Achi news desk-
EDMONTON –
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says it’s a good idea to have a doctor who accused the province of exaggerating the impact of COVID-19 on hospitals now leading a review of pandemic-era health data.
Smith says Dr Gary Davidson was chosen to lead the data review because she wanted to hear a range of views, including from those who “shouted down in the public domain.”
“I needed someone who was going to look at everything that happened with some fresh eyes and maybe with a little bit of a contrarian perspective because we’ve only ever had one perspective,” Smith told reporters at the legislature on Tuesday .
“I left (Davidson) to assemble the panel with the guidance that I would like to have a wide range of views.”
The task force’s work is almost complete but few details have been announced since it was struck in 2022.
The Globe and Mail reported Tuesday that Davidson, the former chief of emergency medicine at Red Deer Regional Hospital Center, was appointed chairman of the task force a year ago.
At the height of the fourth wave of the pandemic in 2021, Davidson claimed hospital admission numbers were inflated and manipulated to justify public health restrictions.
The province’s health authority, Alberta Health Services, dismissed those accusations as false.
Davidson did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment.
In 2022, Smith swept into power in a vote by members of the United Conservative Party. Her campaign capitalized on and promised to remedy the grievances of COVID-19.
Smith promised to seek amnesty for those violating the public health restrictions of COVID. She did not follow through, later saying that she did not realize she did not have the authority to do so.
In late 2022, Smith directed the creation of what would become the Davidson task force with a mandate to review data and offer recommendations on how to better manage future pandemics.
Smith said Tuesday she wants him to look at how to better analyze public health data and check concerns about vaccine side effects.
The government has earmarked $2 million for the project, but Smith said she expects it to come in under budget. The final report is expected to go before the government next month and Smith has said the findings will be made public.
This is the second third-party COVID analysis ordered by the Smith government.
Former Reform Party leader Preston Manning filed a report last year reviewing Alberta’s COVID experience through the lens of improving laws and regulations governing future pandemics.
Manning’s report recommended the province consider “alternative scientific narratives” as part of a “balanced response” in future crises.
When asked why the details of the Davidson task force were not made public by the government as much as the work of the Manning panel, Smith replied, “We wanted them to do their job.”
Opposition New Democrat Leader Rachel Notley lambasted the panel and Smith, calling it a waste of public money to launch a secret consultation led by someone with “fringe views.”
Notley said, “I believe the Earth is round, and I don’t think the people of Alberta should be paying for people who believe it’s flat to participate in the conversation.”
During COVID, Smith publicly questioned the effectiveness of pandemic rules and gathering restrictions, especially when compared to the potential for long-term harm to mental and physical well-being.
Smith questioned the mainstream science approach to the pandemic and endorsed unpackaged COVID-19 treatments, such as the horse dewormer ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.
He embraced the Great Barrington Declaration, a theory that called for protecting the elderly and the infirm but otherwise letting COVID-19 run free to build herd immunity.
This report was first published by The Canadian Press on April 23, 2024.
