After two years of a pandemic, it is surprising to note that the Quebec government has not made the same observations as the vast majority of Western democracies.
Among these observations, there is that the COVID-19 is a permanent disease – extremely contagious and fortunately not very lethal with the vaccination – that containment measures, even severe, will not allow to contain.
The other missing finding is more pernicious, but is essential after two years. The constant closure of the company makes it possible to perpetuate mediocrity in the management of the health system.
Indeed, although this is probably unconscious, the ankylosis of our health system is encouraged by the fact that there is an implicit social contract with the government: as soon as there is fragility in the network, we will paralyze all other socio-economic activities to protect you.
However, rather than adapting society to the health system with a curfew, it is time to consider adapting the health system to the pandemic.
It is unacceptable, at this stage of the pandemic, for the government to still navigate on sight, especially when the time comes to know crucial data.
In particular, the inability to know the number of patients hospitalized FOR COVID-19 rather than patients hospitalized WITH COVID-19 is serious misconduct. This proportion of patients hospitalized and who “fortuitously” have COVID-19 is very high in the field, and precise knowledge of this proportion could significantly change the narrative on the evolution of the Omicron variant.
It is also unacceptable that after two years it often takes several days for infected and symptomatic people to be notified of a positive test result.
Not being an expert in public health, I generally look back to the experience of other countries to try to understand what possible solutions would exist in order to avoid living in one of the most vaccinated and most confined societies at the same time.
Certainly different nations have different levels of risk tolerance and union sclerosis. But the psychosocial costs of confinements are so high that we must dare more daring and creative solutions here too.
In particular, consideration should be given to limiting the duration of isolation of asymptomatic infected persons throughout society, not just within the health system.
It would also be important to reassess the relevance of screening asymptomatic people for COVID-19. On the one hand, this decongestion could make it possible to notify positive and symptomatic people more quickly, who are often more contagious. In addition, reducing the obsession with screening and the number of cases would free up a lot of caregivers, who could perform other tasks.
Finally, it is surprising that Quebec, unlike several nations, has not more seriously considered the creation of hospitals dedicated to COVID-19. By taking COVID-19 out of traditional hospitals, one could create parallel systems where the peak periods of the one and the other are not interrelated.
If the successive confinements have allowed the health system to breathe, it is now our entrepreneurs, our artists, our restaurateurs and our children who need oxygen.
We need to inject more pragmatism into our approach to the pandemic and adapt our society to it rather than perpetually shutting it down.
The first thing I learned in medicine is that health is not just physical.
Let us hope that our society does not forget to take care of its psychosocial health in 2022.