Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 12, 2022, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A2 A2 SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 2022 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM INSIDE Arts and Life G1 Business B4 Classifieds E7 Comics I4-8 Community Voices B3 Destinations I1 Diversions I9-10 Homes H1 Horoscope G9 Jumble I10 Miss Lonelyhearts G9 Money Matters B7 Obituaries C1 Opinion A10-11 Sports E1 Television D7 Weather D8 Weekend Review D1 49.8 F1 COLUMNISTS: Dan Lett B1 Laura Rance B5 David Christianson B7 Barbara Bowes B8 Jerrad Peters E5 Alison Gillmor F11 Ben Sigurdson G4 Doug Speirs G4 READER SERVICE ● GENERAL INQUIRIES 204-697-7000 VOL 151 NO 120 Winnipeg Free Press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 2022 Winnipeg Free Press, a division of FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership. Published seven days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2X 3B6, PH: 204-697-7000 Publisher / BOB COX Editor / PAUL SAMYN Associate Editor Enterprise / SCOTT GIBBONS Associate Editor News / STACEY THIDRICKSON Associate Editor Digital News / WENDY SAWATZKY Director Photo and Multimedia / MIKE APORIUS NEWSMEDIA COUNCIL The Winnipeg Free Press is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an independent organization established to determine acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please send them to: editorialconcerns@freepress.mb.ca. If you are not satisfied with the response and wish to file a formal complaint, visit the website at www.mediacouncil.ca and fill out the form or call toll-free 1-844-877-1163 for additional information. 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Call or email before 10 a.m. weekdays or 11 a.m. Saturday City: 204-697-7001 Outside Winnipeg: 1-800-542-8900 press 1 6:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. Monday-Friday.; 7 a.m. - noon Saturday; Closed Sunday TO SUBSCRIBE: 204-697-7001 Out of Winnipeg: 1-800-542-8900 fpcirc@freepress.mb.ca The Free Press receives support from the Local Journalism Initiative funded by the Government of Canada M OST of the health-care workers who went on leave when Manitoba made COVID-19 vaccines or regular testing mandatory for front-line care staff are returning to work now that those requirements have been lifted. About 13 per cent (15 of 119) of direct care workers on administrative leave have said they won’t return to their positions, a Shared Health spokesperson said Friday. The provincial agency didn’t provide other figures or a regional breakdown to show where the majority of those workers are employed. Shared Health stated: “Most of the 119 direct care workers in the health-care system who were on unpaid leaves of absence related to compliance with public health orders have re- turned to work or are in the process of doing so.” Manitoba issued a public health order requir- ing front-line health-care workers to be vacci- nated against COVID-19 or agree to be regular- ly tested for the virus as of Oct. 18, 2021. More than 100 workers went on unpaid leave as a result, with the majority of those in the Southern Health region. As of late February, there were still 1,500 unvaccinated workers who required regular testing and 119 on unpaid leave: 75 in Southern Health, 16 in Prairie Mountain, 13 in the Winni- peg Regional Health Authority, eight at Shared Health, four in Interlake-Eastern, and three in Northern Health. The province removed those vaccine and test- ing requirements for health-care workers when it lifted all proof-of-vaccine requirements for Manitobans on March 1. Indoor mask require- ments are being lifted March 15 in public places other than health-care facilities. Some clinics have decided to keep mandato- ry testing in place for health-care staff who are unvaccinated or don’t disclose their vaccination status. C.W. Wiebe Medical Centre is one of them. The Winkler clinic has extended vaccine and testing requirements for staff until the end of the month. “We will review at that time. We wanted to wait a couple of weeks past the lifting of the mask mandate in the area to see if that created an increase in cases or not, so we’ve deferred it till the end of March,” said clinic administrator Jim Neufeld. A bigger issue is at play when it comes to staff shortages and nurses and support workers going on leave, said Winkler-based physician Dr. Ga- nesan Abbu: burnout and stress on the health- care system. Abbu said he believes more staff have left because of burnout than because of the vaccine or testing requirements. “There were very few nurses that actually stepped aside because of vaccination. I think the issues of shortages on the medical floor as well as in the emergency department have been long- standing and pre-date COVID,” he said. “COVID just made it worse.” katie.may@freepress.mb.ca Most care staff on unpaid leave return