By: Michelle Young, Opinions Editor
Recently, Global News reported that BTNX, “a small rapid test supplier based outside Toronto, deleted dozens of specimens, or samples, from a study it submitted to Health Canada.” In turn, this meant these tests were more likely than originally reported to produce a false negative — meaning you could still be positive and infectious with COVID-19, despite a negative result. While BTNX has refuted these claims, this isn’t necessarily a new problem — COVID-19 tests have become increasingly unreliable at detecting new variants. Further, testing at the wrong point during your infection can also yield unreliable results. The problem points to a larger issue in the pandemic response: a lack of accountability from the government and a strong emphasis on individualism.
There is very little support from the provincial and federal government for people who test positive for COVID-19. What effectively happened with the removal of pandemic precautions is the government put the burden of testing and masking on individuals, and ignored any steps that would prevent infection. Vaccination does not prevent infection, and people have been left to fend for themselves after testing positive. How is anyone expected to “live with COVID-19” when there is insufficient paid sick leave, a lack of access to Paxlovid (which can help reduce severe illness), and little to no protections for those who test positive?
A few years ago, a positive COVID-19 test meant you needed to isolate yourself, take time away from school or work, and gave you the opportunity to rest during the course of your infection. Fast forward a few years, and people are being forced to come back to work or school while positive.
This is bad for everyone involved — both the person who is sick and those they interact with. It’s been reported that insufficient rest during your COVID-19 infection can increase the risk of Long COVID. Even a mild infection in a healthy person can cause severe long-term illness, damaging the immune system, nervous system, and the reproductive system. Want erectile dysfunction? Didn’t think so. The chances of these adverse effects multiply with each infection, so it’s in your best interest to get sick as little as possible.
A positive test should mean concrete next steps for students and workers to receive care or accommodations. This is non-existent in BC. The push toward forcing everyone to return to work or school has also come with ignoring the need to rest. Just a few weeks ago, Bernie Sanders tested positive for COVID-19 and claimed his symptoms were minimal, and therefore would continue working from home. Sanders has historically positioned himself as pro-worker. While working from home in and of itself is a good alternative to working in-person, people should not feel the need or be pressured to work while sick. Sanders’ rhetoric feeds into the fallacy that we should be working while ill. However, what happens when someone doesn’t feel well enough to do so? Further, what about those who can’t work from home?
COVID-19 is a labour issue. The pandemic provided an opportunity to expand sick leave and create more accessible workplaces. Instead, even in leftist spaces, worker strikes continue to be inaccessible, unions ignored demands related to remote work, and this is all happening during “all-time high workplace absences due to illness” and while “an increasing number of people are becoming disabled.” Workplaces are seemingly comfortable forcing employees to take off their masks, when that’s one of the only effective ways left to protect yourself. Long COVID is increasingly keeping people out of the workforce and contributing to a labour shortage. This should also be concerning given that the BC government has not committed to pandemic budgeting for 2024. If the province insists on forcing people into the path of infection, it should rationally follow that those who get sick have the tools and care they need available to them. However, it is evident the best strategy is to avoid infection to begin with.
The tools are supposed to be testing, vaccination, Paxlovid, and masks. However, in BC, none of these tools are being adequately used. Testing is unreliable with no apparent plans to improve. Vaccination is slow with few people getting the reformulated shots. Paxlovid is limited and difficult to access, and a poor mask policy isn’t nearly enough to reduce COVID-19 cases.
While some rightfully continue to test, relying on tests alone has never been enough to ensure no COVID-19 transmission. However, when those who believe they’ve done their due diligence by testing negative then go out into the world maskless, they can still spread illness to others unknowingly. We continue to put the burden to mask on individuals if they want to protect themselves, despite knowing that universal masking is most effective.
If we are going to create a sustainable pandemic response, it needs to move away from individualism. It needs to stop relying on outdated tools, and stop shying away from new strategies — like ventilation. Most of all, it requires solidarity, because COVID-19 continues to disproportionately affect women, racialized communities, frontline workers like cashiers and bus drivers, lower-income, and disabled people.
