Vancouver Coastal Health’s top doctor said vaccine mandates may cause more harm than good, letter reveals

Vancouver Coastal Health’s major health practitioner encouraged in mid-February that vaccine mandates, passports and segregated lockdowns may result in extra damage than superior, correspondence to the president of the University of British Columbia demonstrates.

The position by Main Medical Health Officer Patricia Daly contrasts with provincial general public-health procedures that have saved lots of mask and vaccine demands in place for the Omicron wave of the pandemic.

On Thursday, Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry is expected to announce no matter if mask specifications and vaccine passes are nonetheless demanded for community protection throughout B.C.

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But in a briefing on March 1, Dr. Henry resisted force to abide by the guide of other provinces to roll back those pandemic security specifications. “There are nonetheless lots of, a lot of regions that have substantial transmission and we are even now observing common transmission of this virus across the province, which is why the protections we have in position appropriate now continue being a necessary portion of our strategy for now,” she explained to reporters then.

The Feb. 16 letter from Vancouver Coastal Health to Santa Ono, president of UBC, urged the college to drop its prepare to deregister learners who have refused to declare their COVID-19 vaccination status. Dr. Daly’s letter cited a study that was not peer-reviewed as crucial evidence that the policy would be ineffective.

In her letter to UBC’s president, Dr. Daly argued that vaccines are not productive at blocking an infection or transmission of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. “Therefore there is now no content big difference in probability that a UBC scholar or team member who is vaccinated or unvaccinated may well be infected and possibly infectious to other individuals,” she wrote.

She also took intention at the university’s need for weekly quick antigen testing of unvaccinated learners and staff members, which experienced been in location given that last September.

The letter, signed by the health authority’s 4 medical health officers, rates from an examination on the on the web Social Science Research Network about the possible harms of mandatory vaccine procedures.

The examine, titled The Unintended Repercussions of COVID-19 Vaccine Plan: Why Mandates, Passports and Segregated Lockdowns May perhaps Bring about Extra Harm Than Fantastic, was in preprint, indicating it had not been formally peer reviewed. The review concludes that vaccine mandates may possibly discourage uptake of long term health measures. “Restricting people’s entry to work, schooling, public transport, and social lifestyle based mostly on COVID-19 vaccination status impinges on human legal rights, promotes stigma and social polarization, and adversely influences health and perfectly-getting,” it suggests.

Dr. Daly concluded that universities are very low-chance options for COVID-19 and hence should really have minimal limits in area at this phase of the pandemic, to stay away from “profound damaging harms” on unvaccinated students who confronted sanctions. She was not accessible for comment.

Caroline Colijn, a professor at B.C.’s Simon Fraser University and Canada 150 Investigation Chair in arithmetic for evolution, an infection and public health, mentioned there is strong proof indicating that two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine are a lot less effective in blocking transmission of the Omicron variant than past variants.

However, she stated she would not count on a preprint examine, and she is not informed of any peer-reviewed investigation that demonstrates that the mandates are resulting in more damage than very good. “I don’t know of any sort of publicly readily available information that the public can use to feel about balancing the harms and the added benefits.”

Twelve days right after Dr. Daly’s letter to the university, UBC declared it would drop both its speedy screening method and its plan to deregister learners who have not complied with its vaccine necessities.

“The evolution of the virus and the existence of the Omicron variant now indicates that a various general public-health and security method need to be taken,” states the bulletin, posted for faculty, employees and pupils in Vancouver and the Okanagan. The university also took information from its COVID modelling workforce that concluded in a Feb. 20 letter: “There is no extended a potent scientific reason to differentially take care of those people who ended up totally vaccinated months in the past and these who are unvaccinated, in phrases of the challenges that they pose for transmitting COVID to other individuals.”

Matthew Ramsey, a spokesperson for the college, claimed the coverage improvements were manufactured “after comprehensive dialogue inside of UBC and through mindful consideration of available details.”

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