One of the many costs of the COVID-19 crisis was the erosion of trust.
In addition to the loss of lives, one of the many costs of the COVID-19 crisis was the erosion of trust.
Since the beginning of the SARS CoV-2 pandemic, trust has been eroding at alarming rates in Canada and around the world. The Edelman Trust Barometer measures such changes every year. In 2022, they interviewed 10,000 people comprising 1,000 people in 10 countries. Canada was included. Here is the link to the full report.
https://www.edelman.com/trust/22/special-report-trust-in-health
Here are some key findings: “High trust is associated with higher vaccination rates in developed countries.” The Canadian governments, both federal and provincial, and public health enjoyed high levels of trust early in 2020-2021. People followed lock down and masking recommendations and the vast majority received two doses of the COVID-19 genetic vaccine to prevent infection and to ‘do their part’. Most were inoculated by choice but, as time went on, many were coerced through threats of job losses without compensation and privileges being withheld such as travel, attendance at events and the loss of a right to attend university. Then the goal posts changed when it was recognized that either still not enough people were getting vaccinated or that the ‘two dose’ vaccination program was a massive failure. Government narratives pushed the former reason rather than the latter. Meanwhile, rates of COVID-19 infection per 100,000 people in the group that had received the genetic vaccination were beginning to exceed the number of cases in the unvaccinated group. More people started to recognize this failure as high-profile people such as Justin Trudeau tested positive for COVID-19 twice within 6 months despite being “fully vaccinated”!
According to Edelman’s data, 12% (48% vs 36%) more people now see the government as a dividing force rather than a unifying force. Another 11% (46% vs 35%) felt the same way about the media. Every interested observer saw that the Canadian government was stoking the fires of discrimination against the unvaccinated for political advantage as there was no supporting data to justify many of their actions. Public health ‘experts’ were just as guilty as they professed to follow the science but would not debate issues in public or provide transparent data. Eventually, they confessed that many people allegedly in hospital with COVID -19 were not actually there for COVID-19 but simply tested positive while they were admitted for other reasons. Trust was plummeting as government and public health directives became more politicized than science based.
Media became an echo chamber for the government and the vaccine manufacturers. Why not? With over $600 million tax payer dollars the Canadian government invested in mainstream media and Big Pharma being one of legacy media’s most generous advertisers, how could the media not support them? A full-page pictorial ad often repeated on the back page of the National Post newspaper showing bandaids on upper arms with messages like ‘For mom’ and ‘For best friends’ has a link at the bottom of the page. The link to ‘shot.ca’ is to a website selling domain names! So much for investigative journalism and the public’s trust in the media. Some unidentifiable entity with a lot of money to gain from vaccine sales could be investing substantial amounts in anonymously promoting discrimination against unvaccinated and partially vaccinated Canadians. The media is not being transparent and trust in them is also eroding.
Edelman recognized that the most vaccine compliant people got their information primarily from their doctor, whereas those not getting vaccinated by choice were primarily searching the internet for information. Significantly, for those following the government narrative, doctors were the epitome of trust.
Over the last 2 years, however, family doctors were and are some of the most suppressed through censorship, threats and coercion. Traditionally encouraging prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of all diseases, they were muzzled and forced to endorse the “vaccine only” narrative when it came to COVID-19. For example, in Ontario, here is a quote from the directive sent to all licensed physicians from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) on April 30th, 2021.
“The College is aware and concerned about the increase of misinformation circulating on social media and other platforms regarding physicians who are publicly contradicting public health orders and recommendations. Physicians hold a unique position of trust with the public and have a professional responsibility to not communicate anti-vaccine, anti-masking, anti-distancing and anti-lockdown statements and/or promoting unsupported, unproven treatments for COVID-19. Physicians must not make comments or provide advice that encourages the public to act contrary to public health orders and recommendations. Physicians who put the public at risk may face an investigation by the CPSO and disciplinary action, when warranted. When offering opinions, physicians must be guided by the law, regulatory standards, and the code of ethics and professional conduct. The information shared must not be misleading or deceptive and must be supported by available evidence and science.”
What was the desired outcome of this directive? Was the CPSO’s intention to increase trust by enhancing patient education and emphasize informed consent or drive a political ‘vaccinate at all costs’ narrative. While we can’t measure what family physicians were telling their patients privately, Ontario public health’s website was demonstrating substantial uptake of SARS CoV-2 vaccinations. Trust appeared quite high. However, the same Ontario website was also reporting the adverse events associated with these inoculations. While intended to demonstrate safety, it showed that adverse event reporting by physicians topped out at the end of April and declined substantially after the warning was issued. Here is the link to Ontario’s public health site in July, 2022.
https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/ncov/epi/covid-19-aefi-report.pdf?la=en%C2%A0
Here is a photo of page 6 for your convenience.
Week 16/17, the all-time high of adverse event reporting, is the time that the CPSO notice was distributed! Are people really supposed to believe that the inoculations became safer after the CPSO threatened their licensed physician members? Might people think that as many as possible COVID-19 genetic vaccine adverse events should be denied by physicians so that ‘safety’ would not be questioned?
At this point, trust is eroding in governments, public health, media, hospitals and physicians. Who are we to trust? Can lost trust be restored? Who checks the literature from these sources and even the so-called fact checkers for balance and accuracy? At the Canadian Covid Care Alliance, we do.
COMMUNITY, FEATURED, KNOWLEDGE BASE, MEDIA, PANDEMIC MANAGEMENT, RESOURCES
CANADA, COVID, COVID-19, EROSION, GOVERNMENT, HOSPITALS, INFORMED CONSENT, LOSS, MEDIA, PHYSICIANS, TRUST,
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