2023-09-13T03:06:56-04:00

The simple response to a pandemic is to increase funding for universal, public health care and preventative measures, yet governments across Canada have taken the complete opposite approach. Healthcare funding is being redirected towards the private sector to be hoarded by the rich and preventative measures have been abandoned to the point where they do not even exist in most healthcare settings. The public healthcare system is in desperate need of better funding. Additional funding will be put to much better use if we contain the spread of COVID-19.

We will soon be four years into the COVID-19 pandemic, but we may be further than ever from protecting people from its detrimental effects. Driven by poor public health messaging, many folks have adopted a sense of apathy. In the beginning, public health messaging was focused on collective well-being, but it took on a more selfish tone after the introduction of vaccines. Although vaccines help reduce the severity of COVID-19, many people came to see vaccines as a tool that absolved them from mutual care. Actions like wearing a mask started to be presented as personal choices rather than a responsibility to protect the health of others. That’s not how public health works. The actions one person chooses to take affect everyone else. For example, a person in a public space is at much higher risk in the scenario where they are the only one masking than the scenario in which everyone wears a mask. This problem is worsened when people cannot readily access healthcare to get better if they do get sick.

Ignoring COVID-19 has made public spaces unsafe for everyone. If we want to restore the freedom that comes with safe social interactions, we need to refocus on collective responsibility for health. We need public health organizations to take responsibility for the public, not pass the burden to each individual. We need to fight to ensure everyone has access to healthcare treatment when they need it. If we continue to pretend that social interactions are currently safe, the most susceptible will continue to be isolated and the large population that is already suffering from long COVID will grow. Instead of pretending things are fine, let’s take responsibility and make spaces safe and inclusive for everyone.

For your consideration, some common COVID misconceptions are listed below:

1. If COVID-19 was serious, the government/media would take it seriously

Unfortunately, it is not unprecedented in Canada for governments and media to understate the ongoing threat of a pandemic. The Toronto Star reported on May 16th, 2003, one week before a new SARS outbreak in Toronto was announced: “On its first day as a city officially free of SARS, Toronto rolled out the welcome mat as hospitals slowly moved toward a new kind of ‘normal.’ Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Colin D’Cunha, called a halt to daily screenings at hospitals and clinics throughout the province, citing the clean bill of health given Wednesday by the World Health Organization.” The SARS commission final report describes Dr. D’Cunha’s subsequent communication of the new outbreak as follows: “His reassuring message, which turned out to be terribly wrong, was that the system was working… The trouble with this assurance is that it was wrong. The system of detection and containment had failed completely. Officials had more information, shocking information, than that announced by Dr. D’Cunha.” (Volume 2, p.431)

2. The pandemic is over

When the World Health Organization removed the Public Health Emergency of International Concern classification from the COVID-19 pandemic, they explicitly said this did not mean the pandemic was over. Even if COVID-19’s pandemic classification is eventually removed, many diseases that are not pandemics are still very harmful. For example, HIV and malaria. If we treated these viruses like we are currently treating COVID, people would stop using condoms and mosquito nets.

3. We can’t do this forever

There are many safety rules that we are prepared to follow in society forever. There is no good reason why doing things like wearing a mask cannot be one of them.

4. We have to “live” with COVID

Many people use the excuse “we have to live with COVID” to rationalize carrying on as if COVID does not exist. We live with other safety risks in society by acknowledging them and acting in ways that reduce their probability. Saying we should “live” with COVID means we should act in ways that reduce the probability of spreading COVID:
- Wear a mask
- Provide sick days for people to stay home when sick.
- Act with caution after attending social gatherings that put you at risk of spreading COVID.

5. COVID is “mild” now

2022 was the deadliest year for COVID in Canada. 19,509 people died from acute COVID (see “Cases and Deaths” (.csv) in “Additional Resources,” https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/current-situation.html). As of August 2022, 1.4 million Canadian adults indicated they had experienced symptoms 3 months or longer after their COVID-19 infection. 13% of these (~180,000 adults) had zero health issues prior to infection. This is consistent with reports from other countries. For example, in the UK, between 1.5 and 3 percent of the entire adult population was reported to be experiencing long COVID symptoms at any given time from February 2021 to March 2023. Research indicates that for many people, the risk of long COVID and other long term health complications increases with reinfection.

6. COVID is like the flu

No. COVID-19 can infect many organ systems in the body, not just the respiratory system. It is not seasonal, so you can get infected multiple times per year. The severity of a COVID-19 infection is much worse than a flu infection.

7. I’m vaccinated so I don’t have to care

As of August 2022, 25% of Canadians reporting long COVID symptoms had never received a vaccine. 17.6% had received one, 13.2% had received two, and 12.2% had received 3. Vaccines help, but do not eliminate the risk. The immunity they yield is also not permanent and does not prevent infection or transmission. Giving up other preventative actions after getting vaccinated makes spaces much less safe for folks who cannot get vaccinated, like young children. Giving up other preventative actions also increases the evolution of new variants that are better at evading existing immunity.

8. I already got COVID so now I don’t have to worry

Reinfections are common. “Hybrid immunity” (immune system response from vaccine + infection) is not permanent. COVID reinfections can increase your risk for long term complications. The best way to build up immunity is to get vaccinated and avoid infection. There is also a lot of evidence that COVID infections harm your immune system.
Since SARS-COV-2 is being allowed to spread widely, new variants are constantly evolving. There are case reports showing re-infection with different variants as little as 16 days after initial infection.

9. Masks don’t work

Engineers designed and tested masks using the same methods that are used to design and test safety materials like oven mitts, hard hats, and air bags. There are also natural experiments that show populations that wear masks experience less COVID infections. They work. They work best when used correctly. For a good discussion on this see here.

10. Masks are bad for my immune system

If this was true, healthcare workers and school teachers would have the strongest immune systems from being exposed to germs all the time. Instead, they are the ones who get sick the most. Also, if we were to pretend that being exposed to harmful viruses was good for the immune system, why is being exposed to 100% of the virus particles the best? Why can’t it be the small percentage that get through the mask?

11. We can’t do anything about it so we shouldn’t bother

Contrary to the popular Theory of a Deadman song, public health is not an all or nothing endeavor. More protections = less suffering. Less protections = more suffering. It is entirely feasible to have enough protections in place so that people can access essential public spaces without having to worry about getting COVID-19.

In Short: