FILLING IN THE GAPS
B.C. to reveal more specific COVID-19 data
Officials say they will provide more information on how COVID-19 is affecting specific neighbourhoods after criticism that B.C. is withholding crucial figures from the public.
Despite that, the provincial health officer insisted officials release as much information as they can and denied that B.C. falls behind other provinces in terms of transparency.
“We are releasing more than what other provinces are releasing,” Dr. Bonnie Henry said Friday, adding that every month she and Health Minister Adrian Dix present COVID-19 modelling information based on information compiled by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. “We have been very open from the very beginning where we presented as much as we could by areas.”
Henry was responding to a pair of internal B.C. Centre for Disease Control reports leaked to Postmedia News that critics say prove the government is withholding vital information from the public.
The internal weekly reports — each runs over 45 pages — are four times longer than the public weekly reports. They delve into the details of COVID -19 case counts and vaccinations at the neighbourhood level, breakdowns about variants of concern, and more.
The figures show that parts of northwest Surrey, including Whalley and Newton, had an average of 40 COVID -19 cases a day for every 100,0000 people, more than double the rate of most other areas of Metro Vancouver. Despite this, those neighbourhoods, plus Guildford, had a lower vaccination rate.
For the NDP to knowingly withhold critical information that British Columbians have been asking for “is a failure of government,” said B.C. Liberal health critic Renee Merrifield. “This data shines a light on the B.C. communities that have been hardest hit by the pandemic and it could have been used to educate the public. Even though it was readily available, the NDP government kept it hidden from people and refused to share it.”
Dr. Réka Gustafson, the deputy provincial health officer, said Friday the province is working “every single day” to make information more accessible and user friendly.
She said neighbourhood-specific COVID case and immunization rates will be regularly released “in the coming weeks.”
Epidemiologists, data scientists, Metro Vancouver mayors and community advocates have consistently called on the province to release more detailed COVID figures to inform the public about how the virus is spreading and how to address it from a public health perspective.
Jean-paul Soucy, co-founder of the COVID -19 Canada Open Data Working Group, has criticized B.C. as one of the worst performers among provinces in terms of COVID-19 transparency.
Ontario and Alberta, for example, regularly release neighbourhood-specific figures on daily COVID rates, variant cases, active cases and vaccination rates.
Dr. Brian Conway, medical director of the Vancouver Infectious Diseases Centre, said as B.C. struggles to contain outbreaks in hot-spot communities, releasing more neighbourhood-specific information could help medical professionals and community advocates respond in a more targeted way, either through diagnostic testing, enhanced contact tracing or expanded vaccine clinics in more accessible locations.
“I think the fundamental concern that I and many others would have is, you didn't give us these data, which are arguably important in refining and optimizing the response to the pandemic,” Conway said. “What else is it that you're not telling me?”
Dr. Baldev Sanghera, a Burnaby family physician who is also part of the South Asian COVID Task Force, said getting this information to community leaders is crucial as they have the personal connections to build trust and give feedback to provincial health leaders on how to make vaccine delivery more accessible.
“They need to collect as much data about our population so that we can target hot spots appropriately, with no finger pointing, no disclosure or breach of any privacy or confidentiality, but just helping people to access support that they need.”
Henry said she wants to avoid releasing Covid-related information that could lead to stigmatization and discrimination against certain racialized groups.
Kulpreet Singh, founder of the South Asian Mental Health Alliance, said these concerns are unfounded because the government has already said COVID -19 has disproportionately affected the South Asian community but without providing data to show to what extent.
B.C. Green Leader Sonia Furstenau has consistently pushed the province to release more COVID-19 figures and to start collecting race-based health information, which could give a clearer picture of how the virus is disproportionately affecting racialized communities.
The figures show that “the area with the highest rates of positivity unfortunately have the lowest rates of vaccination. That's an upsetting reality. We know this pandemic has hit racialized people, poor people much, much harder,” she said. “Let's learn from that.”