On Jan. 28, 2020, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry held a news conference announcing B.C.’s first confirmed case of COVID-19, setting into motion what would be months of public health restrictions and uncertainty amid the world’s worst pandemic in over a century.
Five years later, Henry is reflecting on the “collective trauma” that people endured and says kindness is needed now “more than ever” to get through other tough problems.
“We’ve been through a very difficult five years. Everybody has suffered, but we can support each other as we’re getting out of this and we’re facing the next challenges,” Henry said in an interview with CBC’s The Early Edition on Tuesday.
Henry notes that the issues many people are currently facing, such as the economy, affordability and housing, are not related to health, but she says British Columbians should rely on each other as they did during the pandemic.
“The fact that we are connected, that kindness comes from that sense of kin,” she said.
Henry led the province’s COVID-19 response, working with government to balance politics and policy, regularly updating B.C. residents on the prevalence of the virus and deciding when to impose and lift public health restrictions.
Through it all, she urged people to “be kind, to be calm, and to be safe.”
Five years ago, on Jan. 27, 2020, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced the very first case of COVID-19 in B.C. As case numbers soared, the province implemented public health restrictions. Henry reflects on that time and how it continues to shape our world today.
‘Trying to find that balance is never easy’
There were some lighter moments, like when she gave British Columbians tips for safer sex, but also tough and controversial decisions on indoor masking, vaccine passports and mandatory vaccinations in health-care settings.
She was criticized both by people who thought the rules were too stringent or came too late and those who thought they weren’t strong enough, even receiving death threats at times.
“We needed to protect people’s lives first and foremost,” she said. “Trying to find that balance is never easy.”
Henry says politicians have been trying to take advantage of people’s anger to win points, noting that the B.C. Conservative Party promised to fire her if they formed government during the last provincial election campaign.
She says B.C. is in some ways better prepared to handle another pandemic because of advances in vaccinations and wastewater surveillance, but she’s concerned that many people no longer want to talk about public health and are opposed to the idea of any restrictions in the future.
“It is, I think, a reflection of a collective trauma that we’ve all been through,” she said.
“We need to be concerned. There’s other viruses that are out there. We need to watch them. We don’t need to change our lives in dramatic ways like we did before … but we do need to have that degree of awareness.”
Five years ago, the first case of COVID-19 was detected in B.C. The pandemic drastically altered public education in the province. CBC’s Jon Hernandez looks back on how students and schools fared during those trying years.
Dr. Brian Conway, medical director of the Vancouver Infectious Diseases Centre, says he hopes people keep some lessons from the pandemic, including being up-to-date on flu and COVID vaccines and staying home when you’re sick.
“I think that this concept that you can sort of soldier through an illness, sort of medicate yourself and drag yourself to work sick and then collapse at the end of the day, that’s not heroic, that’s wrong,” he said in an interview with CBC News.
“As a society, we need to provide for people so that this is a real option that they can stay home without a financial consequence.”
Henry takes shots at Alberta
During the interview, Henry also criticized a new report issued by a task force created by Alberta’s UCP government to review that province’s pandemic response.
Henry, along with other doctors, says the report contains misinformation.
The report questioned the value of COVID-19 vaccines and recommended doctors be allowed to prescribe alternative medications, including the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, which is not authorized for the treatment of COVID-19 in Canada.
The Alberta government says it’s reviewing the report but has yet to make any final policy decisions.
“To have a report like this is really, in some ways, embarrassing,” Henry said.
“We know so much about the vaccine, how effective it is, how safe it is, how it works and how long it works. We have the consensus of science.”