We need to know if public health regulations regarding food preparation are strong enough. Has the Alberta government cut too much red tape?
By Gillian Steward Contributing Columnist
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
The Alberta Children's Hospital is seeing a large influx of patients following an E. coli outbreak linked to multiple Calgary daycares surpassing 200 cases, in Calgary,Sept. 12.
Jeff McIntosh / THE CANADIAN PRESS
During the early years of the pandemic we all found out the hard way that the monitoring and managing of threats to public health can save lives and reduce suffering.
During the early years of the pandemic we all found out the hard way that the monitoring and managing of threats to public health can save lives and reduce suffering.
In Alberta, we are learning that lesson all over again.
This time it’s not the elderly who are most at risk but babies, toddlers, and preschoolers who have been hit by a dangerous strain of E.coli that appears to have spread from a central kitchen that supplies food to several Calgary daycare facilities.
It’s the same strain that infected 2,300 people and killed seven in Walkerton in 2000.
Some of the awful pain and suffering of the children was described in a letter to Premier Danielle Smith signed by 700 parents and supporters: “Many of our children began falling ill at the end of August. Over the following days, many passed not just blood but their own flesh as they screamed in pain, unable to sleep for days while others became lethargic and despondent, all of them struggling to make sense of what was going on.”
As of Sunday there have been 337 lab-confirmed cases of the bacterial infection related to the two week outbreak. Twelve children were still in hospital, 10 of whom have hemolytic uremic syndrome — a complication affecting the blood and kidneys. Six of those children were receiving dialysis. Seventeen child-care centres were shut down.
Alberta Health Services, which oversees public health matters across the province, has been frantically trying to pin down the exact origin of the infection. Was it undercooked hamburger? Lettuce? Did a kitchen employee unknowingly introduce it?
But there are also larger questions that must be answered if we are to avoid a contagious and potentially deadly infection happening again. We need to know if public health regulations regarding food preparation and the implementation of those regulations are strong enough. Conservative governments like Smith’s talk endlessly about “cutting red tape” that they believe hampers businesses. Has it gone too far in Alberta? Do we have enough public health inspectors to get the job done?
And what about the fact that the daycares with the most cases are for-profit facilities? During the pandemic residents of private, for-profit long term care facilities were more likely to die of COVID-19 than people in public or non-profit facilities.
Six of the 17 daycares in Calgary that were shut down are operated by Fueling Brains which was co-founded by chartered accountant Faisal Alimohd, who also describes himself as an “entrepreneur.” Fueling Brains also operates daycares in Saskatoon and Texas. The kitchen which supplied meals to 11 daycares — Fueling Minds — is affiliated with the same company.
There’s also the question of Premier Smith and the United Conservative Party’s attitude toward the need for effective public health measures. Smith won the UCP leadership by appealing to people opposed to COVID-19 vaccines, mask mandates and other pandemic precautions.
In November, shortly after she became premier, she said the unvaccinated had suffered the most discrimination she had seen in her lifetime. She then fired Deena Hinshaw, the Chief Medical Officer of Health who had managed the province’s response to the pandemic even though she was following directions from the UCP cabinet.
In February it was revealed that Smith had an 11 minute telephone conversation with a rabid supporter of the anti-vax Freedom Convoy that blocked the Coutts border crossing. He asked her to get prosecutors to drop the charges against him related to that blockade. She promised to look into it.
Does she still believe that public health regulations are an infringement of people’s freedoms?
Or has she learned from the E.coli crisis that the health and safety of Albertans relies on effective regulation and implementation of measures that can reduce spread of infection and thereby save lives and reduce suffering.
We should all hope so; otherwise if COVID-19 starts to spread widely again we will be on our own.
GS
Gillian Steward is a Calgary writer and journalist, and former managing editor of the Calgary Herald. She is a freelance columnist for The Star.
Some of the awful pain and suffering of the children was described in a letter to Premier Danielle Smith signed by 700 parents and supporters: “Many of our children began falling ill at the end of August. Over the following days, many passed not just blood but their own flesh as they screamed in pain, unable to sleep for days while others became lethargic and despondent, all of them struggling to make sense of what was going on.”
As of Sunday there have been 337 lab-confirmed cases of the bacterial infection related to the two week outbreak. Twelve children were still in hospital, 10 of whom have hemolytic uremic syndrome — a complication affecting the blood and kidneys. Six of those children were receiving dialysis. Seventeen child-care centres were shut down.
Alberta Health Services, which oversees public health matters across the province, has been frantically trying to pin down the exact origin of the infection. Was it undercooked hamburger? Lettuce? Did a kitchen employee unknowingly introduce it?
But there are also larger questions that must be answered if we are to avoid a contagious and potentially deadly infection happening again. We need to know if public health regulations regarding food preparation and the implementation of those regulations are strong enough. Conservative governments like Smith’s talk endlessly about “cutting red tape” that they believe hampers businesses. Has it gone too far in Alberta? Do we have enough public health inspectors to get the job done?
And what about the fact that the daycares with the most cases are for-profit facilities? During the pandemic residents of private, for-profit long term care facilities were more likely to die of COVID-19 than people in public or non-profit facilities.
Six of the 17 daycares in Calgary that were shut down are operated by Fueling Brains which was co-founded by chartered accountant Faisal Alimohd, who also describes himself as an “entrepreneur.” Fueling Brains also operates daycares in Saskatoon and Texas. The kitchen which supplied meals to 11 daycares — Fueling Minds — is affiliated with the same company.
There’s also the question of Premier Smith and the United Conservative Party’s attitude toward the need for effective public health measures. Smith won the UCP leadership by appealing to people opposed to COVID-19 vaccines, mask mandates and other pandemic precautions.
In November, shortly after she became premier, she said the unvaccinated had suffered the most discrimination she had seen in her lifetime. She then fired Deena Hinshaw, the Chief Medical Officer of Health who had managed the province’s response to the pandemic even though she was following directions from the UCP cabinet.
In February it was revealed that Smith had an 11 minute telephone conversation with a rabid supporter of the anti-vax Freedom Convoy that blocked the Coutts border crossing. He asked her to get prosecutors to drop the charges against him related to that blockade. She promised to look into it.
Does she still believe that public health regulations are an infringement of people’s freedoms?
Or has she learned from the E.coli crisis that the health and safety of Albertans relies on effective regulation and implementation of measures that can reduce spread of infection and thereby save lives and reduce suffering.
We should all hope so; otherwise if COVID-19 starts to spread widely again we will be on our own.
GS
Gillian Steward is a Calgary writer and journalist, and former managing editor of the Calgary Herald. She is a freelance columnist for The Star.
SEE
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