Speaking to the media Friday afternoon, acting Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Yves Leger painted a worrisome picture for New Brunswick.
“I don’t have a crystal ball, so I can’t predict how the rest of the season will go, but I do suspect that it may get worse,” said Dr. Leger.
With the health-care system already strained and the triple threat of COVID-19, RSV and influenza already being felt across the province, Dr. Leger is now speaking out.
“What we’re seeing overall is the early pattern of early respiratory virus activity across the country and in New Brunswick,” he said. “What remains worrisome is that all of this is happening at the same time for many viruses. Even though a small percentage of those infected will end up needing hospital care, it still means that when a lot of people get infected at the same time, it means that more people will need hospital care at the same time.”
He says that right now he will not be mandating mask wearing again, but stressed that all of the precautions seen over the last two-and-a-half years could help make or break the system.
“We have an opportunity to change the course of how this unfolds in New Brunswick and work collectively to keep each other healthy and protect the health care system,” Leger said.
At Ford’s Family Pharmacy & Wellness Centre in Moncton, the masks have never come off and a similar message is being echoed once again.
“I think this is going to be the worst season in my career… which is 40 years… I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this,” said Peter Ford.
Calling it “the perfect storm,” he says he thinks it’s going to be a long winter with a dire flu season, RSV being seen for the first time in years, and COVID-19.
“It’s devastating just how bad this perfect storm is,” he said. “There’s at least three other new variants out there that we don’t have vaccines for and they have a doubling capacity about every seven to ten days. So when it becomes 7 per cent, then the following week, it’s 14 per cent, then the following week, it’s 28 per cent.”
Ford says with the drug shortage, the pharmacy is making medicine almost every single day.
“We have antibiotic shortages, we’ve got the Tylenol/Advil thing, we’ve got amoxil, we’ve got clavulin which is a combination of amoxil with clavulanic acid and we’re starting to see drug shortages which we anticipated seeing about two years ago,” he said.
In terms of vaccines, Ford says the pharmacy is booked solid for the next few weeks, but that people under the age of 65 don’t seem to be signing up for the flu shot.
