Canada: Scientists & MDs Urge the Province of Ontario to Hold an Open Scientific Debate
A group of 9 scientists and medical doctors from Ontario has issued a challenge to the provincial premier Doug Ford, calling for an open scientific debate to urgently take place, at the latest by May 7th. (voir version française)
While focused on Ontario, this letter is perfectly applicable to the other provinces and territories of Canada, which have all adopted similar measures as those implemented in Ontario.
The letter calls for a review of all the key aspects of the Ontarian response to the pandemic, including “early multidrug treatment measures, proven to be highly effective … (and) … not being employed to save lives in Ontario,”
“We are formally asking for a public forum with the Premier and his COVID-19 response team, in order to provide Ontarians with a transparent discussion of the complete data to date and the various strategies used over the year, today and in the future in relation to the Provincial response to the SARS CoV-2 pandemic.”
The topics to be covered would include, but not be limited to:
- What are the actual dangers of SARS-CoV-2 by age group and steps taken to protect those in long-term care and the most vulnerable, age 60 and older with co-morbidities?
- What is the rationale for the current vaccine roll-out and alteration to the manufacturers’ recommended vaccination protocols?
- What controls are in place to limit the number of cycles used in performing PCR tests to 30 cycles to avoid undue false positives inflating the cases reported?
- Identification and review of supporting science and corresponding data that led the province to their conclusions that the approach in use was, and is, appropriate, and not worth revision as the crisis evolved over the past 12+ months.
- How effective are stringent population-wide restrictions (lockdowns, school closures, mask mandates, and stay at home orders) at controlling the pandemic and are they the best response given the collateral damage?
- Why have early multidrug treatment measures, proven to be highly effective and including but not limited to ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, doxycycline, azithromycin and other compounds used routinely in other countries, not being employed to save lives in Ontario, an action that would virtually eliminate the perceived need for lockdowns, school closures, masking among other things.
- What are the priorities in the management of the pandemic and how can we shift the response from fear to confidence?
“For over a year the Government of Ontario has used a blanket non-targeted and population-wide approach using measures that now appear to be, at best, arbitrary and worse capricious. These have led to unnecessary death of our seniors and collateral damage to our society’s mental health, deaths of despair, drug overdoses (intentional or not), alcoholism, suicidal ideation and worse.”
“The education of our children has been hurt beyond comprehension. Similarly, knowing that the school environment is often the 1st place where evidence for child abuse or certain illnesses are initially recognized the impact on the health of our children has been very damaging. The incidence of presentation to emergency departments of parents with injured children caused by child abuse has increased dramatically! And of course, the impact on our children’s education and development has been horrible.”
“Ontarians with severe illnesses, small businesses, and our economy have suffered immeasurable harms. In the interest of the 14.7 million people living in this Province, we want to provide all of them with a transparent discussion of the data, facts, and alternatives so we can all make an informed, collective decisions on how best to move forward with the interests of every demographic in mind.”
Signatories are:
- Dr. H. C. Tenenbaum (Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto),
- Dr. B. A. Mallard (Professor of Immunogenetics, Department of Pathobiology, University of Guelph,
- Dr. B. W. Bridle (Associate Professor of Viral Immunology, Department of Pathobiology, University of Guelph),
- Dr. M Palmer (Associate Professor of Biochemistry, University of Waterloo),
- Dr. P.E. Alexander (Assistant Professor of Health Research Methodology, Evidence-Based-Medicine, Department of Health Research, McMaster University),
- Dr. D. DeCunha (Clinical and Chief Psychologist, Psychology Works, Toronto),
- Dr. P. Oldfield (PhD, Independent Scientific/Regulatory Consultant, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry),
- Dr. L. Rapson (Assistant Professor Department of Family & Community Medicine U of Toronto),
- Dr. I. Bernstein, (B.Sc., M.D.,C.C.F.P., F.C.F.P., Lecturer, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto).
