QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Health
COVID-19 Pandemic Restrictions
February 9, 2022
I thank you and the entire government for supporting the provinces in their fight against the pandemic, for example by providing vaccines and implementing complementary health care measures, especially at the borders.
According to scientists, including federal experts, we are transitioning from pandemic to endemic, so wouldn’t this be the time to review the federal measures that may no longer be necessary?
Thank you very much for the question.
The answer is yes, and that is what we’ve been doing all along. These measures absolutely need to be reviewed, for two reasons. The first is that Canada’s economic and health situation continues to evolve, and the second is that we keep learning more about the science of the virus and its variants as time goes on. I’d also like to mention another reason, which is that now, in February 2022, we have some exceptional tools that we did not have back in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic.
In other words, February 2022 is not March 2020. We fortunately have PPE, highly effective tests, proven, recognized and comprehensive public health measures, and antiviral treatments. On top of that, we have vaccines. We are unbelievably lucky to have gotten vaccines last year, thanks to science. Without vaccines, the lockdown measures we have now would have been much stricter. Being against vaccination is tantamount to being for lockdowns. The only way to avoid future lockdowns is to continue getting people vaccinated. That’s the only way to protect our health, our economy and our society.
