Saving lives will take more than vaccines, says infectious disease expert

The Saskatchewan government has long said that vaccines are the only way out of the COVID-19 pandemic and that public health measures are merely a stopgap.

However, an infectious disease expert disagrees — and he isn’t alone.

“I personally don’t think it’s that simple, in the sense that if you want to really maximize the number of lives that we save and if we really want to be in a situation where we’re not pushing and straining to the absolute capacity,” Dr. Alex Wong said.

Wong pointed to Ontario, a jurisdiction where the government has been criticized for not enacting tough measures soon enough. There, hospitals are now rationing life-saving care as the pandemic’s third wave crashes.

“They have that guidance now if you don’t have a 70 per cent chance of survival, you’re not going to get an ICU bed. So we’re really desperately trying to avoid that here in the province,” Wong said.

“(There were) no additional mandated measures yesterday. We’ll have to see basically whether or not what we have is good enough. But I think the consensus overall is that if you just rely on vaccine only, there’s going to be a lot of people who unnecessarily die.”

Some others who share Wong’s view would include community medical health officers in Saskatchewan who, in an open letter during Easter, said “vaccinations won’t be enough.”

Since then, the virus has put immense strain on Regina hospitals, which are taking the unprecedented measure of double-bunking patients in intensive care units.

Many of the patients Wong sees are young people from young families, a sight that he describes as “jarring.”

“Physicians are tired. Everybody that’s looking after these individuals are tired,” Wong said. “It’s kind of bananas but everybody’s holding (on). I don’t think we’re on bypass right now and so it’s literally a day-by-day thing.”