Thread by @j_mcelroy

Since today's emergency press conference on #COVID19 data in B.C. is telephone only, I'm going to use this thread to livetweet the questions and answers in a straightforward fashion, instead of the usual charts/context/jokes approach

Dr. Réka Gustafson begins the press conference, says she's going to "raise some awareness" on the public health surveillance done by B.C.

Explains how data is used for making decisions.

"It's an established process, and with every week and day we try to improve it."

Gustafson says the province "makes as much of the data as possible … available publicly."

Says "there has been a particular interest in the data".

Dr. Henry says the data "is for decision making" and there is weekly technical meetings.

Dr. Henry explains/defends the current approach, says they've provided more data as things have gone on, says data eventually "goes public, in a way that can help inform people."

Questions now beginning.

The first question is asking what the actual positivity rate is in some Surrey neighbourhoods, since the data only showed that it was above 20%.

Dr. Gustafson can't say, also says it's not necessarily helpful because of a small sample size.

Dr. Henry also saying that the weekly positivity rate less important than the positivity rate over time.

The province has not provided the positivity rate at a local health area at any point during the course of the pandemic.

A followup question on high transmission rates in Surrey, whether it would delay removing restrictions.

Dr. Henry says "we’ve been reporting on local health rates of disease for over a year now."

This is not true. A year ago they were not.

cbc.ca/news/canada/br…

Dr. Henry says “COVID zero is not a viable option once you have a lot of transmission in your community, and we’ve been in that place for a long time.”

Gustafson says about restrictions, “as we move along the vaccination campaign, as we continue to protect immunizations, the daily rates or control measures will shift away from restrictions.”

A question is asked about releasing the internal BCCDC reports.

Dr. Henry says "we do release almost all of that information that were in some the reports that were posted."

The information on Community Health Service Areas has never been released.

Dr. Gustafson says it was helpful to see that people enjoyed that data, say it may inform future decisions.

Says that putting out the data publicly is a lot of work.

Also says that "none of that information is ... concerning for us when it's in the public domain."

Dr. Henry says on releasing the data "there’s a process that it goes through before it's meaningful."

"There's a context that it's put in before it's released publicly."

personally i think the leaked data is pretty meaningful and has lots of context

Another question points out that other provinces release community information proactively every single day.

Wonders why B.C. can't do the same.

Dr. Henry says they are releasing more information that some provinces.

I will follow up to ask for examples.

Dr. Gustafson said that on the BCCDC website "there’s a great deal of information, including positivity rates per neighbourhood, or local health area."

I have never seen positivity rates per neighbourhood or local health area.

Ever.

If I am wrong, I would love to shown so.

Followup question is "what specifically is going to change?"

Gustafson says they are working on providing neighbourhood level rates and immunization rates.

"That's our goal in the coming weeks."

Dr. Henry admits a little more explicitly the province's IT issues, says “we don’t actually have systems to support the same consistent collection of the same data over time.”

A new question points out again that other provinces provided more detailed data, asks "14 months into this pandemic, why have you decided we’re weeks away from getting this information?"

The question is not particularly answered.

Dr. Gustafson says the leak was not a leak.

Dr. Gustafson again repeats that all the information in the internal BCCDC reports are things they are comfortable sharing with the public.

They have never shared case counts or positivity rates at the community health service area level, and didn't respond to my question.

A followup question says "I can hear that you think you are being transparent", but points out other people don't think so.

Asks if they will commit to sharing more information.

Gustafson says yes.

Says again that the "vast majority" of the leaked data is regularly released.

New question asks if the government can point to any actual group that supports the province's approach on data re: privacy/stigmatization.

Dr. Henry cites anti-Asian racism, does not cite any particular groups that support the government's approach.

CBC asks a followup question about the government not responding to questions by me about community health service areas data for 15 days.

Dr. Henry says that they actually don't gather that data every week, but it's a goal to do so going forward.

Dr. Gustafson is explaining the early days of the pandemic when cases were low enough that individual cases in communities could have raised privacy concerns.

But says "we are not in that stage of the pandemic now."

Which, yes. That's why we're having this press conference.

A question is about people feeling condescended to.

Dr. Henry says "it is finding that balance. We have been very open from the very beginning where we’ve presented as much as we could. People always want more, unless you’re the one potentially at risk."

Dr. Gustafson says the debate about data is good and we're all learning things.

Says "I completely hear you and acknowledge that there are people who want more granular and more timely data, there are others who want it less granular and less timely."

who are these "others"

There's a long answer by Dr. Henry talking about systemic inequities and how a lot of communication is done on a 1-on-1 or family basis.

Dr. Gustafson says "public health is managed very, very closely at the local level" and that "they're working incredibly hard."

Another question on why community-level data isn't shown.

Dr. Henry says of the leaked data "this information is information we’ve pulled from multiple databases in the last few weeks."

"We are working hard to make them publicly, and it takes time."

They say maybe next week.

Dr. Gustafson repeats that they have all this information, and "it exists in the hands of people who are serving the community day to day. That’s where the data is gathered."

Acknowledges that providing that publicly "does take some resources, and does take some time."

There's a question about whether a regional approach may happen for B.C. re: restrictions in the coming months.

Dr. Henry says no, believes that approach wouldn't work.

The final question is about vaccinating priority workers on Vancouver Island.

Not gonna summarize it.

The press conference is over.

I hope that was helpful, in its own way.