At-risk New Brunswickers say end of COVID restrictions will mean less 'freedom'

For Elizabeth Doherty, "freedom" in the age of COVID-19 has a different meaning than it does for most New Brunswickers.

We may pine to be free from having to stuff a mask in our pocket to go out, or from having to tap our phones for our vaccination record.

But those policies have given Doherty, a 38-year-old Frederictonian with multiple health issues, the freedom to enjoy something closer to a normal life.

"Do I want to be someone who can just their guard down, willy-nilly, and if these things are lifted, just go do what we did before? For me, it's very scary not knowing who you're sitting beside," she says.

The province's move back to Level 1 last Friday means restaurants, gyms and theatres can go back to full capacity with no distancing.

That makes mask and vaccination requirements all the more important for Doherty if she wants to go out.

Because she was born prematurely, she has a complex medical history that includes severe lung disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema and asthma. 

She requires monthly plasma transfusions too — "I have a terrible time fighting off infection" — and doesn't actually know if she has any protection at all from her three doses of vaccine.

"It can sort of be terrifying when you think of that a little bit," she says.

"At least if you choose to go out now, you have some trust in knowing or believing if you go to a restaurant that the people there are going to be asked to show proof of vaccination. … And if they take those [rules] away completely, you're really not going to know."

Doherty isn't alone. The New Brunswick Lung Association says a recent study estimated that 24,800 to 57,000 people in the province have COPD.

And that's just one of the many diseases or treatments that put people at higher risk of severe illness or death if they are infected with COVID.

"A person in my situation with a somewhat suppressed immune system, you really don't know what the effect is going to be when you get the virus," says Alfred Ehrenclou, a 69-year-old Shediac River resident.

He takes arthritis medication that suppresses his body's ability to fight off disease.