POP BC opposes BC public health's withdrawal of pandemic data and of masking in healthcare
Today, in a BC government press conference with Dr. Bonnie Henry and Minister of Health Adrian Dix, Dr. Henry announced the removal of mask mandate in BC healthcare settings, despite a high number of Covid cases continuing to strain BC’s medical system and causing high levels of illness, death, Long Covid and long-term damage from the virus.
Not only does removing masking in healthcare settings make hospital-acquired (nosocomial) illness far more likely, it will result in the illness of far more healthcare workers which will further strain a medical system already near the breaking point.
Dr. Henry also announced withdrawal of publicly available data on Covid, reducing the already scant information available to British Columbians as they try to ‘assess their own risk.’ It’s already difficult for people to assess their own risk in BC because data is rationed more here than in any other province or territory. Now it will be near impossible.
All of these policy changes only make sense if you believe COVID to be a mild seasonal respiratory virus. It is not. It is a systemic vascular inflammatory virus that can affect any single or multiple organs in your body. Most importantly it can leave you or your child, severely disabled with a post viral syndrome (Long Covid) that has, up to now, no cure. With an estimated 1.4 million Canadians affected.
How many more British Columbians need to be added to this list?
Protect Our Province BC strongly opposes these decisions by BC public health. Our mission is to protect British Columbians and to end this pandemic. Today’s policy changes do the opposite; they imperil the people of this province. As POP BC’s Dr. Lyne Filiatrault has bluntly stated, and as today’s press conference clearly demonstrated, “there is no public health in BC.”
