Dr. Henry keeps us safe through ongoing conversation
Henry doing her job so well that critics might think measures weren’t needed
The annotated Dr. Bonnie Henry — loose ends from several recent media briefings.
“It was not me who closed the parks.”
As B.C. begins a phased lifting of the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 outbreak, the provincial health officer emphasizes that B.C. was never under as much of a lockdown as some places.
Many businesses closed because of an anticipated lack of customers, or out of concerns about staff safety, rather than any orders on her part. Construction sites stayed open under safety guidelines from the provincial health office and WorkSafeBC.
The provincial government closed parks out of concerns about too many people visiting remote communities, plus the risk of wildfires.
“The risk would be infinitesimally small if somebody runs by you, somebody walks by you, even if they were within six feet … that’s not the way the virus is mostly transmitted.”
Always an advocate of getting people into the great outdoors, Henry discounts alarmist concerns about joggers, cyclists and others using public trails and walkways. On physical distancing, she says the main risk to be avoided is closer contact, especially indoors.
“Younger people are not immune.”
On a day when Henry released sobering data on the toll on the elderly (especially older men) and folks with existing medical conditions, she also underscored that the virus can afflict younger people, as well — sometimes severely.
But the risk is rated “very low” for young children, hence her willingness to entertain reopening of childcare centres and elementary schools.
“An important thing for our next phase is making sure that we’re monitoring everyone who is coming into B.C. from outside the country.”
B.C. was slow to press the federal government to screen entry into Canada. But eventually the province did take matters into its own hands.
An advocate of getting people into the great outdoors, Henry discounts alarmist concerns about joggers, cyclists and others using public trails.
As of last week, B.C. had screened 17,000 returnees and provided accommodation for 101 people who did not have a plan to self-isolate for 14 days. The province picked up the estimated $200,000 tab to feed and accommodate them.
B.C. is finalizing safety protocols for the Quebeckers who come here to pick fruit and plant trees every year.
“With this test, we know that if you have no symptoms and it is negative, it really doesn’t tell you anything at all.”
Henry’s oft-repeated answer to calls to “test everyone” is that when the standard test is applied to people without symptoms, it can yield up to 30 per cent false negatives.
Still, B.C. is now expanding testing to include even those with mild symptoms, and is vetting 17 different serology (antibody) tests, including a couple that seem “very promising.”
“We are looking at the unintended consequences of all the measures that we have put in place — as well as the impact on people having delayed surgeries.”
Every day Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix express regret about the cancellation of tens of thousands of surgical procedures in anticipation of a COVID-19 surge that hasn’t materialized.
With the ministry expected to announce a plan later this week to begin clearing the backlog, it has begun to examine the impact of all those cancellations and of patients shunning the emergency room out of safety concerns.
Perhaps those were factors in what B.C. reported this week in terms of 170 “excess deaths” in the first four months of this year over the same period of last year.
Most were attributed directly to COVID-19. But several dozen are subject to further analysis.
“We have not seen a spike related to travel.”
Henry responds to concerns about supposedly excessive travel over the Easter weekend. At the time, she suggested the reports were overblown, with ferry traffic down as much as 90 per cent.
This week she reported that there was no increase in cases attributable to unnecessary travel.
“I have been watching Sweden and have been looking at the measures they’ve taken.”
Some critics point to Sweden as an example of a country that avoided a lockdown and is now on the road to community (herd) immunity.
Not so, says Henry. Sweden is a long way from community immunity, and the country has paid a high price in terms of deaths.
If B.C. had Sweden’s death rate per million population, there would be almost 1,400 deaths from COVID-19 in B.C., instead of the 121 reported so far.
“There’s pressure on both sides — I certainly get it on both sides.”
Early in the outbreak, Henry was accused of not going far enough in imposing restrictions on, say, construction projects. Now that the measures brought in have succeeded in flattening the curve, some say she overreacted.
German virus fighter Christian Drosten refers to “the prevention paradox” — when what you do to contain the outbreak works so well that people figure maybe it wasn’t necessary. Henry might agree.
“This is going to be a unique summer and we’re going to have to work very hard in public health to make sure that we continue to detect every single case in our community and are able to manage it, to find the contacts to make sure that we’re not allowing transmission and outbreaks and growth.”
As the focus shifts to today’s big announcement by Premier John Horgan, management of the outbreak is still heavily dependent on a successful containment strategy from Henry and her team.