Alberta’s health ministry says it will consider the recommendations of a task force report that critiques the government’s response during COVID-19, but says no decisions have been made on implementing them at this point.
“Alberta’s government will review and consider this report and its findings, however no policy decisions have been made in relation to it at this time,” the office of Health Minister Adriana LaGrange told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.
It also said that the recommendations “offer a perspective” on how the government could do better in a future pandemic. The task force was commissioned by Premier Danielle Smith in 2022.
“This review builds on efforts already taken to enhance Alberta’s ability to respond to future public emergencies,” the statement said.
The task force report, released Jan. 24, criticized vaccines and masking, among other responses that it says will have a “significant impact” trickling down for generations.
The review was performed by a panel of medical doctors and other health sciences university professors and was headed by Dr. Gary Davidson, former chief of emergency medicine at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre.
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Among its recommendations is a halt to the use of the COVID-19 vaccine without full disclosure of the risks. The report also says vaccines should not be used for children and adolescents.
The authors question why the vaccines were pushed on age groups that showed a low level of risk of harm from the virus.
It has also recommended further research into the effectiveness of the vaccine.
The task force said it did not find evidence that vaccines were more effective than natural immunity to COVID-19. It says government messaging was wrong to imply otherwise.
Alberta’s COVID-19 Pandemic Data Review Task Force said it also found a “critical failure of Alberta’s health system” that remains a concern in how pandemic information was developed and shared.
When it came to masking, the task force said that even surgical masks and N95 models were inefficient in protecting against the respiratory illness.
Further, the authors said that the lockdown policies implemented in Alberta and elsewhere came at a significant cost to society.
The task force says there were inconsistencies in the use of evidence when it came to vaccines and other medications like ivermectin. It said there were signs of potential benefits from some non-vaccine interventions. The report recommended further research be done.
The report found issues with Alberta’s regulatory colleges not engaging in “due diligence” and conducting internal reviews of studies and data. It said they followed the directives of Alberta’s chief medical officer of health rather than looking deeper.
The task force’s mandate was to examine the provincial response during the pandemic and make recommendations that will assist in future pandemics.
