent of the nation’s 7,700 COVID-19 deaths.
As population-based measures – like closed schools and businesses and stay-at-home orders – are lifted, public health officials warn that the epidemic will rebound unless other public health measures – physical distancing, detecting and isolating cases and tracing contacts – are strengthened.
It’s the potential for the disease to make a horrendous return that has Tam, Henry, Strang and their counterparts in every province and territory worried and relentlessly onmessage.
With some minor variations – some public health types, for example, promote face masks more than others – their core message is consistent from coast-to-coast-to-coast, as we say.
Getting that balance right is the tricky bit.
Down east, Nova Scotia’s unflappable Dr. Strang, without fail, repeats the fundamentals – stay two metres apart, wash your hands, limit gatherings. He delivers the message in a straight-forward, matter-of-fact style, tempered by the inherent kindness you’d expect to find in an old-school country doc.
On the West Coast, B.C.’S enry virtually oozes empathy. She’s re-crafted the message into catchy phrases most B.C. school kids can now recite. There’s no mistaking the message when she tells British Columbians to look for “fewer faces and bigger spaces.”
“Be kind, be calm, and be safe," Henry says, almost every day when she concludes her briefing. That’s advice we should be able to get behind.