‘A time of great uncertainty’: B.C.’s provincial health officer reflects on 6 years since COVID lockdown began

It was around this time in 2020 that everything changed. 

Businesses were closing, people were working from home and public health officials were advising people to stay away from each other, as a new virus was spreading quickly in B.C.

Dr. Bonnie Henry became a household name. B.C.’s provincial health officer joined then-health minister Adrian Dix daily to share what little data was available. 

And while we know more now, Henry says there are still unknowns around the long-term effects from COVID-19, as well as other geo-political uncertainties affecting people around the world. 

“So much of getting through times of uncertainty rely on each other and being able to support each other,” she told CBC’s Gloria Macarenko. “Sometimes it feels these days like those lessons are ones that we’re moving away from or that we forget.”

Henry spoke with CBC’s On The Coast this week to reflect on a time that no one will ever forget — as much as we might like to. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

What do you remember most about those first days of the COVID era?

I feel like it’s a lot longer than six years in some ways. I think at that time, and you know, I look back on this a lot, there was so much that we didn’t know and there was so much that we were hearing from different parts of the world about who was being affected and what was happening. It was a time of great uncertainty, that’s for sure. 

What have you learned about COVID over the past six years?

We know a lot more about this virus, and some of the huge successes we’ve had over in the global community over the last few years is having a test that was developed very rapidly. Our public health lab that we have here in the province was able to develop a test within days of the genome being isolated. We know how the virus is transmitted. We know who’s most at risk. We know all of the things that we can do to protect ourselves.

Have we done enough to help those living with long COVID?

This is another global thing that we are still learning so much about because we didn’t even know if there was going to be a post-COVID type-syndrome, how long it would last, who would be more likely to get it. So we do know much more about the types of syndromes, the types of symptoms that people are experiencing. Some of them go on to have much more debilitating longer term symptoms. Some of the things we know about prevention are really important. We know that people who were vaccinated were much less likely to have long COVID. We know that some of the earlier strains of the virus had more effects on people longer term.

Globally, we’re still learning about what we can do to support people? How do we get what things work to help make people feel better? How long is it going to last? There’s still so many unknowns. 

If we saw a similar health emergency that warranted the same level of global cooperation, do you think our mindset would be to take preventative action?

It’s still very raw. I mean, it’s six years, but I think there’s so many things that are happening globally right now, some of it has been related to what we went through in the pandemic. We’re in that phase of collective forgetting that we see in many traumatic events — people want to get on with their lives and move away from it and not think about it. So in that respect, I think if something else came up, we would have to make sure that we are connecting with people in a way that engages them again. 

But I also think that human nature being what it is, when we are in times of crisis and we see this over and over again, the vast majority of people will do the right thing to support themselves, their families, their communities. We learned how important that was. It’d be reminding people that we can do something and that we do better when we do it together. 

You became the public face of the COVID response in those early days. What did that mean in your life?

It really disrupted my life. People still come up to me and sometimes they burst into tears because I remind people of a very difficult time in their lives. That’s unsettling. I’m still working through it as well. 

Common suffering builds strong bonds. We have all been through this, so we have something in common with each other. I think we need to remember that, especially with what’s going on in the world today, where there’s so much division, where there’s war, where there’s a lot of uncertainty again, that we have more that bonds us than tears us apart. 

There were threats to your safety at some point as well. And I’m just wondering what has changed? How would you describe the relationship between your office and the public now? 

Sadly, I do still get threats. They’re much less now, but it’s much better. But there are some people who need to lash out, need to have a place to send that negative energy. 

I’m very, very lucky because I have other strong physician leaders who I work with now. We have many, many things that we’re still dealing with. Certainly things like measles have become a big issue again. So I do think it’s important for me and for my office to be out there telling people about the important things that they can do, where to find information that they need to keep themselves, keep their families healthy and safe.

Any final thoughts on six years since COVID? 

This was the most challenging time in our generation, and we’re still seeing the fallout of that. And I go back to the things that we talked about so many times during that uncertainty: that need for compassion, that need for being kind to each other, for recognizing that we don’t always know what somebody else is struggling with when they’re going through an issue. So those are things that help us get through difficult times and more than ever, we need that. We need to speak up and support each other. We need community. We need connection.  

You didn’t want to finish off with ‘Be kind, be calm, and be safe?’

That too. I still believe in kindness for sure.