Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, right, becomes emotional as she speaks to the media about an E-coli outbreak at several Calgary daycares as Dr. Mark Joffe, Alberta chief medical officer of health, looks on in Calgary on 15.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Jen Gerson is a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail.
It was after a rainstorm in May, 2000, that water contaminated by E. coli washed into the Ontario town of Walkerton’s water supply. The town’s water treatment centre proved inadequate to the task of ridding it of the deadly bacteria. Within days, thousands would become infected, seven would die and countless others would suffer lifetime consequences as a result of one of the greatest public health tragedies in Canadian history.
Given the terror of that particular outbreak, one would imagine that these words of caution – “E .coli” “outbreak” and “children” – would inspire a particular feeling of deep and visceral dread among any politician, parent or flak old enough to remember Walkerton.
And yet.
Here in Alberta, more than 300 people have tested positive for E. coli connected to a shared kitchen that serviced multiple daycares in Calgary. More than 20 have required hospital care and at least six are on dialysis. Late on Friday, we received even worse news: in addition to the 11 daycares closed in the first wave of the outbreak, Alberta Health Services has now closed six more. This second spate of facility closures was not served by the contaminated kitchen; rather, they are believed to be the result of secondary infection – including parents enrolling children and siblings in alternative child care when the initial 11 shut down.
It’s a catastrophe. And although none of the children have died – thank God – this outbreak is rapidly becoming the most serious of its kind since Walkerton. It’s worse, in some ways, because almost all of the victims are children: the population most likely to suffer serious adverse outcomes, including hemolytic uremic syndrome, a secondary illness caused by E. coli.
I have no reason, at present, to doubt that officials at AHS have acted promptly and appropriately behind the scenes, but given the scale and scope of the situation, the lack of communication to the general public by politicians and public health leaders has been nothing short of astonishing.
The outbreak was announced on Sept. 4, and until Sept. 12 – when Health Minister Adriana LaGrange and chief medical officer of health Dr. Mark Joffe made their first public appearance on the matter – information had been skeletal. Dr. Joffe said he didn’t previously address the issue as they hadn’t felt the “urgency” to do so.
It wasn’t until the actual parents of the sick kids issued a blistering open letter last Thursday condemning the lack of communication that anyone in Alberta’s government actually seemed to grasp the seriousness of the situation.
On Friday morning, three days after Ms. LaGrange and Dr. Joffe’s first appearance, Premier Danielle Smith joined the two at another press conference. Financial support for the families was announced – the kind of support that might have dissuaded parents from enrolling their children at other daycare facilities before the outbreak had run its course, had it been offered sooner.
Ms. Smith was emotional, nearly crying at the microphone, and I have no reason to doubt that her feelings were genuine. The only fault I can find with the conference was that it should have happened a week earlier.
“I’ve also experienced a lot of instances where politicians show up at disaster scenes and people are yelling at them saying, ‘We don’t want you here, we want the emergency workers focused on helping us,’ ” Ms. Smith said when she was asked about the response time. “I suppose if we had come out early, we might have people saying, ‘Why are you interfering with the investigation?’ ”
Funnily enough, I’ve yet to see anyone calling for the Premier to performatively don scrubs and hit the triage desk at the children’s hospital.
Clearly there has been some kind of breakdown in communication. The “urgency” of this outbreak was either not conveyed to, or not understood by, the political leaders who needed to respond promptly to reassure the public and provide support for the victims. Further, I think the weeklong delay ought to raise real questions about both Ms. LaGrange and Dr. Joffe – the latter recently appointed to replace Dr. Deena Hinshaw – and their ability to respond to crises in the apparent absence of the Premier. Senior members of a government ought to be competent and empowered enough to tell the public about an emergency.
To her credit, Ms. Smith acknowledged the criticism and now seems to be moving quickly, calling for a review of kitchens serving daycares, and signaling her openness to legislation that will better empower AHS to shut down kitchens that record too many infractions – as this one had.
Her government appears to have woken up. Let’s hope it was soon enough.