Chief public health officer Theresa Tam has “no issue being held to account” for the COVID-19 response and warns Canadians against the dangers of misinformation.Tam, who has been Canada’s chief public health officer for six years, said public health measures need to include preparing not just for the next pandemic, but also extreme weather events, while decrying misinformation. According to the Toronto Star, Tam is confident in facing an inquiry holding her accountable for decisions made during the pandemic and says she "would testify at a public inquiry into Canada’s pandemic response should the opportunity ever arise.”“Having constructive reviews and lessons learned, is really important,” Tam said. “But any of those reviews must have its objective of having us better prepare for the next one.”“Misinformation is a complex matter and complex matters require solutions from all angles, including, I think, regulations,” she continued, citing the recent online harms legislation which focuses on such. “That is one layer of protection that people must examine.”“We're not politicians. They make it sound as though we are,” she said. “Trust was such a huge factor in the success of our response. If we lose that, that's a problem.”Tam revealed she never caught COVID-19, nor did anyone in her family, and said she’s never told anyone that information before. “My family is fine. My parents did fine. They never got COVID. I have never had COVID, either,” Tam told the Toronto Star. “I don’t think I’ve ever said that to anyone.”She said having such a visible position in the age of social media made her “exposed to anyone who can comment in the comment sections,” which she rarely read, but her team monitored closely. “So that was tough,” Tam lamented, naming some of the accusations people made about her political interests and personal appearance. “That was unacceptable.”“You kind of had to call out people on that,” she continued. “Not even from a personal perspective. I just think it's unacceptable in our society."She said she took up stationary mountain biking, learning Korean and playing and listening to music to cope with the immense stress of public pressure. Tam also confided to the Toronto Star during the longest nights of the pandemic, she would have staffers read cards sent from Canadian children — sentiments she “hung onto” as the Freedom Convoy rolled into Ottawa. “There were very, very targeted challenges to public health and people like myself,” said Tam, who was allotted RCMP protection during the time of the convoy. “So that was hard. It meant maybe no movement, really, during that time. You're stuck at home. Friends bring you meals. It was a very restrictive time,” she recalled. “I didn't put myself out there in situations where harm could occur.”“I think my job was to still focus on the response while everything else was going on and not let even that very significant event distract me from my singular purpose, which was to protect the health of the population.”She also said she thinks public health approaches need to focus on the next pandemic and extreme weather response. “I also was very seized with the fact that our emergency plans really didn't have the health promotion teams built in,” she told the Star. "Emergency management sectors do recognize that resilient communities are important, but they don't quite know how to go about it. So I think the partnership between public health and emergency management is really important.”
