A grassroots group of B.C. scientists and health-care workers has begun providing independent COVID-19 briefings to close what it calls an information “gap” between the public and provincial government.
Protect Our Province BC alleges that Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer, and Adrian Dix, health minister, are not providing enough candid, science-based information to residents about the virus.
“What our group has noticed is that there is this growing disconnect between some of what the government is telling us about this pandemic, the virus and how it works, and what people are seeing and hearing from other sources,” explained Dr. Karina Zeidler, a family physician in Vancouver.
The group describes itself as a non-partisan collective of doctors, nurses, scientists, and policy experts.
In its inaugural briefing on Wednesday, it focused on COVID-19’s airborne transmissibility and encouraged the public to ensure their masks fit well and have effective filters.
“Even thought it may seem like we’re sort of out of the woods when it comes to our pandemic, I don’t think that’s an accurate picture,” said Zeidler.
“There’s still a lot of death, a lot of morbidity happening that needs to be addressed, and with doing these briefings, we’re trying to explore some of these things and bring a bit more information to people.”
Protect Our Province BC argues that public health officials are not providing sufficient guidance to residents on issues like airborne spread of COVID-19, and the importance of quality masks, ventilation and rapid testing.
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“When we look at some of the guidance coming from the province, many of the guidelines still focus a lot of interventions that may only be effective in combatting a pathogen that is transmitting primarily through the droplet and contact route,” said Dr. Victor Leung, an infectious diseases physician and medical microbiologist.
Pressed by journalists in April, Henry said the province has always focused on both airborne transmission of COVID-19 through small particles called aerosols, and through large particles, like droplets.
“We have recognized that smaller particles can transmit this virus, particularly in situations where we’re talking about which are indoors,” the provincial health officer said in an April 22 briefing.
“When you’re in close contact with somebody, where you’re talking loudly, where you’re not wearing a mask, there’s poor ventilation that is unequivocal.”
The next month, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control updated its website to say that COVID-19 is airborne — spread by aerosols, not just infected droplets that can only carry a few metres.
Aerosols are much smaller particles and can drift in the air like smoke. They disperse quickly outdoors, but not in poorly-ventilated indoor settings.
Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Dix said the province has been transparent about COVID-19, providing daily and weekly briefings on the virus before a pandemic was declared in March of 2020.
The province has a “science-led strategy” that includes “very detailed” communication on a variety of topics, such as the number of people in critical care who are unvaccinated, he added.
“We have as our provincial health officer an internationally renowned leader in the fight against pandemics,” said Dix. “One the reasons she’s an outstanding leader is because she listens and she learns all the time.”
Even amongst scientists, the minister said “there is a debate sometimes” and he recognized there is always room for improvement.
Earlier this week, he also said he wasn’t “at all” worried about how Protect Our Province BC’s allegations would impact the public’s views of the government’s weekly COVID-19 briefings.
Protect Our Province BC said it will announce future independent briefings at a later date.
With files from Simon Little
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