Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 12, 2022, Winnipeg, Manitoba ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMA4 C M Y K PAGE A4 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2022NEWS I COVID-19 PANDEMIC T HERE are two takeaways from Premier Heather Stefanson’s un-expected announcement Friday that all pandemic restrictions, includ- ing mask use, will be lifted over the next month. First, under her leadership, data and evidence will no longer play a role in managing the pandemic; all decisions regarding COVID-19 and how it affects the health of Manitobans will be made at a political level, not a public health one. Second, the premier is easily influ- enced by protests, especially when the substance of what demonstrators are calling for aligns with her political views. Stefanson believes the province has relied too much on the scientific advice of public health officials during the pandemic and not enough on the views of other “stakeholders,” such as busi- ness groups. She said so last month. “A lot of emphasis was put solely at the feet of public health and that’s a lot of responsibility in one place,” she said. In other words, she doesn’t trust that public health officials strike the right balance between mitigating severe ill- ness and death and limiting the impact restrictions have on the economy and on people’s mental health. Manitoba hospitals crashed several times during the pandemic, including having to airlift 57 ICU patients out of the province during the third wave last year when Stefanson was health minister. Manitoba also has the second highest COVID-19 death rate in Cana- da, so it’s hard to imagine how the goal of protecting hospital capacity could have been given less weight. Even with current restrictions, Man- itoba has the second highest COVID-19 death rate among the provinces over the past 14 days at 5.6 per 100,000 (Quebec is first with 6.4). Stefanson took her anti-science stance a step further Friday. She es- sentially declared that she will no lon- ger be guided by public health data or evidence. By deciding in advance that virtually all public health restrictions will be lifted by March 15, regardless of infection rates, hospitalizations and other surveillance metrics used by public health, she has decided that evi- dence no longer matters. Her decisions will be purely political ones. That’s pretty frightening. Meanwhile, it’s no coincidence that Friday’s announcement comes at the same time protesters across the prov- ince are demanding the removal of all public health restrictions. As recently as Wednesday, the province insisted it would make decisions on restrictions gradually and in two-week cycles after reviewing data. Dr. Jazz Atwal, deputy chief provincial public health officer, said it would likely take eight weeks to reduce the number of COVID-19 patients in ICUs to manageable levels. Two days later, Stefanson abandoned that approach and announced that man- datory masks and vaccine mandates would be eliminated in half that time. The public health information in front of government hasn’t changed over the past few days. Hospitalizations have come down slightly, but are still higher than they were during previous waves. Surgical backlogs continue to grow, as hospital resources are still redeployed to treat COVID-19 patients. And overall ICU occupancy climbed again to 101 patients Friday, (41 of which are COVID-19 patients). Pre-pan- demic ICU capacity was 72 beds. Considering there have been no sig- nificant improvements in hospitaliza- tions or other metrics over the past few days, it’s hard to ignore the connection between the protests and Stefanson’s sudden policy shift. There are no valid reasons to drop mask mandates or vaccine passport in the coming weeks. Those interven- tions have very few, if any, negative consequences. Unlike capacity limits on businesses and not-for-profits, which do cause severe financial hardship and should be lifted first, wearing masks and showing proof of vaccine cards have no economic downside. In fact, by helping keep public places safe, those measures promote consumer confidence. Mask wearing and vaccine passports may be a slight inconvenience, but they are effective ways of controlling the transmission of the virus. They are low cost, high benefit measures. Eliminat- ing them should be based on data and evidence, not political ideology. Sadly, it appears Stefanson has em- braced the latter. tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca Stefanson rejects science, picks politics TOM BRODBECK OPINION ONE month after stricter public-health protocols were introduced in kinder- garten to Grade-12 buildings to address the rampant spread of COVID-19’s Omi- cron variant, the province is loosening them. As of Tuesday, classrooms across the province will revert to yellow-caution on the pandemic response scale. The recent emphasis on reorganiz- ing classrooms to allow for physical distancing of two metres between staff and students is being relaxed as the province prepares to dial back wide- spread restrictions related to masking and immunization across society in the coming weeks. Cohorting among elementary learn- ers will continue into next week, but under new health orders announced Friday, face coverings will be optional during phys-ed classes, students will be able to participate in school sports without proof of vaccination or frequent testing and education workers won’t be required to wear medical-quality masks, although they are recommend- ed. “The important thing is we’re not changing the mask requirement for the classroom space (completely), ei- ther for the teacher or the student,” said James Bedford, president of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society. “There’s a real need to remain vigilant within schools.” The latest changes also mean chil- dren, school staff and child-care work- ers will no longer be able to access a mo- lecular PCR test if they show positive on a rapid antigen screen — unless they are medically advised to get one. Grade 12 student Brie Villeneuve re- turned to in-person learning at Grant Park High School for the first time in 2022 earlier this week, not wanting to fall behind as a new semester gets un- derway. As far as the 18-year-old is con- cerned, existing protocols in schools, which went into effect Jan. 17, are insuf- ficient. “A lot of students are really scared right now and that is not a position that we should be in. We shouldn’t have to be fearing for our health and our fami- lies’ health, just because our provincial government doesn’t want to implement safety measures in schools and outside,” said Villeneuve, an organizer with MB Students for COVID Safety. The student collective organized si- multaneous walkouts across Manitoba K-12 buildings last month to call for a universal online learning option, man- datory medical masks and widespread distribution of N95 masks and rapid tests for students and the reintroduc- tion of contact tracing in schools. “We’re