44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 14, 2022 11:00AM
Mr. Speaker, to my hon. friend for St. Albert—Edmonton, I am troubled. It is not by him alone, obviously, but by the notion that human beings, Canadians, parliamentarians and governments are in charge, and we can accurately predict what this virus is going to do next and therefore we should be able to provide a road map and timeline.
I would ask the hon. member for St. Albert—Edmonton this: Is he confident that the pandemic is over, and that restrictions should be abandoned everywhere?
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciated listening to the member's speech tonight. The fact that she is a physician gives her an opportunity to explain a number of things to Canadians. Of course, saving lives is key to any physician and I really appreciate her passion for that. Could she explain something?
She said omicron was less infectious, but spread more. I wonder how the member would answer this. The nature of a virus is that it wants to survive. What is the member's understanding of the role of a virus that initially comes out very strong, then eventually becomes far more contagious but less dangerous? That is what has happened here.
I would like the member to speak to the fact that emergency vaccines are required only when it is determined that there are no available early treatments to prevent people from getting to the place where they are in ICUs and on ventilators. What is her view of the importance of recognizing how a virus mutates?
I would also like to hear her view on natural immunity. Before we provide vaccines, should that not be determined and find out how many people have very strong T cells and natural immunity capability?
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Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague for her really excellent speech. It was pointed and it was factual.
The member talked about people saying that we need to learn to live with the virus. A lot of countries have been quoted as saying, “Oh, look at how this country is living with the virus.” Today there was a graph put out by some of the health authorities globally that showed that Denmark, which has been continuing to open everything and has been letting everybody roam freely and has been saying that they are going to live with the virus, now has skyrocketing numbers. The graph shows a skyrocketing that is almost vertical. That is what is happening there.
I would like to ask the member what her position is on this idea of opening up everything and living with the virus. What is her position on that?
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Mr. Speaker, I absolutely think there could be almost nothing as dangerous as saying “let us live with the virus”. There is almost nothing as dangerous as saying it has become sort of an average flu and we can just get used to it.
Again, this is not a flu. This is a dangerous parasitic coronavirus that could get worse, and we must not do anything that gives the virus a free ride.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the speech by my colleague, the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands. She is a neighbour of mine. Cowichan—Malahat—Langford and Saanich—Gulf Islands are quite close to each other.
I very much appreciated her comments about how we are nowhere near to being out of the woods yet. So many Canadians still live in dreadful fear of contracting COVID-19 because of their own immune situation or that of a family member.
What I want to talk about is the part of her speech that linked this virus with worldwide air travel as well as environmental exploitation. She and I participated in a debate during the last election. It was a debate on our getting further and further into the wildlife trade and trade in exotic species and the link to the novel viruses that they could emit.
I am wondering if the member has further comments on that, and how this is all linked together.
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Mr. Speaker, it is good to see my hon. colleague from Yorkton—Melville, and I look forward to seeing her in person again.
I do not think we can gamble with a virus this dangerous based on the opinion of a minority of scientists. I do not doubt there are people who are reputable. I have seen them and I have read their literature. If I could find peer-reviewed studies published in renowned medical journals that would confront the basics of what I shared with the member and the House today, I would love to be wrong.
This is dangerous, and I do not think we can gamble with the health of the entire planet. We need to get vaccines to developing countries. We need testing, tracing and social distancing. We need to maintain our public health protocols as best we can and work to eliminate the virus. We cannot live with it. It feeds on us.
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