Jack with Dr Kettner
This is the first 16 minutes of a longer interview for the full interview please go to https://vimeo.com/494488988
Jack interviews Dr Joel Kettner former Manitoba Chief Medical Health Officer a look at the science behind the covid pandemic
For more Citizen’s Forum’s Covid interviews please see our COVID showcase at https://vimeo.com/showcase/7794727
Dr Joel Kettner a former Manitoba Chief Provincial Public Health Officer. He is concerned that more data and monitoring is needed to effectively guide Covid 19 public health measures. More information is needed regarding the severity of coronavirus in terms of the burden on the health care system; hospitalizations and ICU admissions, deaths and long term health consequences. Do the science and facts about Covid support the lockdowns or high case counts
Are PCR tests overestimating both cases and acute coronavirus infections? There's debate around over sensitivity of CT levels above 30 or 35. Without cycle threshold standardization and rigorous analysis, is over-estimation problematic in regards to quantifying hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths?
Have recent modifications to 'cause of death' on medical death certificates (now including death 'with' coronavirus) led to an overestimation of Covid 19 deaths?
Dr Kettner has concerns that raw or crude numbers rather than rate numbers have led to confusion. Further confusion surrounds the lack of data on age specific mortality rates, which is critical for epidemiological analysis. Meaningful, standardized numbers, rates, trends and comparisons are necessary to guide outbreak management. When one looks at the all causes mortality rate, are the rates statistically significantly greater than previous years? Is the rate of all causes mortality sufficient to justify the punitive lockdowns and ensuing health (both mental and physical) crisis that can be expected. Will the global economy survive the lockdowns or will the great WEF/Klaus Schwab reset engulf the world?
Ongoing reassessment of strategies and restrictions in terms of the entire population are critical for public health analysis and outbreak management. Justification for lockdowns and limits on personal freedoms is required by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Public health must weigh severity of coronavirus illness while monitoring the harm caused by restrictions. Dr Kettner hopes others have more info than he and the public. The public need more rationale for current restrictions and more evidence of effectiveness of strategies. For instance, is there valid evidence that masking is effective in community settings? A more systematic monitoring of the harmful consequences of delayed care, access to addictions services, etc. is required to guide public health strategies. More transparency should be forthcoming regarding modelling inputs,
for example regarding spread in bars, restaurants, retail and gatherings, with estimates to justify
these strategies. We need better evidence to protect those at higher risk, focusing on those at
risk of hospitalizations, death and long term illness. He discusses the concept of blending
strategies to focus on the reduction of hospitalizations and deaths through the analysis of risk
factors. There is still time to solve these problems because vaccine delivery timelines and
vaccine effectiveness are unknown. The public needs more information, data analysis, rationale,
conversation and considerations. Public health must bring the science.
Society needs to grapple with the extremely difficult issue of quality of life vs prolonging life at
the expense of social isolation and delayed care in our elderly population.
Dr Kettner is curious that mainstream media rarely discusses the questions raised in this
interview. He says that his interview invitations on national programs were canceled because of
new policy to eliminate independent perspectives on public health strategies and policies. He
suggests that independent perspectives might undermine current policies and strategies.
However, is greater transparency and accountability, conversation and debate necessary to
maintain public trust and compliance? Government and public health must assume that public
deserves honest answers. Do the science and facts support the actions to shut down the global economy as most of the governments of the world have done.