Expert says warnings about N.B.'s COVID reopening plan were voiced, ignored

An infection control epidemiologist who publicly warned in July that New Brunswick was courting a COVID-19 outbreak by dropping public health restrictions too early doesn't accept the province's claims that its current health crisis could not be forecast.

"It was absolutely, absolutely abundantly clear in July that what they were doing was fundamentally wrong," said Colin Furness, an associate professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.

"I'm getting sick and tired of government officials saying, 'This was unforeseen, this was unpredictable, no one could have anticipated this.' You can't improve your performance or decision-making if you can't be honest with yourself about the nature of mistakes."

On Friday, during briefings to announce and explain the reintroduction of a provincial state of emergency and mandatory order to deal with a surging COVID-19 outbreak, New Brunswick political and health officials acknowledged the decision to lift public health restrictions at the end of July was a mistake. But they suggested they couldn't have known the mistake they were making.

"Absolutely, all of us in this room right now, with the evidence of this rapid increase of delta virus in the province, would all agree that was not the right decision to make," said Dr. Gordon Dow, an infectious disease expert with Horizon Health.

"But that's with the benefit of in retrospect."

Premier Blaine Higgs also agreed Friday that the July 30 reopening "could" have been an error. But he insisted danger signs were not apparent at the time.