The task force that Premier Danielle Smith commissioned to review Alberta Canada's Covid-19 pandemic response has released its final report: https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/88bbf80e-f8c8-4355-b751-c2086e204b34/resource/33d1d7d5-2596-4e57-a1ad-d93c10920069/download/hlth-albertas-covid-19-pandemic-response-2025-01.pdf
The report is a weighty 268-pages, but in a nutshell after examining all the evidence of vaccine deaths and injuries, and available scientific papers, concluded that there should be "halting the use of COVID-19 vaccines without full disclosure of their potential risks" and for the province to allow physicians to prescribe alternative treatment options for the virus, such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine." This conclusion has generated an utter mad backlash from the vax lobby, with doctors signing protest letters to the government. It is not clear where this will go now given the intense defence of the vax which has been made. Still, that the report reached a negative conclusion is significant, and indicates that breakdown of the Covid narrative is occurring, slowly but surely.
"The "contrarian"-led task force that Premier Danielle Smith commissioned to review Alberta's COVID-19 pandemic response has released its final report.
The 268-page report, posted online Friday afternoon, Jan. 24, recommends "halting the use of COVID-19 vaccines without full disclosure of their potential risks" and for the province to allow physicians to prescribe alternative treatment options for the virus, such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.
It also encourages the province to end the use of COVID vaccinations among healthy children and teenagers; conduct further research into the vaccines' effectiveness; establish support for "vaccine-injured" individuals, and provide an opt-out mechanism from federal public health policy.
"The COVID-19 vaccines were not designed to halt transmission of the virus and there is limited data on their effectiveness in preventing severe illness in children," the report claimed.
Smith directed the task force's creation in late 2022, shortly after she was elected. The panel's mandate was to review health information data and the Alberta government's decision-making processes regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, while also recommending how to better navigate a future pandemic.
A spokesperson from Health Minister Adriana LaGrange's office said Saturday that the province is still reviewing and considering the report, and has not yet made any policy decisions related to its findings.
"Alberta's government is committed to prioritizing the health and well-being of Albertans through responsible, evidence-based decision making," said LaGrange's press secretary, Jessi Rampton.
She added that the task force was designed to include health professionals from diverse practice areas, including infectious disease, public health, general practice, acute care, immunology, analytics and emergency medicine.
The province earmarked $2 million for the review, though Smith said she expected it to come in under budget.
But the review garnered controversy last April after media reports that Dr. Gary Davidson, the former chief of emergency medicine at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre, was selected to chair the task force. Before his appointment, Davidson had publicly questioned some elements of Alberta's COVID-19 response, including his claim in 2021 that hospital admission numbers were exaggerated and manipulated to justify the need for public health restrictions.
Smith defended Davidson's appointment to lead the review, arguing she wanted to hear a diverse range of view points, including from those who had been "shouted down in the public sphere."
"I needed somebody who was going to look at everything that happened with some fresh eyes and maybe with a little bit of a contrarian perspective because we've only ever been given one perspective," Smith told reporters last April. "I left it to (Davidson) to assemble the panel with the guidance that I would like to have a broad range of perspectives."
Her comments were criticized by then-leader of the Alberta NDP Rachel Notley, who at the time called the review a waste of public money and a secret consultation led by a doctor with "fringe views."
"I believe the Earth is round, and I don't think that the people of Alberta should be paying for people who believe it's flat to be engaging in the conversation," Notley said.
In addition to calling for an end to COVID-19 vaccines, the report touts the benefits of herd immunity, or the idea that prior infection with SARS-CoV-2 can provide durable and protective immune responses.
"Infection-acquired immunity should not be overlooked or downplayed in public health messaging and policies," the review states.
It also criticized what it called a "restrictive approach taken by Alberta health authorities" regarding alternative treatment options for COVID-19, including drugs like ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, fluvoxamine, and colchicine.
"Alberta should allow healthcare professionals to prescribe treatments in their patients' best interest and ensure access to therapies with established safety records," it stated. (That recommendation contravenes a Health Canada public advisory from 2021 that states Ivermectin is not authorized to prevent or treat COVID-19 and that it "may cause serious health problems" if used to treat the virus.)
On Friday, Davidson discussed his task force's report on the Chris and Kerry Show, a podcast hosted by the owner of the Whistlestop Cafe — the rural restaurant that made headlines in 2021 for refusing to comply with public health restrictions.
During the interview, Davidson was asked to respond to a Globe and Mail report that the review contradicted scientific consensus. He responded by claiming there is no such thing as consensus in science and that he encourages people to read his team's report.
"Science is all about questioning everything, experimenting and proving whether it's true or not," he said. "That's science. Consensus is a religion idea and I don't think it belongs in this field."
Alberta Health Services (AHS) declined to comment on the task force's report Saturday, directing Postmedia to instead seek comment from the Alberta government. AHS has previously called Davidson's claims about hospitalizations during the pandemic "completely false."