Call inquiry into Canada’s COVID-19 response, medical journal urges

Experts from 13 organizations across Canada, including doctors, nurses, researchers, law and humanitarian specialists, wrote a series of articles that made the argument.

A new series published in the BMJ medical journal is calling for an independent inquiry into Canada’s COVID-19 response.

Experts from 13 organizations across Canada, including doctors, nurses, researchers, law and humanitarian specialists, along with Jocalyn Clark, a Canadian who is the BMJ’s international editor, wrote the seven articles published late Monday.

“We see this as the next step in the pandemic,” said Dr. Sharon Straus, physician-in-chief at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and one of the senior authors of the “Accountability for Canada’s COVID-19 Response” series.

“This is the start of preparing for the next emergency,” she said.

The articles identify shortfalls in Canada’s COVID-19 response, including difficulty reaching vulnerable and marginalized populations who were most at risk, the catastrophic deaths in long-term care homes and inconsistent public health messages across provinces and territories.

The articles also acknowledge successes in Canada’s pandemic response, including a vaccination rate of more than 80 per cent.

“An evaluation two years into the pandemic said the country had lower COVID case and death burdens and higher vaccination coverage than most other G10 countries,” the authors said in a BMJ editorial summarizing their findings.

“But this overall impression of adequacy masks important inequalities by region, setting and demography.”