Should BC create a new independent panel of experts to double-check whether the province is making the best decisions on masks, gyms, schools and public health orders around COVID-19?
That was the suggestion of BC Green leader Sonia Furstenau this week, who on social media called on government to create “an independent science table that can provide clear, evidence-based communication to the public” about the pandemic because “it is becoming increasingly difficult to understand what informs COVID-19 decision-making in BC.”
Sonia Furstenau/ Instagram
The idea sounds simple – get some independent experts to give Dr. Bonnie Henry a hand analyzing the ever-changing flow of COVID research to make sure she has the best and most recent data at her fingertips when she issues orders or changes public health restrictions.
But it turns out there’s already around 100 of those experts quietly giving Dr. Henry advice behind the scenes on a variety of topics, through various COVID committees.
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The public just doesn’t usually see them, or hear from them. Most of the time they come to a consensus on BC’s next COVID-19 policy behind closed doors, and it’s Dr. Henry as provincial health officer who publicly announces the decision.
“There are many, many people behind the decisions that we make,” Dr. Henry said in an interview with Daily Hive.
“We’re trying to tap into all of the expertise that we have in the province around these specific areas.”
Still, for some, including Furstenau, there’s a feeling that expanding the voices of experts available to speak to the public could bolster public confidence in BC’s decisions, now two years into the pandemic.
She said people are increasingly concerned BC might be out of step with the best science when making certain decisions, such as not providing N95 masks to all health care workers in all settings.
“I don’t know what research they’re relying on, what studies they are looking at,” Furstenau said in an interview.
“From both Henry and (Health Minister Adrian) Dix, we hear these statements about what we know. But I think the public should have a clear sense of how it is that they’re coming to these conclusions and how it is that they’re making their decisions.”
Furstenau said BC could consider following Ontario’s lead and create a COVID-19 “science table,” where approximately 36 experts and academics on everything from microbiology to modelling, health policy and bioethics give advice to the Ontario government about the latest COVID-19 issues.
BCGov/Flickr
“We have a very similar thing,” said Dr. Henry.
“We have an independent group of advisors. I don’t make these decisions all on my own. We consult all the time, and we have a panel of senior scientists, and scientists, in a whole variety of different areas.”
Henry estimates there are more than 100 doctors, scientists and academics on more than 10 advisory committees that cover such topics as science, clinical care, critical care, public health, infection control, laboratories, data and modelling, sports and recreation, and emerging issues like the Pfizer’s recently-approved Paxlovid coronavirus pill.
She said meets with some of them as often as weekly, to gather the latest insights.
Furstenau said she’d like to see government make those experts available to the public and media to help explain government’s approach.
“It’d be great to know who they are and to hear from them,” she said.
Ontario’s science table members do speak publicly. Though that may be in part due to the differences in political climates.
In Ontario, the premier and health minister have led the charge in COVID response, while the independent panel has often spoken out publicly against government decisions. In BC, Premier John Horgan has largely deferred to Dr. Henry’s judgement on public health and let her take the lead publicly.
“I would say that the science advisory table in Ontario was designed the same way but because of the difference in the way they’re responding to the pandemic with the premier and health minister being out in front primarily, they have taken on that independent role,” said Dr. Henry.
“Whereas here, the advice that’s been provided, I’m the spokesperson for that.”
It’s also not clear whether the science table has made any meaningful impact on public trust or decision-making in Ontario, as Furstenau believes it could in BC.
Ontario had worse health outcomes than BC early in the pandemic, and while its performance has improved, public confidence in Premier Doug Ford over his handling of COVID-19 is at an all-time low and almost half the rate of Horgan’s public support in BC, according to a poll this week by Angus Reid.
BC does have two independent groups self-created by experts frustrated at government’s decisions – the BC COVID 19 Modelling Group and Protect Our Province BC. But neither directly advises the government like the Ontario model.
Furstenau admits not everyone in the public would be able to understand the raw research or data delivered by a BC science table. But she said the act of transparency could help build trust.
For Dr. Henry, the raw data only forms part of what becomes the ultimate decisions debated in advisory committees that she explains to the public.
“We do work it all out and most decisions, actually I would say 95 per cent of them, we make by consensus and everybody comes up with the best decisions possible,” she said.
“There are nuances and part of my job is to balance the science data piece with the reality on the ground, whether it’s small-p political, if you will, so things like values and judgments and preferences and where we are and what the community needs are.”
That means taking the scientific debate out into meetings with business sectors, like the fitness community or long-term care homes, and asking for suggested solutions to the problems identified by the data – another discussion the public rarely gets to see, but is happening almost daily.
“That helps us shape the orders and the information that we’re providing in a way that’s practical,” said Dr. Henry. “So there is a little bit of injecting the pragmatic reality into the scientific decision making as well.”
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