Ruminations: Urgency of Normal Movement

"The approach moving forward with COVID needs to be more sustainable. What we're doing right now -- closing economies, restaurants, gyms, schools -- that is not a sustainable solution."
"Mom has to choose between going to work or educating the kids."
"Those impacts can be life-long."
"This is a heated time and there are a lot of emotions when it comes to COVID response."
Dr.Kwadwo Kyeremanteng, ICU head, Ottawa hospital

"We're doing a lot of harm to the fabric of society."
"We need to understand what the endpoint is, what the rationale is, for any of this we're doing."
Dr.Martha Fulford, pediatric infections-disease specialist, McMaster University, chief of medicine, Hamilton hospital

"Your slides on mental health [in the Urgency of Normal Power Point presentation] are beyond bad."
"By being unscientific and biased in your selection and presentation of data, you are part of the misinformation crisis of this pandemic."
Dr.Tyler Black, clinical professor of psychiatry and suicide expert, University of British Columbia

"We have a vaccinated population that should be largely protected from severe disease. So what else do people want before you have the conversation about going back to normal?"
"We are going to have to live with it, basically."
Dr.Ari Bitnun, pediatric infectious-disease specialist, professor, University of Toronto

People wait in line to test for Covid-19 on on Jan. 12 in Long Beach, Calif. Ashley Landis / AP

Staff burnout in hospitals everywhere is taking a tremendous toll. Not just the professional physical labour of taking care of very sick patients in a hospital's intensive care unit, but the emotional toll of witnessing people arriving at the ICU and then painfully succumbing to the worst excesses of the coronavirus that has swept the world community. According to Dr.Kyeremanteng, head of a hospital ICU, watching as desperately ill patients die: "That was a very under-recognized source of stress".

Most physicians in the medical community are in agreement with the measures taken to date in attempting to come to grips with COVID-19, in hopes of controlling its spread and its malign outcomes. Most would not think of easing any public-health restrictions. Yet this critical-care specialist is actively attempting to persuade his colleagues and government officials for schools to move quickly toward opening, to achieve pre-pandemic norms, while questioning the need for other limits to social normalcy.

This doctor is among the leaders of a new U.S.-based group calling themselves the Urgency of Normal, pushing for a rapid return to unrestricted in-person teaching for children. Their argument is unassailable, that children have unduly suffered as a result of pandemic lockdowns; it's just their solution that is questionable.

There is an estimated 400 signatories of the organization's goals that include 32 Canadian physicians other than Dr.Kyeremanteng. There is among them, four infectious disease of medical microbiology specialists, emergency medicine doctors, university professors, and a hospital chief of medicine. They do not consider themselves as representative of a fringe group of physicians such as have denied the virus's seriousness and who advocate for the use of discredited antiviral drugs while spreading misinformation on vaccines.

While in a minority, the Canadian MDs who see fit to support the Urgency of Normal believe in the efficacy of COVID vaccines, they have been front line workers on the pandemic, and are respectful of the science behind its treatment. Their argument is that scant evidence exists in support of closing schools, ensuring students wear masks. Nor do they agree with vaccine mandates. Even while restrictions are opening up in most provinces as infection rates drop, they consider the potential arising of further lockdowns.

However, the advocacy "tool kit" posted online by the group for parents and school boards as an information source, is criticized by experts in the field as being rife with incorrect or misleading science. One statement in particular -- that child suicides have been increasing in the U.S. during the pandemic has been challenged by a suicide expert pointing out that the rate was in actual fact higher in 2018, before the pandemic.

The conclusion reached in a recent review in the Canadian Journal of Public Health stating a shortage of rigorous studies comparing rates of youth mental-health problems before and during the pandemic as a problem, but that there is nonetheless "reason to believe" the pandemic has the potential to leave long-term impacts. Eating-disorder cases have seen a sharp increase and are well documented. Quebec public health reported actual suicides remain stable, but emergency room visits by teenage girls for suicidal behaviour leaped upward in 2021: "The distress remains very palpable", it reported.

While citing the relatively mild impact of COVID on children, the Urgency of Normal recommends maintaining in-person learning irrespective of case counts, and eliminating school mask mandates. A return to pre-pandemic life must go beyond classrooms, according to the Canadian supporters, citing the harms of public-health restrictions at a time when the large majority of Canadians are vaccinated and protected against serious COVID disease.

"We need to keep in mind that health is about more than just COVID-19, and look at the bigger picture", stated Dr.Jocelyn Srigley, clinical professor of medical microbiology at the University of British Columbia.