When is Alberta going to see pandemic data and modelling? Hinshaw offers no new timeline

EDMONTON -

Alberta’s chief medical officer of health is apologizing for COVID-19 data and modelling not being available and said her team remains committed to ensuring it is publicly available.

In a town hall with doctors in Alberta Wednesday evening, Dr. Deena Hinshaw said the modelling data to show what is driving the province’s pandemic response is not ready.

According to Hinshaw, the delay in releasing the modelling is due to Alberta’s shift in pandemic response plans.

Originally, the United Conservative Party-led government was planning on lifting testing, isolation, and mandatory masking rules for transit, taxis, and ride shares in August.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s top doctor, previously said the decision to drop the pandemic response measures was made after data on age-specific outcomes related to COVID-19, vaccine effectiveness and modelling on the transmissibility of the Delta variant and related health outcomes were reviewed by her team.

Last Friday, Hinshaw announced that the government was delaying the decision to eliminate testing, isolating, and masking measures until Sept. 27 due to rising hospitalizations that she said exceeded projections by more than 60 per cent.

Additionally, Hinshaw cited growing evidence about the Delta variant’s effect on children led the province to back down from relaxing COVID-19 public health measures until at least the end of September.

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On Wednesday, Hinshaw said she understood the keen interest in the modelling but offered no timeline for when the public report would be ready.

“The team worked incredibly hard to try to pull those pieces together and I think that the challenge is that it's not just about kind of releasing a list of references,” Hinshaw told her colleagues Wednesday evening at the town hall.

“What the team's been trying to do is to put together a narrative that articulates the considerations and that evidence that can be put out publicly."

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The chief medical officer of health apologized and said she “own(s)” responsibility for not having the data prepared in time.

“I promised a timeline that ended up not being realistic based on the other work that was necessary for the team to do,” Hinshaw said. “I can assure you my team is working flat out and has been for a very long time and they're doing their best to get these things packaged together.”

In addition to the medical community, the official opposition in Alberta, Edmonton’s Mayor Don Iveson and several city councillors have called on the province to release the pandemic modelling.

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“In the interests of being able to release the package without releasing things in piecemeal, we want to be able to kind of put together in a comprehensive overview. So, I'm sorry it's not available,” she said. “Unfortunately, this is not something I can do by myself and it's also not something we can do without moving through all of the processes that are necessary in government.”

Hinshaw said she was committed to ensuring the data is released publically and that the medical community and Albertans get to look at it.

“The information is not secretive information,” she said. “The work that’s required isn’t just that list of articles. It’s trying to put it together into a narrative mode that helps explain not just to you as my peers, but to all Albertans, that list of considerations that was taken into account.”