Covid-19 disinformation at the University of Waterloo
UW relies on fake claims to make bad decisions.
University of Waterloo (UW) president, Vivek Goel, recently revealed he works with the Ontario Science Table to decide UW’s covid-19 policies, including its “vaccination requirement.” The Table’s mandate includes providing health officials and the general public with “summaries of relevant scientific evidence” and “credible and independent ... advice.”
This might sound like an independent and well-informed source, but it is neither.
The Table is part of Public Health Ontario and partners with CanCOVID. Vivek Goel has served as president of Public Health Ontario and scientific advisor to CanCOVID.
Dr. Fahad Razak, Assistant Scientific Director of Ontario’s Science Table, recently spoke to The Canadian Press about changing Ontario’s covid-19 “vaccination strategy.”
Razak hopes to “replicate that magic” of early “vaccination” efforts (dose one and two) to increase current uptake of dose three. Toward that end, Razak proposes “messaging” to discourage people from thinking “the risk to an individual or the risk to people over time has diminished,” and recruiting “family doctors” to make additional doses a routine part of patient care.
In other words, keep people afraid and exploit the relationship with their most trusted health practitioner.
But why are third doses important? Because, according to Razak, they cut the risk of infection.
On the same day Razak’s interview appeared, official Ontario data showed that three doses were associated with an overall increased risk of infection. More specifically,
a 43% increased risk of infection compared to two doses, and
a 75% increased risk compared to fewer than two doses.
In the 18-39 age group, UW’s largest demographic, the increased risk of infection was even higher:
a 99% increased risk compared to two doses, and
a 167% increased risk compared to fewer than two doses
If Goel relies on such misinformation, it’s no wonder his policies failed to make campus safer or healthier.
An alternative explanation is that Goel seeks advice from the people who say what he wants to hear, based on his commitment to a specific agenda.
Instead of evidence-based policy, this is policy-based “evidence.”
When the policy does not match the data it becomes increasingly difficult to trust decision makers. There needs to be an audit of decision making processes to understand what data and evidence is informing decisions.
At department level, decisions are usually made by committees. What is the university policy making process?