'A time of great uncertainty': Dr. Bonnie Henry reflects on 6 years since COVID restrictions began

It was around this time in 2020 that everything changed. 

Businesses were closing, people were working from home and public health officials were advising people to stay away from each other, as a new virus was spreading quickly in B.C.

Dr. Bonnie Henry became a household name. B.C.’s provincial health officer joined then-health minister Adrian Dix daily to share what little data was available. 

And while we know more now, Henry says there are still unknowns around the long-term effects from COVID-19, as well as other geo-political uncertainties affecting people around the world. 

“So much of getting through times of uncertainty rely on each other and being able to support each other,” she told CBC’s Gloria Macarenko. “Sometimes it feels these days like those lessons are ones that we're moving away from or that we forget.”

Henry spoke with CBC’s On The Coast this week to reflect on a time that no one will ever forget — as much as we might like to. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

What do you remember most about those first days of the COVID era?

I feel like it's a lot longer than six years in some ways. I think at that time, and you know, I look back on this a lot, there was so much that we didn't know and there was so much that we were hearing from different parts of the world about who was being affected and what was happening. It was a time of great uncertainty, that's for sure. 

What have you learned about COVID over the past six years?

We know a lot more about this virus, and some of the huge successes we've had over in the global community over the last few years is having a test that was developed very rapidly. Our public health lab that we have here in the province was able to develop a test within days of the genome being isolated. We know how the virus is transmitted. We know who's most at risk. We know all of the things that we can do to protect ourselves.

Have we done enough to help those living with long COVID?

This is another global thing that we are still learning so much about because we didn't even know if there was going to be a post-COVID type-syndrome, how long it would last, who would be more likely to get it. So we do know much more about the types of syndromes, the types of symptoms that people are experiencing. Some of them go on to have much more debilitating longer term symptoms. Some of the things we know about prevention are really important. We know that people who were vaccinated were much less likely to have long COVID. We know that some of the earlier strains of the virus had more effects on people longer term.

Globally, we're still learning about what we can do to support people? How do we get what things work to help make people feel better? How long is it going to last? There's still so many unknowns.