Thank you.
I'd like, first of all, to thank you for inviting me to attend this meeting on this important topic.
I'm going to say three things. One is that I want to be clear what my role is here. That's the first thing I want to briefly talk about. Second, I want to talk--very high level--about what we've learned in Manitoba from the first wave of the pandemic. And third, I'll talk about what I think are the key things going forward.
First of all, just so it's clear, I'm the chief public health officer of Manitoba. I'm here to speak to this very specific question that's on the agenda. I'll do that on my own behalf, as the provincial public health officer. I'm not here speaking on behalf of my deputy minister, minister, or government. And I'll do the best I can to speak truthfully and clearly with facts and opinions, as I'm asked.
Regarding our experience in the first wave, it looks as if it's probably mostly over with in Manitoba. The first point is that overall the pandemic was not as bad as some people feared it would be; however, some groups in Manitoba were more severely affected than others, not the least of which were our first nations people and other aboriginal people. I could give a lot of statistics and numbers, but I won't do that. I think those are pretty much known.
It's important to point out that from our analysis so far, even when accounting for many other of the known risk factors, it still appears that being a first nations person or an aboriginal person is a marker of risk for severe disease. Of course there are lots of reasons for why that's true, and I'd be happy to entertain that discussion if there are questions and if there's time.
Moving on to the third part, is the next wave going to be worse? Many experts think it may be. We have to plan for that possibility as well as for other possibilities. In Manitoba there are three issues we need to be aware of and plan for. The first is to prioritize aboriginal people for early use of the vaccine when it's available--presuming it's effective and safe--as well as early use of antivirals and early treatment for people, simply because we know they're at high risk by being aboriginal, regardless of what all those reasons might be.
The second is that we need to strengthen and improve our public health and primary programs and services for aboriginal people, wherever they live in Manitoba. They need better coordination and they need better integration. And that work needs to continue and improve more quickly than it has, through collaboration of aboriginal people, federal government agencies and organizations, and the provincial health department and its regional health authorities.
The last point, but not the least important, is that although we're battling influenza in this conversation, the long-term effective strategies and actions for public health to address the public health issues and health outcomes for aboriginal people require addressing the underlying social determinants and many other long-standing reasons for the poorer health outcomes that we've observed in people of aboriginal descent, not only from infectious diseases but for practically any health outcome that we measure.