still on the fence on the fact that they’re just dropping everything so fast,” said Leigh Phillips, a father in Winnipeg who has a son in Grade 5. Phillips said Friday he is relieved his eldest child has now received two dos- es of COVID-19 vaccine, but he is still concerned about the mass rollback of restrictions, given he has an infant and his school-aged son is immunocompro- mised as a result of cystic fibrosis. Phillips who said his family plans to continue wearing masks and reducing contacts, is confused as to why students will no longer have to wear face cover- ings in phys-ed, when they’re likely to be huffing and puffing from physical exertion. “I’m really hoping that (my son’s) school keeps doing what they’ve been doing,” said Phillips, noting adminis- trators have continued to inform the community after every positive virus test result they’ve received alerts about — even though the province stopped re- quiring them to do so. “They’ve been very good at easing parents’ (anxieties).” School administrators have been di- rected to continue updating their com- munities if public-health officials have identified increased transmission or recommended remote learning for a co- hort, class or school. maggie macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie Students, parents raise concerns after province pivots on school rules MAGGIE MACINTOSH LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER W INNIPEG small-business owner Paul Taylor welcomes Friday’s announcement by the provin- cial government to drop capacity limits, as part of sweeping COVID-19 public health order changes coming into effect Tuesday. “This is definitely good news,” said the owner of Brickhouse Gym on King Edward Street. “The biggest benefit is for our members not to have to com- pletely move their days around (to meet capacity limits). They can just go in their car and come to get a workout.” Be it the owner of a gymnasium or restaurant or music school, head of a museum or organizations which rep- resent businesses — all welcomed the change. Tony Siwicki, owner of Silver Heights restaurant in Winnipeg, said after two years of public health orders that have been crushing for the hospitality indus- try: “I’m trying to soak it all in.” “There’s a lot of stress off the shoul- ders. We’ve been fighting for this for a long time, and this is sooner than we thought. We were anticipating lesser restrictions on Feb. 22. To get it this morning, it is a big shock, but we will get moving,” he said. Siwicki, who is also chairman of the Manitoba Restaurant & Foodservices Association, said he has already heard from some serving staff they’re not comfortable with the removal of the mask order March 15. He will be hav- ing a staff meeting on the weekend to discuss options. As well as masks, the Manitoba gov- ernment said Friday all remaining re- strictions will end March 15. “I’m sure some (in the industry) will continue wearing them,” said Si- wicki. “They say they will continue to wear them in respect of the customers who might not be comfortable without them.” Canadian Federation of Independent Business (Manitoba) provincial affairs director Kathleen Cook said consumer confidence will take a while to come back. She said only about 24 per cent of small businesses in the province have seen sales levels return to pre-pandem- ic levels. “It has been a long road… but we’re not out of the woods yet. They are deal- ing with ongoing labour shortages and consumer confidence is not what it was before,” Cook said. “But this is a very good day for a lot of small businesses.” Robert Burton, owner of River Heights School of Music in Winnipeg, said the changes may allow the school to do something it hasn’t for a long time. “We haven’t had a music recital in two years,” said Burton. “For a lot of people, this is the day we’ve been waiting for.” Dorota Blumczynska, Manitoba Mu- seum chief executive officer, said: “It is certainly good news.” “The Manitoba Museum has over 50,000 square feet of roaming space. Even with or without capacity limits, people themselves can distance from each other depending on their comfort levels… I’m cautiously optimistic. We are all deeply interested in the health and safety of our community,” she said. Andre Lewis, Royal Winnipeg Ballet artistic director and CEO, said the Feb. 25 to March 13 production of Sleeping Beauty will remain virtual, with spec- tators watching it on a computer screen or TV. However, the lifting of restrictions means its production of A Cinderella Story could be before a full house at the Centennial Concert Hall in May. “I’m very much hoping Cinderella will be on the stage,” said Lewis. Loren Remillard, president and CEO of the Winnipeg Chamber of Com- merce, said he’s glad the government has provided a plan to reopen, with dates to look towards. “We knew we’d always come to this day, when we would have to think about moving away from vaccination man- dates and the use of masks,” said Remi- llard. “The message the chamber has had is: make sure you provide sufficient lead time for businesses and the time- line for changes. Today’s announce- ment reflects that recommendation,” he added. “We always want to keep business open to the full extent it can be, but consumer confidence will ultimately address the reopening. People are still making decisions based on their per- sonal comfort levels.” Remillard said he expects to see a number of people still wearing masks six months from now, and some busi- nesses will continue to tell customers to wear them inside after March 15. “The choice for you to continue to use a mask remains your choice,” he said. “I would hope all Manitobans will respect it will be that company’s choice.” Jeff Traeger, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832, which represents about 8,000 em- ployees at grocery stores in Manitoba, said he hasn’t yet spoken to member- ship. However, more than a dozen made contact with him Friday. “It was a very small subset of almost 8,000 workers we represent, but they say this feels way too soon to remove the mask mandate,” said Traeger. “It took months to put safety mea- sures in place and they are taking them away so quickly, they say it isn’t right.” Traeger said some store workers say, even with restrictions in place, people buy groceries without masks on. “One member says he is the risk to his family because of the number of people he has contact with every day… Every employer has had a high levels of absen- teeism because the employees are sick or isolating,” he said. “There are so many people off work right now, I’m not sure if the employers want this.” kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca ‘Very good day’ for small businesses KEVIN ROLLASON Welcome announcement of plan for ending pandemic public health restrictions JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Paul Taylor, owner of Brickhouse Gym, says the elimination of capacity limits will allow the gym’s members to just get in ‘their car and come to get a workout.’ ;