‘We need a province-wide approach’: Friends of Medicare calls for increased efforts to prevent measles spread

Friends of Medicare Exec Director, Chris Gallaway, speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about the province’s efforts to limit the rise of measles

Friends of Medicare executive director Chris Gallaway speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about the province’s efforts to limit the rise of measles.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michael Higgins: From a policy standpoint, how do you weigh this as a public health response to the continually expanding measles case count?

Chris Gallaway: There’s no doubt that public education and immunization campaigns are a top priority if we want to tackle measles. It’s great to finally hear something from the minister of health and the interim chief medical officer of health with a plan to do some of those things, but what we saw was still a target plan.

They’re focused on certain zones and regions. What we really need is an all-hands-on deck scenario. Measles is a very serious disease, it’s highly transmittable, and it’s something that’s entirely preventable by proper immunization, something that we had for decades here in Alberta.

We need a province-wide approach that doesn’t wait for more cases and more outbreaks, but actually goes full on, right now, to try to prevent those cases and outbreaks, rather than reacting once they’re happening.

MH: What would ramp it up to that all hands-on deck scenario? What’s missing from the equation?

CG: What we saw yesterday was really a focus push on immunization in the south and central (health) zones. We need to see that provincewide. We need to be focused on proper public education. We need a chief medical officer of health who is independent from government and speaking to media and Albertans regularly with good information.

We need to make it as easy as possible for Albertans to find out, one, if they’re fully immunized and protected, and two, to get those shots in arms, protect children, protect our public hospital system from a spike in cases.

MH: How big of a policy priority shift does this represent in relation to the government’s approach to provincial immunization campaigns of late and promotion of such?

CG: It is the start of a shift, which we’re glad to see. Last year we saw the immunization campaign spending cut in half, we saw some of the lowest rates of flu shots we’ve ever had, and the highest death rate since over 15 years from influenza because of that lack of vaccination.

When it comes to measles, immunization needs to be the top priority. That needs to be clear to all Albertans. We have a situation where multiple generations now have never even experienced measles, they may not even realize how serious it is, what can happen if you get the disease, and so on.

A robust public education campaign that makes it clear that immunization is a priority needs to happen, we need to see a government that’s not afraid of a small base that is very anti-vaccine, and we need a chief medical officer of health in place that’s a permanent officer who speaks to the public regularly and isn’t left to stand with the minister in a reactive way, which we saw this week.

MH: How do you see this playing into the broader dialogue around vaccination rates in Alberta?

CG: Vaccination rates in Alberta are low, it’s a consistent problem for all sorts of diseases, but now that we’re seeing measles come back, this very serious illness, we need to take it seriously.

The previous chief medical officer of health, Dr. Joffe, left very suddenly and unexpectedly and then wrote an op ed calling for action. Now we’ve seen some action this week following that, but why wasn’t he speaking publicly earlier? What was that barrier? Was it a political choice?

We’re not sure what happened there, but what we need to see from our government is an evidence-based, science-based push on public health, and we need to know that the chief medical officer of health is leading that charge. Right now, it’s very unclear.

MH: This is the first time Albertans have heard from the new interim chief medical officer of health. How do you assess the role of health leadership to this point?

CG: We heard some good words yesterday, but we did not see a robust plan that we think is needed. Having over 265 cases in Alberta is a huge number, the highest we’ve seen in generations. We should be seeing a much more urgent response than we saw yesterday, and we should be seeing regular updates from the chief medical officer of health, regular press conferences or other communications with the public, not just standing with the minister once in response to what’s happening.

MH: How do you see the new measles response playing with the government moving public health away from AHS to the new agency, Primary Care Alberta, a component of the recently tabled health statutes Amendment Act?

CG: We saw that new legislation last week that’s tabled and we assume will be passed by next week. That really brings public health more under the control of the minister and under the government, rather than a third-party agency that Albertans can know is focused on evidence, on science, on best practices.

We really need to take the politics out of public health and focus on how we keep children safe, Albertans safe and protect our public health system from these infections that have been putting that extra burden on our hospital system year after year.