After almost 2 years of this, here are my thoughts...

As we near 2 years of measures to deal with Covid, I’ve been trying to process how I’m feeling about things that have been going on for the last couple years. On the outset, I have been double vaccinated. I’m married to a woman with a molecular biology degree who worked in a Gov’t disease lab. I am obviously not an expert in medicine, so this is the result of things I’m hearing, reading, and from my own experience.

I have been trying to understand the spectrum of opinions. There are extremes on each end. On one end of the spectrum there are mind-controlling microchips on the end of Covid test swabs or in the vaccine itself. On the other end of the spectrum there are those who want to blindly trust government officials without question. Places to have conversations in the middle feel somewhat rare. The positions are entrenched and associated with politics and moral declarations.

Near the beginning of the vaccine roll-out, the AZ Vaccine was being offered. Someone I trust was reading medical reports and saying to be careful with that one. Others said that any concern about AZ was ridiculous and on the verge of a conspiracy theory. The health officials said we should be happy with whatever we can get. In a few months, AZ was no longer being offered and some countries were no longer considering it to be a valid vaccine.

Now, I don’t watch the news 24 hours a day, but I don’t remember seeing an apology issued to those who were shamed for raising suspicion about this, or even much conversation around this. AZ was better than nothing at that time, but a public explanation for its removal would have been appropriate (maybe I missed that). I think this would have helped with transparency of decision making, and helped with re-establishing trust. But, in our present political climate, it could have just as easily have been used as ammo for political rivals.

Personally, I have felt like there has been a subtle manipulation of information. There was an emphasizing of some information and a diminishing of other opposing information. I get the motivation. It felt like an attempt to get the maximum number of people vaccinated and mute information that might create vaccine hesitancy. … But when it comes to health, there are some people who are just going to get suspicious by that behaviour. I think the answer to bad information should be better information, not censorship. I wonder if this kind of move didn't create a social system that has given us exactly these results. 

When it comes to health treatments (like a surgery), usually we are told the risks upfront, in a non-passionate way. But, the information around Covid has become loaded with emotion. This probably has to do with the fact that we have had it drilled into our heads that our bodies are not to be touched without our consent- Our health treatment is our personal decision. However, that message was overturned, and we were told that during the pandemic it is now the case that what someone does to their individual body has an effect on the collective.

Add to this that there was a lot of information out there that was increasingly difficult to filter through. I had the benefit of a molecular biologist who studied epidemiology, virology, and immunology, who happens to live in my house. She was more capable than I am of discerning a good study from a conspiracy with no evidence. The information was changing frequently as new studies were published, some of which seemed to contradict each other. Ideally, we should trust our health officials to wade through that information for us and decide the best way forward. And the voice from the other side of the spectrum says, “you mean the folks who told us the AZ vaccine was safe and then it was pulled from use?”

At some points some were saying that vaccinated people can’t get the virus, and can’t pass along the virus to others. There was some recognition of “break-through” cases, but those were presented as rare. We now know that that isn’t true. Vaccinated people can get the virus, but the vaccine seems to protect people from severe outcomes. Vaccinated people can also pass the virus along to others. Talking about underlying conditions (comorbidities) was frowned upon and considered insensitive to those who had sever outcomes. Talking about the hospital/death numbers being inaccurate regrading those being in the hospital “with” Covid rather than “because of” Covid was frowned upon as being on the edge of conspiracy theory. This is now part of the accepted conversation. There were some who said that after vaccination you won’t have to wear a mask. There were some who said that we will open up again once a certain percentage of the population is vaccinated. Then it was once ICU numbers are below a certain number.

I get that new information changes things. Being in leadership right now means not having all the information you need to lead. You are having to respond with “good enough” information. I do not envy anyone in leadership right now. The goal posts keep moving, so people are frustrated, and it is easy to blame leadership.

I do wish there was more humility all around. I wish people could more easily, and more publicly, say they were wrong about something. I wish we could easily present divergent points of view. There are doctors, epidemiologists, immunologists, and virologists who have a differing point of view, and they should be welcome to share their point of view as a part of public scientific discourse. Personally, I would have loved to see a discussion panel among such experts every few weeks throughout the pandemic. I think that would have helped with transparency. The sharing of divergent information and opinions doesn’t have to be accompanied by emotion and shaming. That is what academia is supposed to be about- the sharing of data and hypothesis.

Then it comes to children. Health officials say that healthy children are at a very low risk from the virus. There is less data regarding children, but it does seem that the vaccine does make a difference for those children who would have sever outcomes. Though, that overall number is a small percentage of the overall population of children. We have been told that the main reason to get them vaccinated is so they don’t pass it along to their grandparents. Presumably, with the information we are seeing, it is likely that they can indeed pass it along as vaccinated people. They may carry the viral load for a shorter amount of time, but they can still have as high a viral load as an unvaccinated person for a period of time. So, should children be given a vaccine with a small risk of complications like Myocarditis (etc)? Does the benefit outweigh the risk? Especially when we have seniors in other parts of the world who haven’t received their first dose of vaccine yet?

I think the shaming and politicizing of this discussion has made things so much worse. It no longer feels like we are talking about health. We are talking about what team we are on. It feels trickier and trickier to get good information. I get the worry about hesitancy, but shaming isn’t going to work.

