While an entire planet is busy waging war against a pandemic that has shifted the world on its axis, and threatens to return for a fourth wave, leave it to Alberta to choose this as the time to lead the pack with its recent, risky public-health plan.
Now the only thing spreading faster than COVID-19's Delta variant is the #FireHinshaw hashtag.
Announced the last week of July, Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw's plan to lift all of the province's COVID public-health restrictions this month has been met with raised eyebrows.
Numerous political leaders and health-care experts across Canada have condemned Alberta's decision to eliminate isolation, testing, and contact-tracing measures, all of whom are saying it's too soon.
The announcement also sparked a string of letters.
The Canadian Paediatric Society called Alberta's early move to lift all COVID-19 measures an "unnecessary and risky gamble."
Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu penned a letter to Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro saying, "it is still too early to declare victory," and asked for the science behind the decision.
Shandro said on social media Aug. 5 the recommendations from Hinshaw and her team are "in line with science."
But the province has yet to share it.
Hinshaw has steadfastly defended her decision, saying it was based on data on age-specific outcomes, vaccine effectiveness, and modeling on Delta variant transmission and health outcomes.
She has also said it's time to support the whole health of all Albertans by allowing the province to focus on other health threats, such as "opioid deaths and syphillis."
“We will not eliminate COVID, which means we need to learn how to live with it,” she wrote in an op-ed column she sent to media last week.
Alberta reported 1,107 new cases of COVID-19 over this past weekend alone: 398 on Friday; 375 on Saturday; and 244 on Sunday.
The province's vaccine coverage is also lagging behind that of other provinces, while some experts have said the virus is now spreading faster in Alberta than during the third wave.
The Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association wrote a letter to Kenney Aug. 4 pleading with the province to suspend the changes announced by Hinshaw until vaccines are approved for children under the age of 12; 85 per cent of Alberta's total population is fully immunized; and Health Canada declares the pandemic over.
All the while, Hinshaw, Shandro, and Kenney continue to colour this as a matter-of-fact measure that is a necessity at this moment — "the inevitable next step," said Shandro — in returning key functionality to our health-care system.
The picture being drawn for a confused public looks more like a desperate attempt to repair the United Conservative Party's less-than-popular image, while painting Hinshaw as the likely scapegoat if the bold, some say dangerous, move heads south.
If the critics are correct, it may do just that.
Let's hope party politics will be the only collateral damage this decision leaves behind.
Editorials are the consensus view of the St. Albert Gazette's editorial board.
