#bcpoli When there's a new virus there's going to be a huge variation in science. Dr. Henry was lead public health officer for Toronto for Sars-CoV 1 in 2003. There was a disaster in Toronto not duplicated in BC. The Sars Commission report blasted Ontario health agencies. 1/9
Justice Archie Campbell's Sars Commission stated: "One example was the debate during SARS over whether SARS was transmitted by large droplets or through airborne particles. The point is not who was right and who was wrong in this debate." 2/9
And Sars arrived simultaneously in Vancouver and Toronto. Campbell praised VGH for exercising the precautionary principle and treating first patient cautiously. While a patient who arrived in a Toronto hospital was treated as a potential TB patient. 3/9
"When it comes to worker safety in hospitals, we should not be driven by the scientific dogma of yesterday or even the scientific dogma of today. We should be driven by the precautionary principle that reasonable steps to reduce risk should not await scientific certainty." 4/9
"In Ontario there was a systemic failure to recognize the precautionary principle in health worker safety, and in the identification and diagnosis of a respiratory illness that mimicked the symptoms of other, better-known diseases," the commission noted. 5/9
"Amid this systemic absence of the precautionary principle, it is not surprising that in Ontario, unlike in Vancouver, SARS caused such devastation, infecting 375 people, including 169 health workers, and killing 44, including two nurses and a physician." Said Campbell. 6/9
So then Sars-CoV 1 still haunts Dr. Henry. We know that from her interview with Tvo.org. When she learned of the new Sars-CoV-2, she said, "Believe me, my heart has been in my throat since this started. All my SARS post-traumatic stress has come out." 7/9
Ok so what's the point. The point is that when science is in flux, your duty is not to wait for scientific certainty. Your job is to use the precautionary principle to protect people. We've heard from her - masks are not part of our culture - or they are least effective. 8/9
Again she's going against the principle Justice Campbell emphasized. Do what you have to do for safety regardless of scientific congruence. This is where she fails. When she minimizes science of masking she's again failing to protect and is waiting for scientific certainty. 9/9
