Irresponsible commentary

Vincent J. Curtis

31 Dec 21

RE: Remarks by Dr. Dawn Bowdish, Professor of Medicine, McMaster University.  From a story by Maria Iqbal, headlined “Hospitalizations grow as cases near 1,000 mark.” The Hamilton Spectator 31 Dec 21.

Several of the comments quoted of Dr. Dawn Bowdish are irresponsible, and merely fuel unnecessary panic as the next COVID wave rises in Ontario.

The remark that ‘it’s too early to know if Omicron is linked to more severe illness compared to other variant’ is contradicted not just from the get-go by reports from South Africa, but in another story in the same Spec edition, specifically in the story headlined “Ontario study suggests Omicron is less severe.”  If Ontario has figured it out, then the literature is already abundant with studies showing Omicron is less severe.  Apparently, Dr. Bowdish hasn’t read any of it.  In addition, it is routine for pandemics to end with variants that are more contagious but less severe in effects, as Omicron is.  Dr. Bowdish ought to know this also if she is at all familiar with epidemiology.

The comment that using hospitalizations as a metric of severity is short-sighted is also irresponsible.  First, admission to hospital is a definite event, countable by statisticians, while case counts are dependent on testing volumes and severity.  Hospitalization, ICU admissions, and deaths are the only reliable numbers were have to measure the pandemic.

Her comment that ‘people who exhibit few symptoms could still face long term issues like organ damage’ is also irresponsible.  There are always outliers in medicine, but outliers don’t change the natural course of the disease in normal people. We have enough data now to quantify such assertions.  Since she didn’t provide the statistical likelihood, she just made it up, relying on her authority as a doctor not to be questioned about it.  Common sense and the data show that organ damage is associated with severe infection, and severe infection produces bad symptoms.  COVID isn’t a chronic disease like herpes.

Her comment that ‘a short interaction with somebody, crossing somebody in the grocery store, or someone sneezing outdoors in your proximity’ could be sufficient to get the infection is just panic-porn at this stage.  There are myriad ways of inhaling a sufficient amount of highly contagious virus to catch the infection.  Probably most of us will get it at some point, but the important question is how healthy you are.  If you’re healthy, stop worrying.  If you’re old, diabetic, obese, or have chronic lung problems, then you need to be careful.  Not everybody needs to panic, but panic - by emphasizing what she doesn’t know and by an absence of critical thinking - is what Dr. Dowdish’s remarks were all about.

We don’t need more panic through “what I, a doctor, don’t know” from medical professionals.  If you don’t keep up with the fast moving literature, there’s lots you won’t know.  What we need is responsible commentary from reliable sources, which are frighteningly few at the moment.

Too many want to play Dr. “we don’t know, so be extreme cautious” Fauci on TV who doesn’t know the data or understand it if he did, and not enough Dr. Scott Atlas, who knows the data cold and is a sound, critical thinker.

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