A Q&A with Dr. Bonnie Henry: Bubbles, personal attacks, revisionist history and the toughest year of her career

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Over the past year, there hasn’t been a public servant under more pressure in British Columbia than Provincial Health Officer, Bonnie Henry. Hailed as a hero in the early going of the pandemic, Dr. Henry faced criticism as the crisis dragged on. The following is an edited conversation Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason conducted with Dr. Henry on the crisis.

This has been the most demanding year of your professional life. Is there a stretch of it that stands out as being especially tough?

The spring was difficult because it was all so new and we were trying to figure out how this virus was going to proceed. I think people were understandably frightened and worried and a big part of my job was reassuring people things were going to be okay, but we were all going to have to do our part to keep safe. For me, I think the hardest part might be right now. Once people have enjoyed some freedom, as they did during the summer, then it’s hard to pull back. We knew the fall was going to be really challenging and it has been. So in terms of sleepless nights, I’d say the last several weeks have been very hard.

Early on, the reviews of your performance were glowing. Lately the mood seems to have changed, much more second-guessing. Did you see that coming?

Oh, yes, I realized things were going to change and that some people would be challenging some of our decisions. I think it was inevitable, and some of it has not been easy to deal with. The B.C. Teachers’ Federation has really been critical of our plan for schools and they remain so. Some of the personal attacks on me have been very hard. But many people are saying things with the benefit of hindsight. They’re saying if you’d cracked down harder earlier in the fall, then we wouldn’t be having the problems we’re having today. I’m not sure that is the case. We did a pretty good job controlling the virus in the spring and summer but as we got into the fall the virus was just spreading so much more easily.

Upon reflection, is there anything you would have done differently?

We charted a different course than other jurisdictions and, for the most part, people responded well to the measures we put in place. It was never going to be perfect. You’ll never get 100 per cent compliance. But things that worked in the spring and summer weren’t working in the fall. This virus is incredibly resilient and there is no simple solution to stopping the spread.

Some parents have also spoken out questioning how safe schools are and demanding testing of children who are asymptomatic. You’ve said no. Why?

People talk about testing in schools but I’m just wondering how they think this would occur. They seem to suggest we test every child every day to see if they are carrying the virus and it’s just not practical to do. There isn’t the testing capacity let alone the kits to handle a program of that scale. And the data show that children aren’t spreading the virus to any great degree in the classroom. People say put masks on the kids and that will solve everything, but again it is not that simple and poses all sorts of other challenges. They’d be fiddling with them and taking them on and off. Are teachers going to be monitoring this?

Is it difficult to have to be the one responsible for decisions that carry so much weight, decisions that many vehemently disagree with?

We know that after this is all over there are going to be recriminations and the class action lawsuits are coming from people who will say we did too much, or we didn’t do enough. That is almost a certainty. But there is also a lot of revisionist history going on right now, in terms of what we know now versus what we knew at the time certain actions were taken. Decisions were based on the best available information we had at the time.

Of all of the directives you’ve issued, nothing has been more misconstrued, or maybe misunderstood, than the concept of bubbles. Who can be in them, and who can’t.

[Chuckling] Yes, it has been a difficult aspect of our messaging. I think people wanted very defined borders but it wasn’t as simple as that. Because there are always situations where hard lines aren’t practical. For instance, people living by themselves. It wouldn’t have been fair to say to people living alone you are confined to people in your household, which would leave people by themselves, which isn’t right or good for their mental health. So there had to be some exceptions. People really wanted to hear me say that what they were considering was okay, no matter what that was. It just doesn’t work that way. The most important message was limit your contact to just a very few people.

The holiday season is upon us. You’ve pleaded with people to stay home and not celebrate normally. How nervous are you?

I am extremely worried. We saw an outbreak up at Big White [ski resort] where there were 60 cases linked to large numbers of people in shared homes. Once the virus is in young people it can quickly spread. And that is my greatest fear; that people are going to get together in large numbers and we’re going to see similar outbreaks. I hope this doesn’t happen because we’ve made so much progress and I’d hate to see us fall back especially now that we’re so close with the vaccine.

Is this a particularly tough time of year for you personally?

It is because I know we are harming people by keeping them apart, especially over the holidays. But we will also harm people if they come together. I keep thinking of what Maya Angelou said: ‘Every storm runs out of rain.’ I just hope our levees hold until then.

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