Decision to end all COVID-19 measures was a mistake, says provincial infectious disease doctor

“Absolutely, all of us in this room right now, with the evidence of this rapid increase in the delta virus in the province, would all agree that it was not the right decision to make,” he said. he declares.

Dow was surrounded by Mathieu Chalifoux, Senior COVID-19 Epidemiologist at Public Health, Dr John Dornan, Interim CEO of Horizon Health and Dr France Desrosiers, CEO of Vitalité Health Network.

He said “in retrospect” that the decision was a mistake.

“The big question is would we have done something different? Was that the right decision at the time? It’s still hard to speculate as many other jurisdictions made the same mistake.”

WATCH | Leading infectious disease specialist says many other jurisdictions have made the same mistake

“It was not the right decision to make”

One of the province’s top infectious disease specialists says lifting the restrictions at the end of July was a mistake. 1:39

He noted that other jurisdictions, including Alberta, Saskatchewan, the United States and the United Kingdom, have taken decisions to lift the restrictions which were found to be too early thereafter.

“When you see it, there have been a lot of mistakes made,” he said.

Dow said he was not part of the decision to lift the emergency order and end public health measures because he was only advising the province “until July.” A pandemic task force of which he was a member has been disbanded.

Asked about Dow’s comments at a subsequent press conference, Premier Blaine Higgs said he still thought the reopening was “the right thing to do for New Brunswick” based on the information available. the government at the time.

Higgs told reporters that the end of restrictions gave families a “reprieve” for the summer, even though vaccinated visitors were already allowed into the province before the final green shift and people could congregate.

“I know it is convenient to try to have a trap moment here,” the prime minister said.

“There’s probably a lot of time in my life in hindsight, I would think differently. And yes, could that be one of them in hindsight?

“But I have to reiterate that the decision we made at the time was based on the facts available and the situation our province was in, and how we were going to move forward. It’s always easy to look back. . “

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr Jennifer Russell warned ahead of the July 30 reopening that the number of cases would increase, and as they increased in late summer, Higgs said the increase was expected.

Chalifoux declined to say on Friday whether the current numbers exceeded the expected increase.

“It’s the growth, it’s the speed with which it’s happening that sort of outstrips what’s going on right now,” he said.

Dow said New Brunswick has one of the most aggressive approaches to COVID in the world, in an effort to wipe out the virus completely.

These measures have succeeded in stopping seven separate epidemics since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, he said.

“This one, did we underestimate this one? I would say yes. I think most New Brunswickers would agree with that. Yes, we did.… Now what are we going to do? do is we’re gonna pivot and we’re gonna put this under control. “

Chalifoux said 35 to 40 new hospitalizations are expected over the next two weeks, but Dow said after that the measures now in place and the news announced on Friday should lead to “a flattening of that curve.”

He also said it was clear that vaccinations alone could not contain cases, and some level of public health restrictions should remain in place.

“Our public health measures are incredibly, incredibly effective, and we need to continue to build on them as an important layer that we need to apply with vaccinations,” he said.

As immunization rates increase, the province can “loosen that layer, but I think the big learning here is that we should continue to have a lot of faith and use our public health interventions.”

After the briefing, Green Party Leader David Coon tweeted, “Thank you for your honesty, Dr Dow.