Alberta Premier Danielle insists she will not shut down 'contrarian' voices, regardless of how uncomfortable they make some people or, seemingly, how ill-informed or potentially dangerous the views promulgated by them are. Ms. Smith speaks to the media during the fall meetings of Canada's premiers hosted by Ontario in Toronto, on Dec. 16, 2024.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
It was fitting that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith released a government-sanctioned report on the province’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic at the same time notorious vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was going through confirmation hearings to become America’s next secretary of health.
Mr. Kennedy has famously said that no vaccines are safe and effective. He also doesn’t think anyone can say whether or not COVID vaccines saved millions of lives, and has espoused the opinion that vaccines are the cause of a rise in autism rates.
Of course, he isn’t the only one who expressed doubts about the efficacy of vaccines or questioned the many protocols introduced during the pandemic to keep people safe. In Canada, Alberta was the epicentre of vaccine cynicism and pushback.
Among those who questioned vaccine safety, and who promulgated dubious vaccine theories, was none other than Ms. Smith. Upon taking office in 2022, she vowed a full review of the pandemic response by her predecessor, Jason Kenney. It was a pledge she made to those in her United Conservative Party base who believed the response by health authorities to the crisis was tyrannical and based on questionable scientific evidence. It was a pledge that also helped her win the leadership race.
That review was finally released, despite being in the government’s possession for eight months. The response by doctors, health scientists and academics has been barely contained rage.
The task force was led by Dr. Gary Davidson, who gained acclaim for asserting the province manipulated statistics to introduce draconian COVID measures that weren’t necessary. His report was clearly an attempt to back up those assertions. Recommendations included stopping the use of COVID-19 vaccines without fully disclosing their risks, particularly among children. In the event of another pandemic, the report recommends that health workers who don’t agree with restrictions imposed by the government or refuse to abide by them not be sanctioned or disciplined in any way.
That brief summary is all the 269-page document deserves. A bigger waste of $2-million of taxpayers’ money you will not find.
Reaction has been deservedly harsh.
The report has been denounced for including viewpoints that suggest COVID vaccines were ineffective and potentially harmful. In fact, they are among the safest vaccines ever made and have saved millions, if not tens of millions, of lives.
Dr. James Talbot, an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta’s School of Public Health, told the Edmonton Journal that Ms. Smith’s government was sitting on data that showed who got immunized, how many of them developed COVID and whether any developed any rare medical conditions after getting inoculated. Yet that information remains a state secret. He denounced the document for continuing to promote treatments such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, which have proven ineffective against COVID. In fact, there isn’t a place in the world where those drugs are being used to treat the disease, and yet the report’s authors dedicated a full chapter to them.
Duane Bratt, a Mount Royal University political science professor who has a soon-to-be-published book on the politics of COVID in Alberta, also denounced the report, telling the Journal that, among other things, it quoted Substack posts as if they were peer-reviewed articles.
Darren Markland, an intensive-care doctor from Edmonton who worked throughout the pandemic, couldn’t contain his enmity. “Two million dollars in an attempt to rewrite history,” he posted on X. “I was there. I watched people suffer and some die as a result of this misinformation. I will not accept these outright lies.”
After endorsements like these, you really don’t need a marketing campaign to sell this page-turner, do you?
Ms. Smith, of course, defended every word of it. You see, she knows science and you don’t. That “you” includes medical specialists who have trained for years in the area of infectious diseases. The Premier insisted that she will not shut down “contrarian” voices, regardless of how uncomfortable they make some people or, seemingly, how ill-informed or potentially dangerous the views promulgated by them are.
Let’s hope no one else in this country – no political leaders at least – hold such misguided views or are as cavalier about your health. In the U.S. and Canada, we are already seeing what happens when misinformed statements get credible platforms: vaccine hesitancy, especially when it comes to children, is on the rise.
Doctors are voicing concerns that vaccine-preventable illnesses that were previously eradicated will soon return. And it’s reports like the one commissioned by the Alberta government – and opinions expressed by the likes of RFK Jr. – that will lead some people down this perilous path.