Since COVID-19 emerged in Canada in March 2020, what physicians, scientists, public health
officials and citizens have understood about the virus and how to address it has changed drastically. The continually evolving information overload is understandably confusing and overwhelming, and the conflicts between information can be difficult to validate.
The following considerations may help you to more clearly consider these challenges:
| Public Perceptions | Evidence-Based Considerations |
|---|---|
| COVID-19 poses a serious threat to public health. | Risk varies with age and comorbidities. Children, adolescents and young adults have a very low risk of hospitalization or death from COVID-19. |
| There is no available, effective, approved treatment for COVID-19. | There are known safe drug protocols that are effective in COVID-19 treatment and prevention. |
| Because healthy people are considered to transmit the virus, restrictions (including social distancing and lockdowns) are the best way to reduce transmission of COVID-19. | Numerous studies have found that healthy people do not significantly contribute to transmission of the virus. Research has shown that the majority of people who have recovered from COVID-19 have developed immunity and do not transmit the virus. Targeted early treatment and empowering people to build healthy, meaningful, socially connected lives is essential to personal well being and public health. |
| COVID-19 vaccines are necessary, safe, and effective (“the benefits outweigh the risks”), and the fastest and only way to get back to, and perpetually maintain normal life. | The methods used to justify rapid COVID-19 vaccine development and rollout do not adequately measure necessity, safety, and efficacy. There have been an unprecedented number of deaths and serious, lifealtering adverse reactions occurring shortly after COVID-19 vaccination. Contrary to initial scientific assumption, the lipid nanoparticles in the COVID-19 vaccines do not stay at the injection site but travel throughout the body, cross the blood-brain barrier, and have been shown to accumulate in sensitive tissues including bone marrow and ovaries. Much remains unknown about the extremely serious short and long term adverse effects and dangers of the COVID-19 vaccines. These risks need to be independently investigated immediately and resolved before continuing with mass vaccination. |
| All COVID-19 vaccines are fully approved. | COVID-19 vaccines are authorized for use “under interim order” and are therefore investigational. The current experimental phases are not due to be completed until 2023 or 2024. |
| “The Science” is settled; anything contrary to the official narrative is not science. | “The Science” is not settled; competing evidence about COVID-19 is growing from many highly-credentialed sources and challenges the official narrative. Compelling scientific evidence is being ignored or censored. In valuing principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion, we need to encourage multiple ways of knowing, and develop public health protocols that are evidence informed and responsive to the overall health and well being of our individuals and communities. |
Dialogue over these issues is difficult, divisive, and threatens to tear us apart. As we navigate this rapidly evolving situation, we believe some ethical and legal principles should remain constant in a free and democratic society:
- First and foremost, the right and responsibility of adults to make their own decisions about their health and to be accorded respect for questioning mandates that have farreaching social implications
- Free, voluntary and “informed consent”
- Human rights and responsibilities
- Fiduciary duties for all governing authorities and adherence to professional and institutional ethical codes of conduct
- Evidence, matters of conscience, and precaution as fundamental to medical decisionmaking
- Honest and open inquiry
As caring and responsible individuals, it is crucial that we remain open to listening to each other, continuing to ask questions, and recognizing that we are all doing the best we can to keep those we love safe. This is especially true regarding concerns about scientific and medical issues which have a huge impact on the health and welfare of our population. Our COVID-19 resources are offered as learning tools. Feel free to use the information, forms and FAQs as resources with which to engage your government, representatives, health care providers, family and friends.
