Store shop closed due to COVID-19 lockdown. Photo by Stock photo /Getty Images
OPINION: Canada’s current pandemic response isn’t supported by the facts
Let’s quit the mass hysteria around COVID-19, follow long-established hygiene and healthy living guidelines, focus protective measures on vulnerable groups, and restore everyone’s right to live a normal life.
Dr. Claus Rinner, Special to Toronto Sun, Dec 13, 2020
https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-canadas-current-pandemic-response-isnt-supported-by-the-facts
A few weeks ago, British philosophers Ian James Kidd and Matthew Ratcliffe wrote about “Covidworld, our new altered reality where accepted norms do not apply.” They note how the entire planet is captivated by COVID-19 as the one and only issue of importance. And they describe the “enormous and wide-ranging collateral damage caused by lockdowns and other measures.”
Like many critics of the ongoing tunnel vision on SARS-CoV-2, I am concerned about the lack of proportion in our collective response and allege that this response is not backed by the facts about the pandemic.
Responding to questions raised in a Toronto Sun column, Ontario Minister of Long-Term Care Merrilee Fullerton confirmed in October that the COVID-19 death toll in LTC homes was comparable to that of the 2017/18 flu season. In order to detract from this remarkable admission, she added: “But I don’t want to talk about numbers, you know, it is about people.”
The Minister shows sensitivity and compassion, and we all wish that our parents and grandparents live long, healthy lives. But individual fate cannot be the basis for public policy. We do not make decisions based on the loudest voices or the most touching stories. We make important societal decisions on the basis of data and their scientific interpretation.
Unfortunately, there are major issues with the COVID-19 data –bad enough for world-renowned epidemiologist and statistician John Ioannidis to call SARS-CoV-2 a “once-in-a-century evidence fiasco.” For example, we still do not know how many Canadians die from the virus as opposed to those dying from other causes but with a positive test. Why are the media not reporting that most COVID-19 victims (90% according to Statistics Canada) are already vulnerable from pre-existing diseases?
We also do not know, or are not told, how many hospitalizations occur due to serious cases of COVID-19 rather than other unrelated illness, where the patient just tests positive upon admission or gets infected in hospital.
The publicly available COVID-19 statistics currently rely on the PCR test, which may be unsuitable for monitoring key trends in the pandemic. The inventor of the PCR procedure, Kary Mullis, has stated on record that the test can be used to “find almost anything in anyone.” The test detects genetic material of the virus in a person but cannot determine whether a person is ill or infectious.
The state of Florida has now mandated that laboratories specify the cycle threshold count for positive test results, a measure that correlates with infectiousness. How much longer will it take our provincial governments to develop an approach to analyze and report these data?
In addition to collecting accurate and meaningful data, we also need to correctly interpret them. If we hear that hospitals are filling up, let’s ask how this compares with the last flu season. If we are warned of possible long-term effects of COVID-19, let’s investigate how they compare to the long-term effects of other respiratory diseases.
We cannot afford to exclusively focus on the coronavirus while ignoring all other problems. At this point, common sense alone should tell us that the collateral damage that the pandemic response inflicts on our physical and mental health will be far greater than the harm from SARS-CoV-2.
In defending a medical doctor’s professional right and responsibility to “independently evaluate … prevailing health practices,“ the Ontario Civil Liberties Association emphasizes that even in a crisis “we must … consider a diversity of competing views.” They also decry the unprecedented, “sweeping draconian public health measures,” which, I am afraid, are pushing us closer towards Aldous Huxley’s dystopia Brave New World, or worse, the surveillance state of George Orwell’s 1984.
Let’s quit the mass hysteria around COVID-19, follow long-established hygiene and healthy living guidelines, focus protective measures on vulnerable groups, and restore everyone’s right to live a normal life.
Dr. Claus Rinner is a professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Ryerson University. He specializes in geospatial data analysis, geographic information systems, cartography, and decision support. He began blogging about the corona crisis in March and just published a collection of posts as a paperback and e-book, The Coronoia Blogbook.
