A Group Of Doctors Issued A Stark Warning About COVID-19 Restrictions Being Lifted In BC
"We've got Omicron re-run, minus the protections."
B.C. has recently removed COVID-19 public health measures, and now a group of doctors is warning people that it was too soon.
On April 8, the province rolled back more restrictions, ending the vaccine card program. As of right now, businesses are not required to ask people for proof of vaccine or to require that people wear masks.
Now, a public health advocacy group called Protect Our Province BC said B.C. is currently battling the sixth wave and pointed to the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron as the cause.
In a briefing, Dr. Lyne Filiatrault, Dr. Gosia Gasperowicz, and Dr. Brenda Hardie also disagreed with comments from provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry who said the pandemic will become endemic.
The Protect Our Province briefing. Protect Our Province | YouTube
"Herd immunity for COVID, unfortunately, doesn't exist at this moment, because our immunity wanes," Gasperowicz said.
"If we would stop transmission completely then we are in a safe place. Then if we are super high vaccinated then we won't be at herd immunity but we could be in herd resilience," Gasperowicz added.
Dr. Filiatrault said that while "some people in public health suggested that with Omicron less people were going to get Long COVID, and that is not happening."
She added that the idea of Omicron having fewer long-term effects was a "myth."
The group pointed to the U.K., which dropped all of its COVID-19 restrictions early this year and is now facing high infection numbers.
Based on the data from there, Dr. Hardie said that "there's just no reason for us to believe that it will be any better here, and we've got some suspicions about things that could make it worse — which is mostly the removal of protections."
"So we've got Omicron re-run, minus the protections," she added.
Dr. Filiatrault went on to say that some people have been "banking" on the fact that they have been infected with Omicron before. She said that people are getting reinfected "even if they were recently infected with BA.1."
The doctors predict that the hospitals will be at risk of getting overwhelmed.
Dr. Hardie warned that the sixth wave is going to "be as big as the first Omicron wave. We've got a repeat with less protections."
At the end of the briefing, they encouraged people to limit contacts, get their third dose, and wear N95 masks. They called for the government to ensure proper air ventilation in all spaces, to reduce COVD-19 transmission.