5 years after start of pandemic, experts say Manitoba can still learn lessons from COVID-19

Five years after COVID-19 was first detected in Manitoba, experts say the province still has a ways to go to fully address the effects of the pandemic and set itself up to respond better in future emergencies — from the impact the pandemic had on mental health and trust in public health information, to the long-term effects of the illness and the amount of surveillance data about it now available to the public.

While the surge in mental health issues seen early in the pandemic by some accounts later returned to baseline levels, one clinical psychologist said the data on that return is mixed — which she attributes to certain groups being more affected than others.

"We know that groups such as those who had a lot of economic instability or sustained long periods of isolation, or those with compromised health problems or chronic health conditions, were at particularly elevated risk," said Dr. Renée El-Gabalawy, an associate professor at the University of Manitoba and a clinical psychologist with Shared Health who studied the effects of the pandemic on mental health.

El-Gabalawy said there were also positive outcomes reported in that research: most people reported being able to find a silver lining, like the importance of social support.

But she said there's still a need to address some of the remaining impacts of the pandemic that continue to affect mental health, such as improving the numbers around surgery cancellations and delays — "a significant area we really need to continue to focus on," she said.

And that's not the only area where the health-care system has struggled to keep up in the five years since Manitoba's first COVID-19 cases were reported in March 2020, according to an expert who's studied the effects of a condition known as long COVID, which can include symptoms ranging from physical weakness and shortness of breath to brain fog, anxiety and depression.

Dr. Alan Katz, a family physician and health services researcher in the departments of family medicine and community health sciences at the University of Manitoba, said most people's long COVID symptoms have improved over time and resolved.

But for those still suffering, there's no specific clinic in Manitoba to help them, leaving many to get care online or outside the province, Katz said.

"We're struggling in Manitoba with people not having access to primary care. So it would potentially be helpful to have a specific group of physicians … and other providers who chose to provide care to those with long COVID," he said, calling that difficult work because of the multidisciplinary treatment the condition requires, and the fact that it has no one specific treatment or drug.

"It's a very challenging area. And right now we do not have anybody with a particular interest that I'm aware of."

The COVID-19 pandemic also exposed areas where Manitoba's public health communications could have been better, said another expert — particularly around vaccine information and ways to improve so it's ready for the next crisis it faces.

Michelle Driedger, a professor in the department of community health sciences at the University of Manitoba, said some of the challenges she saw were around parents deciding whether to vaccinate their kids, and people not understanding why public health guidance was shifting each time recommendations changed.

"People were not always tracking at the same time with some of the shifts, because it just seemed so confusing," said Driedger, who studied vaccine decision-making processes and the factors people consider in making those choices.

"So I think we need to really do a better job of trying to make sure that we're trying to address why something has changed and repeating that a bit more often."