In 2021, Edmonton nurse Stephanie Kendrick got COVID-19 while working at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.
She spent the next three years unable to work, going to medical appointments, sitting on the couch and suffering from extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, and brain fog.
According to Statistics Canada, almost one in seven Canadian adults who have had, or thought they had, COVID-19 still struggle with symptoms at least three months after their initial infection.
Kendrick is one of an estimated 100,000 Canadians who have suffered from long-COVID, a difficult-to-diagnose and treat condition with wide-ranging symptoms that keep people off work and barely able to walk to the end of the driveway.
“I felt like a 30-year-old in an 80-year-old’s body. I was having difficulty forming words. Getting out of bed, even to go to the washroom in the morning, was a huge task,” Kendrick told CTVNews in June after finally getting back to work.
Deep-Six Alberta Long-COVID Clinics
There’s a lot that science still needs to understand about why some people get long-COVID and how to treat it.
But, Danielle Smith’s government didn’t let the need for more research stop them. They suddenly said they would close the long-term COVID clinics in Edmonton, Calgary, and Sherwood Park.
As reported by the Edmonton Journal, patients received a letter from Alberta Health Services (AHS) dated Aug. 8 announcing the end of the province’s long COVID program.
“Your health and well-being remain a priority, and we are committed to ensuring you receive support during the transition,” it reads.
The letter also tells patients to contact their primary care provider for additional resources.
In a statement, AHS said the program had run its course and was only intended to be temporary.
Closing Clinics, No Surprise
The fact that the United Conservative Party is leaving long-COVID patients high and dry is no surprise, writes David Climenhaga in a column for The Tyee.
He calls the move a natural outcome for a party dominated by “anti-vaccine extremists, including Premier Danielle Smith…”
In other words, why let science and research get in the way of political views based on kooky, unscientific beliefs and opinions?
This past June, anti-vax talking head Eric Bouchard, UCP MLA for Calgary-Lougheed, held a town hall meeting dubbed “Injection of Truth” at an evangelical church.
More recently, he was a guest on Bruce Scholl’s conspiracy-spouting podcast Unscrew The News.
Scholl, who calls the COVID vaccine the “murder shot,” is a big fan of Bouchard’s and his hopes to have the vaccine banned.
On the podcast, Bouchard grumbled about having to close his business during COVID. That is sad.
But it is also sad and dangerous how Bouchard tries to leverage his complaints to justify his opinions about vaccines and pandemic public health measures.
“What followed was a pretty dark time for quite a few months, and then the first real glimmer of light was the convoy, you know, that rolled out, and it just gave me hope that someone was standing up,” Bouchard says on the podcast.
These are the same kinds of conversations that happen in UCP‘s inner circles these days.
Remember that Smith’s government appointed Dr. Gary Davidson, a Red Deer emergency doctor who accused the province of exaggerating COVID numbers, to lead a review of COVID-19 pandemic data.
Long-COVID Patients On Their Own
Personal opinions are one thing. But when opinions, rather than facts, guide important policy decisions, that’s a big problem.
The choice about whether or not to continue caring for long-COVID patients is a tragedy, as the need is still there.
According to the University of Alberta, the long-COVID clinic in Edmonton received 1,500 referrals and saw 800 patients over three years.
Stephanie Kendrick was one of them. After 36 months of battling the disease, thankfully, she’s back working as a nurse. But many other Albertans still struggle with long-COVID.
“It’s frustrating because people don’t understand what you’re going through,” said long-COVID patient Jennifer Kendall in a story the St. Albert Gazette reported. “They think, ‘Oh, it’s just the flu, you’ll get over it,’ and you don’t.”
Thanks to Premier Smith, long-COVID patients will now face it alone.
If they’re lucky, they’ll have a family doctor with the time and resources to give them the care they need.
But many Albertans still need a family doctor.
According to a 2022 survey by Angus Reid, roughly one in six Albertans said they don’t have a family doctor. Closing long-COVID clinics is just another in the string of healthcare failures in the province.
