Dear Editor:

What a difference six months makes.

Our local medical officer of health has made the national news at least twice. The first was over the $300,000 (approx.) in overtime which he hauled in for his pandemic efforts in 2020. (When this councillor called him to task, the good doctor appeared before our city council and - in a bizarre and disturbing presentation meant to send a message to anyone who has the temerity to challenge him - expressed the open fantasy that a city founder come from the grave and take a flamethrower to my council seat).

The second national exposure was a recent interview with As It Happens, (beginning at minute 9:15) where he blamed our awful COVID numbers not on staff turnover or organizational dysfunction in his office but largely on people who “lie” to his contact tracers.

Six months ago, some justified the bonus pay on the basis that we had some of the lowest COVID rates in the province. Now that our rates are through the ceiling and warrant a national CBC radio interview, those same voices have predictably gone silent.

I never believed that COVID rates have that much to do with the personality or media availability of any given medical officer of health. I found it hard to credit Dr. Arra with our good numbers and, apart from ongoing concerns of managerial and front line turnover at the health unit, will not fault him entirely for our current abysmal standing. As a culture we seem to need our heroes and this particular physician appeared ready to fill that slot. If the Board of Public Health could decouple his bonus entitlement from our COVID ratings, that would be a good thing.

What disturbs most about Dr. Arra’s latest pronouncements is his apparent willingness to blame certain segments of our society for the high numbers – be that our indigenous peoples, “transients”, kids at bush parties or, now, people who lie to his contact tracers.

I have asked for and not received the epidemiological data to back any of this up. That may have something to do with the fact that the health unit has gone through a number of epidemiologists and presently does not have a dedicated one on staff. We are thus stuck for the most part with anecdotal information.

So since we are in the realm of story telling, my anecdotal experience is as follows: I have met a lot of middle class white people who don’t want the vaccine. I also have known a lot of people who look like me who have had parties and have repeatedly flouted social distancing guidelines. I also have heard from more than one nurse that many intelligent health care workers refuse to get vaccinated.

Maybe rather than focus the blame for our numbers on the most vulnerable, we could remind ourselves that we are all in this together.

And maybe, faced with this new data, the Board of Public Health might reconsider the merits of calling for an outside audit of the health unit’s management. It is critical that during a pandemic any and all health units do nothing to erode public trust. Blaming the numbers on transients, our local first nations and those who allegedly mislead his contact tracers and threatening to “toss the book” at kids is a strange way to build such trust.

Sincerely,

John A. Tamming