‘This is nothing like the flu’: vaccines saved lives, Piggott says

The COVID-19 pandemic — with its death toll of 11,000 in Ontario so far — has been eight times more deadly than a typical influenza season in Ontario, said the medical officer of health.

“And that was all with the measures — the vaccines and the lockdown measures,” said Dr. Thomas Piggott in a telephone town hall meeting on COVID-19 on Tuesday night, organized by PeterboroughKawartha MPP Dave Smith.

Without those public health measures, Piggott said, the COVID-19 pandemic may have been “10, 20, 30 times worse.”

In the meeting, citizens who had preregistered to participate were allowed to ask questions; one person had asked why all the fuss and lockdowns when COVID-19 “is just the flu.”

“This is nothing like the flu,” Piggott said.

Smith added that the Ontario government made decisions based on what worked and what didn’t in jurisdictions such as New York

state, where there were no lockdowns — and nearly 40,000 deaths in the first wave alone.

“If our government has made a mistake, we made a mistake trying to save people’s lives,” he said.

The town hall also included Dr. Lynn Mikula, executive vice-president, chief of staff and chief medical executive at Peterborough Regional Health Centre.

The purpose was to allow anyone in the riding to ask questions of the doctors or of Smith.

One citizen asked why PRHC is seemingly overrun when the Omicron variant produces a mild version of COVID-19.

“Omicron might be less likely to kill you, but you’re way more likely to catch it,” Mikula said.

She said that while the variant is less likely to send people to hospital or to the intensive care unit, “it’s still a very serious illness” that will require hospitalization for some.

And because Omicron is “wildly contagious,” that adds up to a lot of pressure on hospitals.

When she was asked how PRHC can “justify” cancelling surgeries for life-threatening conditions in the ongoing pandemic, Mikula said no hospital staff worker or administrator wants to cancel a scheduled surgery.

Hospitals across Ontario have been given a directive from the provincial government to ramp down surgeries, she said — and no one feels good about it.

“Responding to a pandemic — to something of this magnitude — takes a team approach, and takes us doing some unusual things ... I have a lot of empathy for your question,” she said.