Toronto’s Vice President of Public Health is expressing concern about people losing their jobs due to not being vaccinated against COVID-19, a city policy, and is sharing information about the risk of infection that experts say is false.
Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam wrote a column, titled “Let’s Choose the Speech on Division,” published Thursday by the Toronto Sun.
In it, Wong-Tam criticizes anti-vaccination extremists and also those who want unvaccinated people to be “excluded from society, fired from their workplace or want to deny them access to medical care due to an apparent ‘careless behavior’ “.
While she is vaccinated, her parents “for their own personal and legitimate reasons, originally refused their turn to get vaccinated” and are not protesters or extremists, she wrote, criticizing phrases such as “anti-vaccines” and “vacillating to vaccines.”
“We know from recent public health statements that those who are vaccinated can still contract COVID-19 and can still transmit it to others just as easily as those who are not vaccinated,” wrote the Ward 13 Toronto Center councilman.
Dr. Anna Banerji, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto, said Friday that Wong-Tam’s claim that people vaccinated with COVID-19 can transmit the virus as easily as infected unvaccinated people is “false. “.
“People who are vaccinated have a much lower risk of severe COVID, hospitalizations, and a lower risk of contracting and transmitting COVID,” Banerji said, adding: “People are treated differently as it affects the risk of others. become infected. It is inaccurate to place validation of COVID status (with) other forms of discrimination. “
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, another Toronto infectious disease specialist, also called Wong-Tam’s claim misleading.
“Vaccinated people are less likely to get the infection in the first place,” he said in an interview. “Furthermore, it appears that while an infected and vaccinated person may have as high a viral load as an unvaccinated person, the length of time that the viral load remains so high is shorter.
“So, on average, it appears that vaccinated people would be less likely to infect as many people as unvaccinated people.”
Toronto Public Health says that “scientific evidence is evolving on how infectious vaccinated individuals are,” but there is “evidence that peak infectivity is reached quickly and then decreases, further suggesting that they are not as infectious as a non-human person. vaccinated “.
Wong-Tam also noted in the column that Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s medical director of health, “has stated that natural immunity should be considered as a factor in the province’s reopening plan.”
In the same briefing on October 28, Moore also said: “This remains a pandemic of those who have not been vaccinated. The vast majority of people in our intensive care units, in our hospitals or who are receiving positive tests are not vaccinated ”.
Responding in writing to Star’s questions, Wong-Tam defended her claim about the risk of infection from vaccinated and unvaccinated people as supported by her interpretation of the cited medical reports on viral loads.
He added: “I am concerned that the same essential workers whom we praised at the beginning of the pandemic as heroes are now losing their jobs due to their unvaccinated status.
That’s why I shared my deeply personal story about my parents. They have a different opinion on vaccines than I do, and yet I love them unconditionally. I want us to open the dialogue, not to close it. “
Wong-Tam said she has expressed her disgust at the phrase “vacillating about vaccines” among public health officials. Toronto’s chief of public health, Dr. Eileen de Villa, has used the phrase while urging understanding of people’s concerns about the vaccine and the need to provide them with the information they need to understand that COVID-19 poses a risk. much greater for your health than the vaccine.
De Villa, President of Public Health Coun. Joe Cressy and Mayor John Tory have vigorously backed vaccine mandates, including the city’s demand that its staff test immunization against COVID-19 or be suspended without pay and then fired.
The members of the health board are appointed by the city council. Wong-Tam, first vice president elected by other board members in 2018, would help lead the response to the Toronto pandemic if Cressy were unable to serve as president.
On Friday, the city said that, as of Thursday, 515 employees were suspended and faced possible layoff in mid-December, while another 85 city employees were on leave pending review of their human rights waiver request.
When asked for a comment on Wong-Tam’s column, Cressy wrote: “I certainly disagree with many of the points raised. We cannot and should not ignore the science before us, which is that vaccines are safe and effective.
“As the Board of Health, we will continue to lead an evidence-based immunization campaign. In fact, as we prepare for the 5-11 year campaign, that work will only increase …
“We have a social obligation to each other and to help vaccinate our city.”
Reference-www.thestar.com