Why Tam and Hinshaw are wrong

By Daniel Schnee on August 12, 2021.

During my college days I dated a fellow anthropologist from Vietnam. As she was from the southern part of the country, her lovely accent made the Ds at the end of words sound like Ks. Thus, I came to regularly use the word “stupik” to describe anything lacking in intelligence or wisdom, like recent comments about COVID-19 made by Alberta’s Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw, and Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Theresa Tam.

Tam, for example, stated that the habits people have picked up from going through COVID will be sufficient to keep people safe, rather than mandated protocols, etc. This means habits like standing apart from people, wearing masks, hand sanitizing, and self-isolation, i.e. mandated COVID protocols.

Tam’s message is “clear”: you don’t have to follow the protocols if you follow the protocols.

Hinshaw herself has said Albertans will no longer have to self-isolate if they have tested positive for COVID, and that it’s time instead to address rising syphilis rates, i.e. abandon focus on a dangerous disease you contract without touching someone at all for syphilis, an easily treatable disease you contract from touching another’s genitals, also easily addressed by standard COVID protocols.

The newer, more dangerous variants of COVID are a major threat to the unvaccinated, if not a minor threat to the fully vaccinated. Fully vaccinated people can move around a little more safely without a mask or social distancing … amongst each other.

But removing the need for anyone to contact trace or self-isolate when positively diagnosed is insane. Vaccinated people can still contract the virus and transmit it to the unvaccinated in amounts similar to the non-vaccinated, according to experts at the Center For Disease Control, who recommend the vaccinated wear masks around those who are suspected to have COVID, then get tested 3-5 days afterward.

If the vaccinated can roam freely, why would the most respected disease experts in the world contradict our own experts? Because Tam and Hinshaw are dangerously wrong, that’s why.

To be sure, masks are not a perfect solution. The average little blue mask you get for free at banks and doctors’ offices is meant for helping protect others in part through slowing the spread, not protecting the wearer 100%. It is about others, our fellow Canadians: doing as much as we can to keep both the vaccinated and unvaccinated around us safe. Masks are one part of a larger regimen of safety.

But now enough people are vaccinated to make COVID protocols unnecessary? Enough people are vaccinated now to make COVID protocols less urgent for the vaccinated alone, until a variant arises that resists all our efforts. These mixed messages also destroy any faith we can have in our leadership and the efficacy of their science, sending a dark message: “Who cares what happens to Alberta’s unvaccinated? The rest of us will be OK.”

Telling everyone to roam freely and not check their viral status is not sound public health strategy. It is dangerously contradictory, a stunning lack of leadership and without a doubt, extremely “stupik.”

Dr. Daniel Schnee is an anthropologist who studies Japanese creative culture.

12
-11