Editor:
Kudos to John Gleeson for his editorial (“As B.C. reopens, communities need to know numbers”) in the May 15 edition of Coast Reporter; what he said needs to be shouted loudly to Dr. Bonnie Henry, Adrian Dix and Premier Horgan. It’s shameful that our government treats us this way and refuses to supply meaningful statistics on the COVID-19 pandemic in our communities. Their arguments are puerile and unpersuasive with no demonstrable basis, as Mr. Gleeson too-politely points out. In order to “gradually reopen,” these numbers are critical. Further, refusing to provide them makes it harder to challenge the various COVID-19 conspiracy nuts because we’re missing data that could help falsify their claims.
I worked for seven years at a high level in emergency planning in B.C. so I think I’ve earned some credibility in this regard. I give our provincial and federal governments a C+ for their handling of this pandemic because at the end of the day all the numbers we have right now are probably wildly inaccurate and many of the conclusions largely suspect. We don’t know either way because we haven’t done – and are still not doing – nearly enough testing and almost no contact tracing. A quick online search will show many credible sources showing that countries that have actually done these things are faring very well and those who haven’t are mostly not; I suspect we’ve just been lucky so far here on the Coast.
Our governments need to test much more, invest in contact tracing and make the aggregate data available to the public. Only then can we make informed, rational choices and properly protect our families and communities.
Arne Hermann, Elphinstone
