Local doctors clear the air

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Two local doctors are not pleased with the information protestors touted at a recent peaceful protest held in downtown Hanover.

The protest held on Dec. 23 by a group called Grey Bruce Strong claimed to be holding the protest in support of small businesses, not as anti-mask vs. pro-mask or anti-COVID vs. pro-COVID.

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Susan Batten, a family physician in Hanover, said that the two healthcare providers that were quoted in the article in the Jan. 7 edition of The Post do have some valid points, such as these lockdowns contributing to despair, increases in suicide and drug overdoses and significant economic hardships.

“Without masking, physical distancing, and unfortunately, lockdown measures, we will not only see the above continue, we will also see more people contract COVID and suffer the consequences,” Batten said. “We only need to see what is happening in other countries to know that keeping everything open has not resulted in better outcomes, but rather the outcomes have been drastically worse.”

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In the previous article, when the two healthcare providers discuss that only the elderly and the chronically ill are dying, so there is “no justification to lock away the healthy,” and then go on to suggest that “we are promoting things that very recently would have been considered abusive…such as holding seniors inside and restricting access of family members,” Batten said she is unsure what they are suggesting.

“Do they mean we should ‘lock away’ the unhealthy, but then contradict themselves by blaming (someone?) for ‘holding seniors inside’?” Batten asked. “If we expand this thinking and we ‘lock away’ our elders, our vulnerable; such as those with diabetes, respiratory disease, those who smoke, those with cancer, how do the ‘healthy’ that carry the disease care for the ‘unhealthy’ without spreading it to them?

“Let us also understand something about those in nursing homes, our elders, they are dying at alarming rates when this infection enters into their homes – but who brought it in? Not the elders, they are being ‘held inside.’ It is the ‘healthy’ staff and visitors that carried it in with them – so are they suggesting we follow a more natural course and let our elders die, but at least we can kiss and hug them before they do?”

And though it is our elders that have the most burden of this pandemic, they are not the ones that are filling up our hospitals, Batten added.

“It is our neighbours, some with chronic diseases and lifestyle choices that make them higher risk for complications, and some are even the ‘healthy’ with no risk factors,” Batten said.

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“These are the people that need our ventilators for an extended period of time while we use all our resources to prevent them from dying. Some of them then face a complicating and protracted healing process, and some never return to the health status that they had before they contracted this disease, and yes some even die despite our efforts.”

Batten said in The Post’s article to address is the disadvantage that the small businesses face against the big box and online stores that have both essential and non-essential supplies.

“What this lockdown has done is allowed large multinational companies to profit on the backs of our local business owners,” Batten said. “Why the government did not institute what was done in Manitoba to enforce large business to block off their non-essential merchandise I don’t understand.”

Batten listed off ways one can help local businesses.

– Follow public health guidelines and stop socializing with others and spreading the disease – the sooner we see the number of cases of COVID infections go down, the sooner we can see our local businesses reopen.

– Get takeout from our local restaurants – bring it home and enjoy it with your family while still supporting your local businesses.

– Try to avoid purchasing ‘non-essential’ items – we are in a lockdown because we are in a pandemic, and thus we all should do our best to stay home.

– Do not order from Amazon what can be purchased locally. Our local small businesses have done everything to make it easier for us to still buy from them, so please do this, even if it may cost a bit more. The extra money you are paying goes to pay for taxes that pick up your garbage and keep your roads clear and pays employees a living wage.

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– Be kind to each other – for better or worse, we are neighbours, I am your customer, you are my patient, our children play together. We are a community, and we need to remember to treat each other with kindness and respect – even when we disagree. I do want us all to remember we are in it together – for better or worse.

“We are all also fatigued by this pandemic that keeps on giving,” Batten said. “It is in my times of despair that I am so grateful for my community. The patient that pauses to ask me how I am doing, or the man who passes me on the stairs in the hospital (likely going to visit a sick friend or family member) and stops me to thank me for ‘all that you are doing for us.’”

Batten thanked her patients, her friends, her family and her community.

“Thank you for wearing a mask, washing your hands, keeping socially distant and for supporting me and the rest of your community – like our local businesses,” Batten said. “This too will pass, and we will see better days. The vaccine is coming and with it hope for us all.”

Tim Heerema, a family doctor and ER chief at Hanover and District Hospital, who, along with his wife, owns a small retail business in Hanover, said they did not ask for the Dec. 23 protest to occur and voiced their concern over the gathering of people.

“We did not see any direct benefit from the protest,” Heerema said. “Let me be clear, our business survived this past year because of loyal customers and new customers who decided to shop local. These messages and the resulting tangible purchases of items and gift certificates are much more valuable to local retailers than any protest.”

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Heerema also provided facts as to act as a counter point to what the protesters claimed.

– The World Health Organization reports more than 1.9 million deaths from COVID in 2020. By comparison, the WHO estimates that influenza usually kills between 290,000 and 650,000 people globally each year.

– A review article in the British Medical Journal showed that “the percentage of COVID-19 patients who died while hospitalized (21 per cent) was more than five times that of influenza patients (3.8 per cent), and the duration of hospitalization was almost three times longer for COVID-19 patients.” Also, compared to the flu, COVID-19 had more than two times the odds ratio for all of the following: myocarditis, deep vein thrombosis, intracranial hemorrhage, acute hepatitis and pressure ulcers.

– In December 2020, a review article was published in Nature. It pooled all published data we have to date on hydroxychloroquine (HC) either given alone or in combination with azithromycin (AZ). Mortality was no different in those treated with HC alone. Mortality was 1.8 times higher in those treated with HC and AZ. Hospital length of stay was shorter in patients who received the standard of care vs. either of these interventions. Rates of side effects were three times higher in the groups that received these drugs.

Despite the growing desire to deny the severity of this illness, Heerema said COVID is not an easy problem to wish away.

“Studies with numerous interventions are ongoing (including Vitamin C and Vitamin D trials),” Heerema said. “No one is hiding the effective treatments from the public, as your anonymous sources seem to imply.

“Some wish to believe it is not a problem in Grey-Bruce. But, January has seen a refrigerator truck used as a morgue in London, a field hospital opened in Burlington and a rising rate of positive test results across the province. Our Ontario hospital leaders have tried to raise the alarm that our hospital beds and ICU beds are quickly running out.”