The threat to not offer health care to the unvaccinated, or to force them to pay a health tax, I find personally horrifying. I find it equal to not offering healthcare to people who are overweight due to eating and exercise decisions. Or not offering care to a smoker. Or not offering care to a drug addict, or someone who attempts suicide. People are worthy of care because they are of inherent worth. Limiting their care because their decisions don’t optimize their health and therefore puts strain on the health system is frightening to me.

There has also been a minimizing of the consequences of isolation/lockdowns. The economy seems to be in trouble due to accruing an amazing amount of debt during the pandemic. Supply chains are disrupted. People (including children) are dealing with increased mental health issues. Marriages are having a hard time. Businesses are closing. People have lost their jobs, and some have lost their houses. Overdoses have increased. It has sometimes felt like to protect group A we have to put group B at risk. At a public policy level, it can feel like trading the lives of A for the lives of B.



On the part of those who oppose the vaccine and mandates there are some extreme points of view. There are people who think the disease doesn’t exist. There are people who believe that the vaccine is part of end-time prophecy. There are those who believe that the vaccine will alter a person’s DNA (maybe to the point of them not really being human anymore). There are some who believe that this is about population control leading us to some global elite goal- perhaps to cull the excess world population that is causing the environment to be at risk, and this treatment will sterilize people to that end. Or, maybe it is about imposing a kind of new empire- a world communist government where no one has any personal property.

I don’t believe these to be true. Though, I don’t want to be naïve either. Drug companies do much good in the world, but they are businesses. Corporations have been notorious in wanting to highlight the good that their product does and minimize the negative effects. We saw this with the tobacco companies, for example. We also saw this with the opioid crisis and the Sackler family. So, I’m one who thinks we need to keep a very close eye on those who are making an incredible amount of money at this time, and who also have the ability to influence public health policy.

I get those who are concerned about rights, but I do think we also have to embrace collective responsibility at times. In WW2 people had to come together for a common cause. Many of them gave up their rights and privileges, even their lives, to work together against a common enemy.

I think there are some, however, who feel they don’t have the information to believe the threat. We can point to the death toll data, and they will point to a 14 year old with late stage brain cancer who then contracted Covid and was counted as a Covid death. They will wonder how often this has taken place, which throws all the numbers into question. And from that void of accurate data will comes suspicion and distrust.

And those who have followed all the rules feel like the unvaccinated are standing in their way. They did everything they were told to do, so we could get back to normal, but the unvaccinated stand in the way of getting back to normal. They are taking up hospital beds. They are delaying important surgeries. … These numbers are slowly changing, though. As more and more get vaccinated there are less and less unvaccinated people in the population and therefore less in the hospital, even though they are still more likely to have serious outcomes as a group. So increasingly, if you go to the hospital and see a Covid patient, that person has an almost 50/50 chance of being vaccinated. Again, the unvaccinated is a smaller group, so they are still at more risk, but the sheer numbers in the hospital are nearing 50/50 when our main concern is overwhelming the health system. Assuming I’m reading the website correctly, the ICU numbers are still showing that those who are unvaccinated are still at higher risk. When I checked the numbers last it looked like the fully vaccinated with another condition (presumably they are there for another reason, but also have Covid) make up 13%. Fully vaccinated people who are in the ICU for only Covid make up 2%. Whereas, People who are unvaccinated who are in the ICU with another condition (again, they are there for another reason, but also have Covid) make up 53%. Those who are unvaccinated in the ICU for only Covid make up 28.7%. That is a very complicated issue- Covid often will make matters worse, even if it isn't the primary reason you are in the hospital. People over 65 still seem to make up the majority. (I’m not including the partially vaccinated here).[1]

I personally believe that Covid is very dangerous for some people, especially people with other health problems, and especially seniors. I also believe that there are many people who could contract Covid (even apart from the vaccine) who will be okay. We aren’t dealing with Ebola, after all. Though, I know that it is a bit of a roll of the dice. You might be 45 and have the effect you would expect to see in a 75 year old with heart issues. We don’t always know, and we can’t make policies on the basis of the unusual data. Just as we can’t determine the safety of a vaccine on the basis of the small risk of myocarditis.

Over the last couple of years it has sometimes seemed like organizations are in a competition regarding who is going to be the most safe and therefore care the most about the vulnerable. It is a laudable goal to want to protect the vulnerable.

I want us to determine what is an acceptable amount of risk. Zero risk is not an option. Driving on the highway is not a zero-risk activity. We want to minimize that risk as much as possible, but as safe as we can try to be on the highway, we will never get to zero.

So what am I hoping for? I’m hoping for civil and kind discourse where we are trying to understand each other and believe that the other person isn’t evil. We do have common ground. I think we all want this to end. We are all weary. We can’t keep doing this. There will be a time, a few years after the pandemic is over, when we will not think about who is vaccinated and who isn’t. But we might remember how we treated each other. Our relationships, our trust for one another, will carry on into the future in a way that our vaccination status will not.

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[1] https://www.alberta.ca/stats/covid-19-alberta-statistics.htm?fbclid=IwAR1HUkICOBtM22sddpFkZg2Fk6x1CpHdGARDU3QUhXcsMTidd57sQsOYvrk#vaccine-outcomes