Dear Premier Kenney, Health Minister Shandro, and MLA Issik,
I am writing to you after having read the AHS triage protocols that will be implemented when the currently expanded ICU capacity reaches 90%, which is currently sitting at 80%. These protocols determine that my mother, due to her age, and the dozens of seniors that I know through my work, will not be accepted into acute or critical care should they have some kind of medical emergency requiring it, despite having been fully vaccinated against covid since the spring of this year.
I have been following the news that Alberta will need to airlift ICU patients to Ontario and Quebec, which I note is a four hour plane flight. I have been watching the Protect Our Province Alberta updates which present the latest actual statistics (and not model projections) of COVID cases alongside the most recent evidence and scientific research of what is known about the delta strain. (Presentations which should have been presented by the CMOH this whole time.)
These statistics and evidence point to two inescapable realities. The first is that the delta strain of COVID is airborne, highly transmissible, and transmitted by children. The second is that our current measures and restrictions are resulting in needless deaths, with more to come. Alberta needs stronger measures, including a complete shut-down of everything, including schools, a return to contact tracing, and a return to isolating close contacts of positive cases, including those who are asymptomatic. This will not prevent the deaths about to occur, but will prevent this horrific level of death from lasting longer than it should have.
I do not say this lightly. My father was admitted to the hospital in March 2020 for scheduled surgery and during recovery the country went into a complete shutdown. I and my mother were not able to visit him in the hospital at that time, which absolutely slowed his recovery. His condition deteriorated and he died in hospice in late May 2020. We were fortunately able to see him during his two weeks in hospice, but from late March until late April his one designated visitor was myself. My sisters were unable to visit him, his wife was not able to visit, his siblings were not able to visit. During that time, my jr high child and my elementary child attended “online school,” which demanded an incredible amount of parental support, which my husband and I struggled to provide while we worked from home. (Noting that I am a pastor, and working from home meant moving church online, where we continue to worship today). It was an extraordinarily stressful time for everyone.
WE WOULD DO IT AGAIN in order to prevent the hundreds of deaths that are about to happen.
Your roles in leadership mean that you are responsible for the well-being of the entire province, not just select groups. I continue to be frustrated and now furious that you continue to offer weak restrictions in order to placate those who argue that any kind of shutdown would be too difficult. You appeal to the economic burden of a shutdown. But a province is more than an economy. A province is the people who live in it, and your actions (or lack thereof) demonstrate that you do not count the vulnerable among those whose well-being you are concerned with. You have shown what is either an appalling dereliction of duty or a staggering level of incompetence in handling COVID this year.
Premier Kenney, I know that you are a Christian, and I will remind you of Jesus’ words in Matthew 26 to take care of the sick and that “just as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.” You are not taking care of the least among us.
The next provincial election is in 2023. I will be taking every opportunity between now and then to remind people that the responsibility of leaders is the well-being of the entire group with priority given to the weakest among us, alongside the words of Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1, “God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”
Sincerely,
The Rev. Dr. Kayko Driedger Hesslein, M.Div., Ph.D.
PS. I have posted this letter to my blog to facilitate easy access and sharing for you.
Cc: Leader of the Opposition Notley
