The task force took aim at vaccines, which Alberta and other Canadian jurisdictions required in order to access public gatherings and businesses during the pandemic.Mary Conlon/The Associated Press
An Alberta government task force has recommended that the use of COVID-19 vaccines be halted unless more information is provided about risk, in a report rife with suggestions that run counter to mainstream scientific consensus.
The $2-million task force’s final report, released Friday, touched on several points common with disinformation campaigns such as the effectiveness of public health restrictions and masking, while also recommending some government authority over media.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, in the fall of 2022, directed the government’s then-health minister to strike a panel to review pandemic data and provide recommendations. The Globe and Mail, in April, first revealed details about the task force, which was led by Gary Davidson, a physician who claimed the province manipulated statistics to introduce restrictions and exaggerated pressure on hospitals during the height of the pandemic.
The task force’s composition and report reflect Ms. Smith’s skepticism toward how governments around the world responded to the pandemic. The final report, for example, revealed that Jay Bhattacharya was among its 13 panelists. U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Dr. Bhattacharya to run the National Institutes of Health. In 2020, Dr. Bhattacharya co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, which argued against public-health measures such as lockdowns.
The 269-page report is a sweeping criticism of the government’s response and defence of contrarian arguments, such as the value of drugs such as ivermectin, which scientists determined were ineffective in warding off and treating COVID-19.
The task force took aim at vaccines, which Alberta and other Canadian jurisdictions required in order to access public gatherings and businesses. Alberta launched a vaccine passport system in September, 2021, and while it ended in early 2022, physicians still recommend booster shots.
The task force “recommends halting the use of COVID-19 vaccines without full disclosure of their potential risks, ending their use in healthy children and teenagers, conducting further research into their effectiveness, establishing support for vaccine-injured individuals, and providing an opt-out mechanism from federal public health policy,” the report said.
Ms. Smith, prior to becoming premier, railed against Alberta’s management of the pandemic, particularly vaccine mandates and restrictions on gatherings. She promoted drugs, such as the antiparasitic drug ivermectin, and also travelled to the United States to receive Janssen’s single-dose shot because she was skeptical of mRNA vaccines.
The task force concluded federal and provincial health authorities took a “restrictive approach” to certain drugs including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, which is used to treat malaria.
Both drugs gained popularity in right-wing and anti-vaccination circles as COVID-19 remedies, although the medical community insists there is no evidence supporting their effectiveness against the coronavirus.
The panel said Alberta should protect “public discussion of alternative medical treatments” under the provincial Human Rights Act and advised the government to prevent regulatory bodies from using “professionalism or codes of conduct” to obstruct the use of approved medications for off-label use.
It also recommended halting disciplinary action against health care workers for promoting or using these medications.
The task force took aim at both Alberta Health Services and the health ministry on its collection of data to inform the need for booster shots. The group stated that there is no “quality data” that supports the idea that vaccines provide better protection from severe disease than natural exposure to circulating variants. Ultimately, it was recommended that public health information “avoid ideological bias geared toward maximizing vaccine coverage.”
When it came to testing for COVID-19, the review concluded that there were conflicting studies and methods utilized during the height of the pandemic, which resulted in “inconsistent determinations regarding the actual infection rate in Alberta” and consequently informed policy decisions.
”We recommend that future pandemic responses prioritize minimizing severe disease and mortality over extensive case detection. Specifically, Alberta should focus on developing a screening tool to help estimate individual risk,” the report stated.
The panel also suggested that the media is politically or financially compensated by public health or pharmaceutical contracts and said the government should require the press to publicly disclosure any affiliations.
“When reporting on health-related matters, require media to cite levels of supporting evidence and publicly disclose any political or financial competing interests that may influence their reporting, including publicly disclosing the dollar value and conditions of their public health and pharmaceutical contracts,” the report said.
Ms. Smith previously said she appointed Dr. Davidson as head the task force because of his “contrarian perspective.” She defended the task force last April and said it was created to investigate unexplained deaths and rumours on social media about vaccine harms.
Medical professionals in Alberta were skeptical of the task force and the final report said the panelists’ search for answers “was hindered by informational barriers, including reluctance of key stakeholders to acknowledge and engage with our mandate.”
Jessi Rampton, a spokeswoman for Health Minister Adriana LaGrange, said in a statement the government is still reviewing the report and that no policy decisions have been made at this time.
“Their recommendations offer a perspective on how the government can be better positioned to protect the health and safety of Albertans in the future.”
The government has been reviewing the report since August, when it received it.