‘It’s ridiculous’: Canada’s public health messaging failing, columnist suggests

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Canada’s public health leaders need to completely overhaul how they communicate with us, according to a political columnist, following months of seemingly confusing messaging over the pandemic and vaccinations.

Matt Gurney, a columnist with the National Post, tells The Big Story Podcast federal communications have always been biased toward minimal transparency and disclosure.

When it comes to Canada’s COVID-19 public health messaging, Gurney says even the prime minister has been overly conservative about vaccinations.

“Unless the government has some really bad news about future deliveries they haven’t shared with us yet, we’re going to beat the objective targets that the prime minister was laying out. In my mind, I go, ‘Oh, okay. He’s a politician who’s going to be running for re-election soon, and he wants to manage expectations,'” he said.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadians could have a “one-dose summer,” if restrictions remain in place for a while longer and if at least 75 per cent of Canadians are vaccinated with at least a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

“A one-dose summer sets us up for a two-dose fall, when we’ll be able to talk about going back to school, back to work, and back to more normality. That’s what the coming months could look like,” Trudeau said.

Related articles:

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• Canada’s health minister tries to ease concerns over AstraZeneca vaccine

• B.C.’s COVID numbers trend down as questions loom over AstraZeneca use

• Despite downward COVID trend, B.C. still taking heat for data controversy

But Gurney says there is no clear messaging on what you will or won’t be able to do after one dose.

“We have been vaccinating people at a fairly steady clip now for months, and we still don’t have centralized guidance on what partial vaccination does and does not permit us to do. So, we’re making our own decisions as best we can. It’s ridiculous that we’re here, but it’s going to happen,” Gurney said.

He adds it seems to him the federal government doesn’t want to trust Canadians can handle information.

In B.C., the government has also been taking some heat over how COVID-19 data is being released.

A pair of internal BC Centre for Disease Control reports, each over 45 pages long, were obtained by the Vancouver Sun. They reportedly show, among other things, details of COVID-19 case counts and vaccinations at the neighbourhood level, as well as breakdowns about variants of concern — information many have been asking for for months and that is easily accessible in other provinces.

With files from Mike Lloyd, Cormac Mac Sweeney, Hana Mae Nassar, and Lucas Casaletto