Public health officials are not perfect
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189.61105
Summary
A story that underscores how public health officials in Canada are certainly not infallible. And that means the public has the right to criticize them, to push back, and certainly our elected officials do as well. This is a story that shows public health makes mistakes, and you're within your right to call them out for their mistakes.
Transcript
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I want to tell you a story that underscores how public health officials in Canada are certainly
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not infallible, and why that means the public has the right to criticize them, to push back,
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and certainly our elected officials do as well. So the past few days, I got some messages from
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parents in Peel region in the GTA. They were frustrated with letters sent out by Peel Health
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after their child had been dismissed from school. For 14 days, they had to stay home
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because they had been a close contact of someone who had coronavirus, who later tested positive for
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it. So basically, someone in the class had it. Now, the data all tells us there's been hardly
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any in-class transmission at all in the province of Ontario. So already, you know, these close
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contact kids, they're probably highly, highly unlikely to later have coronavirus. These are
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just the close contact. So anyway, this document says they got to stay home for 14 days and ideally
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self-isolate away from all other family members alone in a room. And it includes child care on
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there, meaning small children. And then we got social media reports that there were some parents
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who were doing this, basically making their child stay in a room alone for 14 days. In a case where
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the child doesn't even have coronavirus and the odds of them having it are pretty darn small,
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what on earth was going on here? When parents learned about this, they were outraged. And you
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know what Peel Health did? They issued an apology. They said they were wrong, that people were right
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to be upset. And they called it an error in communication, although a lot of people wondered,
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well, how did this document get out there in the first place? Surely a couple other people had to
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read it and, you know, and give it the thumbs up before it was distributed. Regardless, they admitted a
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mistake. And to his credit, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said, yes, this document is wrong.
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It needs to be changed. And they've slightly revised the protocol there. This is a story that shows
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public health makes mistakes. And you're certainly within your right to call them out for their
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mistakes. And you should encourage both those officials to revise those mistakes. And you
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should feel empowered to put pressure on politicians to go through what public health officials are saying
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with a fine tooth comb. And if something doesn't work for you, then you speak up and you make your voice
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heard. Because we've heard so much ad nauseum this whole, listen to the doctors, respect the experts.
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And of course, one must appreciate everything their experience brings to the table. But at the same
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time, they're not perfect. They make mistakes. This was one mistake. Maybe there's a whole bunch more
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out there. And you have the right to speak out against those mistakes.