A commentary by a pharmaceutical policy researcher who is the author of four books related to drug marketing, evidence-based medicine and disease-mongering. He lives in Victoria.
Having looked at drug policy in B.C. for the past 30 years, the one thing we can be proud of is our history of evaluating policies, especially those that concern my area, drug policy.
Yet on that point, the B.C. NDP seems to be missing in action, uninterested in analyzing the impact of its health policies. Where this is most stark is where it concerns policies related to our COVID response.
Without a proper, independent and apolitical evaluation of the B.C. government’s response to COVID, we will never learn the lessons we need to learn so we don’t make the same mistakes again. What did we do right and what did we do wrong?
But then this demand for evaluation hits a roadblock, in the form of the stark politicization created by the pandemic. There are loud voices on the political left who think the government didn’t go far enough and some on the right say who they went too far. It’s hard to have a debate when you only hear shrill voices at the extremes.
The only reliable way to end this debate is to collect evidence, rigorously analyze it and publish it. If an independent analysis reveals missteps taken by the government, so be it, they have to be published and acted upon.
On that front, the B.C. NDP government doesn’t seem interested in evaluating many of its COVID policies. The one I think needs a massive deep dive is the critical issue of mortality rates of the B.C. population between 2021 and now.
Like most jurisdictions in the world, we are seeing a much higher rate of excess deaths compared to before 2020. Why is that?
According to B.C. statistics published by the government, there are about 5,000 people more per year dying in B.C. since 2021 compared to rates before 2020. What is causing these excess deaths — which work out to about 14 extra per day — and who in the Health Ministry is studying this phenomenon? So far, crickets.
B.C. could be a world leader in evaluating COVID policy impacts. We have one of the best, most comprehensive linkable health datasets in the world. We have skilled experts who know how to use those databases.
We can examine anonymous health data of more than five million people linking doctor visits, drugs, hospitalizations, vaccination status, disabilities and deaths and easily find out what is going on.
Basically: How are people dying? What ages are dying? What are the key factors leading to this unprecedented death toll?
There seems to be an embarrassing lack of interest in the Health Ministry for examining this, even as excess deaths have been reported across Canada, the U.S., and almost every jurisdiction in the world including the U.K., New Zealand, Australia, Chile and Japan, all of which promoted the use of newly created mRNA vaccines.
Many commentators around the world are claiming that excess deaths are due to overly aggressive vaccination policies with vaccines that weren’t properly tested before they were deployed on a massive scale.
Could this be true? I don’t know, but I am burning to find out.
My perennial mantra is that any health treatment, intervention or drug has the potential to do harm, even though they also might do good. Many jurisdictions have moved on, have stopped promoting COVID vaccines, aren’t punishing people for not getting vaccinated, and analyzing causes of their excess mortality rates. But not B.C.
Many international scientists are coming to unpleasant conclusions about the overall wisdom of mass vaccinations for COVID, especially in low-risk people, to deter a virus that evolved quickly and was mostly benign for healthy people.
Such evaluations have to happen here, but can we count on the NDP to do so? Or maybe that is only going to happen after we get a new government?
In my opinion, the opioid epidemic, the continuing sidelining of health care workers, and the lack of evaluation of COVID-related policies and deaths have all dealt a serious blow to public trust.
We can never fault a government for making mistakes. Humans make mistakes all the time, regardless of stripe.
When it comes to something as important as our health system, we need leaders who have the humility to rigorously evaluate their policies, to admit their mistakes if necessary and correct things so they don’t happen again.
Ultimately, they must act on evidence and stop and reverse policies that could be continuing to hurt our society.
