During a news conference on Monday, Alberta Chief Health Officer Deena Hinshaw admitted that Alberta Health Services (AHS) reported non-ICU patients as ICU patients throughout the pandemic.
“As we have been doing continual quality assurance work with our data, it was identified over time some units in some hospitals have shifted back and forth between being available for use as an ICU unit or a non-ICU unit,” Hinshaw said.
“In some of our historical data, patients admitted for COVID treatment were categorized as being in ICU when the unit they were on, in fact, had been changed back to a non-ICU unit at that time.”
In other words, the figures were wrong. The entire time that ICU numbers were used as a key point to justify lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and vaccine passports in Alberta, the government intentionally or unintentionally utilized eschewed data, if not outright manipulated data.
“We fudged the numbers to increase vaccines and enforce lockdowns and now the truth is coming out in the data” pic.twitter.com/DdVJj0cBvr
— Jill Beaton (@itsonlychoclat) January 11, 2022
“The adjustments you will see in historical data today now reflect correctly the type of care those patients were provided,” Hinshaw continued.
“This means you will see a decrease in ICU numbers at some points in time, with a corresponding increase in non-ICU numbers.”
Well, that’s good. So, after Albertans had their arms twisted into getting vaccinated — whether due to job security, social pressures, or lingering fears of causing a health care system collapse, the government now promises that the records have been set straight — Problem solved, right?
Except the damage has been done. The businesses have closed shops. The injuries have mounted.
Moreover, how can we trust that the government won’t use faulty figures again to justify pandemic measures going forward? We can’t. And that’s the issue not being addressed.