to work as COVID rules fall KATIE MAY T HE most striking part of the government’s response to the first handful of COVID-19 cases in Manitoba two years ago is the extreme measures that were taken. It was clearly an overreaction to shut down schools, day cares, gyms, bars and restaurants and impose strict capacity limits in public places when there were just over 100 cases of COVID-19 in the province. It wasn’t the wrong decision at the time; the government just didn’t know bet- ter. Most of the decisions back then were driven by uncertainty. Knowing what we know today, the most effective response at the time would probably have been to impose a mandatory mask rule in all public places, enforce self-isolation and travel restrictions, put moderate capacity limits in public places and build fortresses around long-term care facilities to protect the most vulnerable seniors. There was no need to shut everything down, at least not during the first wave when the original strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was far less contagious than it is now. Mask use two years ago wasn’t seen as an option, though. Public health officials, including at the World Health Organization, were still rejecting them as effective tools to reduce transmission in the public. They didn’t know a lot about the virus in early 2020. They still believed only symptomatic people could spread it and had no idea it was airborne. “This virus spreads almost exclusively through close contact to infected individuals who are showing symptoms of infection,” Dr. Brent Roussin, the chief provincial public health officer said on March 12, 2020, the day the province an- nounced the first case of COVID-19 in Manitoba. We now know that’s not the case. However, the scientific evidence on SARS-CoV-2 was evolving rapidly at the time. Just two months earlier, scientists weren’t even sure if it could spread between humans. The overreaction and draconi- an measures aside, there is one principle the government followed two years ago that is sadly missing from today’s approach: the prov- ince no longer errs on the side of caution when making public health decisions. Politicians may have gone overboard during the first wave, most of which can be explained by the fact governments and scien- tists knew so little about the virus, including how to manage it. But the government felt it had a responsi- bility to ensure adequate protective measures were in place. It no longer does, even though Manitoba still has 417 COVID-19 patients in hospital, including 23 in intensive care units. “What we’re trying to do here is to lessen the impact by proactive measures to make sure that our system stands up above all others,” then-premier Brian Pallister said the day after Manitoba’s first case of COVID-19 was announced. It was also the day the province decided to suspend in-class learning in public schools for three weeks. “We’re making sure that we do everything we can to protect the health and well-being of people here and we’re trying to do that in a proactive way that is not alarmist, that does not instill fear but rather instills a sense I hope of… confi- dence.” If the government took that same proactive approach today, it would maintain the indoor mask mandate, make self-isolation mandatory for those who test positive and keep proof-of-vaccination rules in place, including for health care workers, at least until COVID-19 hospital cases are under control. It may turn out we don’t need any of those measures, the last of which (masks) are scheduled to be lifted March 15. However, public heath isn’t about trying to do as little as possible and hoping it all works out. It’s about taking proactive measures that are proportionate to the risks. “We can err on the side of caution or err on the side of delay,” Pallister said when his government decided to close schools, just a few hours after Roussin said that morning schools would not be closed. “After discus- sions, we’ve decided to err on the side of caution.” The Tory government doesn’t err on the side of caution anymore when it comes to COVID-19. Maybe it’s because of political and public pressure, or just sheer exhaustion — or all three. Whatever the case, the pendulum has swung from taking cautious, calculated steps based on evidence and public health projec- tions to throwing all caution to the wind and hoping for the best. History shows that’s not usually the best course of action. tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca Manitoba throws caution to the bin TOM BRODBECK OPINION MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Dr. Brent Roussin said on March 12, 2020, the virus was spread ‘almost exclusively’ by people with symptoms. We now know better, but not all lessons have stuck. Spring forward Set your clocks ahead one hour before bed on Saturday. AP 12 9 10 11 2 3 1 7 5 48 A_02_Mar-12-22_FP_01.indd 2 2022-03-11 9:57 PM ;