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EDITORIAL: A dose of transparency would make new COVID-19 restrictions easier to swallow

First, the good news. Potential COVID-19 vaccines are showing great promise as they near the end of clinical trials and enter regulatory approvals. The bad news is we are headed for a very bumpy ride while we wait for our date with a needle.
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Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry provides the latest update on the COVID-19 pandemic in the province during a press conference in the press theatre at Legislature in Victoria, B.C., on Thursday, October 22, 2020. British Columbia's Ministry of Health is clarifying new rules around social gatherings, one day after a new regional public health order was issued. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

First, the good news. Potential COVID-19 vaccines are showing great promise as they near the end of clinical trials and enter regulatory approvals. The bad news is we are headed for a very bumpy ride while we wait for our date with a needle.

The number of new cases in B.C. is now growing well out of hand.

The response from the province has been to impose new restrictions on businesses and social gatherings. And, if we don’t get with the program, the Premier has signaled he’s ready to bring back more heavy-handed shutdowns again. That would, hopefully, bring the number of new infections down but at a tremendous cost people’s lives and livelihoods.

Except now we are worried Dr. Bonnie Henry and Adrian Dix are losing the room. Pandemic fatigue has set in.

People have legitimate questions about how and when and where the new infections are coming but the province will only provide vague, high-level and out-of-date data.

Our own requests for more detailed information have been ignored or rebuffed completely.

Regional health authorities compound the confusion by adding their own mixed messages.

Slogans without supporting data aren’t going to cut it in the second, more serious, wave of COVID-19. Neither will rules without enforcement.

Public health is predicated on public trust and if people don’t buy in, they’re more likely to ignore or find ways to skirt the rules.

And that is a far bigger threat than transparency ever could be.

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