Most people N.B. quietly removed from its COVID death totals had the virus when they died
CBC
New Brunswick health officials retroactively removed 46 people from the province's COVID death totals last week, even though records show 31 had the virus listed as a "cause of death" on their official death registration forms.
Moreover, they would still be counted as COVID-related fatalities in other jurisdictions.
The removals came after health officials in March significantly narrowed the definition of what qualifies as a COVID death in New Brunswick, as fatalities in the province rapidly climbed to alarming levels.
The change "was not announced publicly at the time," according to Department of Health spokesperson Adam Bowie.
New Brunswick last week disclosed that its actual death toll from COVID-19 was higher than it had previously reported, following an epidemiological review that raised the pandemic death toll to 572. The review found 125 deaths between March 1, 2020, and May 31, 2022 should be added to the toll, while 46 previously reported COVID-related deaths should be removed.
The quiet change in definition of a COVID death concerns Gary Myles, whose wife Wendy of 55 years died in March two weeks after catching COVID-19 in the Saint John Regional Hospital. She was initially admitted for a hernia operation.
Myles was told the death was the result of "massive failure of organ function," and he worries that might mean she is not counted among New Brunswick's COVID deaths even though everything went wrong for her after getting the virus.
He doesn't like hearing about the province narrowing definitions and pulling COVID deaths from its totals, including the removal of five deaths from March, the month when his wife died.
"The government is not pushing to help the public realize COVID is still a problem out there and to me being that close to it COVID is still a problem out there," said Myles.
"They're keeping the count down to a minimum."
New Brunswick officials had adopted a semi-broad definition of what constituted a COVID-19 death as recently as January, citing "a desire to be transparent," according to then Health Department spokesperson Bruce Macfarlane.
At the time, the provincial policy was to count every person with COVID-19 who died as a COVID-19 death, "unless there is a clear alternative cause of death, such as a car accident."
That is in general line with long-standing recommendations of how to record COVID deaths by the Public Health Agency of Canada and similar to how records are kept in other countries.
Because the virus can be especially lethal to those with serious pre-existing health conditions, when a person contracts COVID and dies of a flareup of a secondary health problem, there is a general assumption COVID was involved in causing the death, even if not the direct cause.
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.