Danielle Smith wants vaccine status to be a human right. Expect a petri dish of problems

There's been much said, and justifiably so, about new Premier Danielle Smith's remarks that the unvaccinated have been more discriminated against than any other group in the last half-century — a 50-year spell that's been marked by systemic racism against various groups, the rise of Islamophobia and transphobia, ongoing homophobia and anti-Semitism, continued mistreatment of Indigenous people, and on and on.

She tried to clean up her remarks, but that might not mean those unsettled by what she said will forget or forgive.

Far less attention has been paid, however, to unpacking the reason she was prompted to share her thoughts on the extent of discrimination against people who've chosen not to get COVID-19 inoculations. 

One of Smith's key leadership campaign promises, which she's apparently determined to carry through, is to enshrine protections in the Alberta Human Rights Act for people based on vaccination status.

Doing so would put whether or not one chose a COVID jab on par with gender, sexual orientation, race, country of origin and religious beliefs in the province's landmark anti-discrimination law. But beyond the inherent controversy of equating vaccination with those other aspects, there are other real-life consequences at play if the Alberta legislature makes this change.

The human right that could do wrong to others

Smith's proposed move could have significant ramifications for the state of Alberta health care, well beyond this pandemic.

Because as hard as it may be for some of us, more than two years on, let's set aside COVID for a second, even if it is what motivated Smith to campaign on this move.

Vaccine mandates and rules aren't something that suddenly burst into the world in 2021, when Pfizer, Moderna and other companies devised shots to protect against the coronavirus. Such requirements have long been common for health-care workers, health sciences students and others in that realm. Requirements have remained in place for other vaccinations — Hepatitis B, measles, tetanus and other easily-preventable diseases with well-established immunization programs.

Here, for example, is the University of Alberta health faculty's form. And a job notice to be a registered nurse at Covenant Health's hospital in Camrose, citing the requirement that successful applicants have the annual influenza vaccine.

And outside of health care, Lakeland College in Vermilion has required that students in their hairstyling and esthetician programs show proof of vaccination for Hep B and measles, mumps and rubella.

In the Alberta that Smith promised United Conservatives, it wouldn't even be acceptable for bosses to ask for vaccination records. In an Aug. 31 news release, her campaign promised a policy "prohibiting employers from requiring the vaccination and other health information of Albertans."

With such pledges, Smith appealed to the minority segment of Albertans who either weren't vaccinated for COVID — that's only nine per cent of those older than 12 — or were aggrieved that they were pushed to do so, lest they face consequences at their workplace, or be limited in their ability to fly, dine in restaurants or visit long-term care homes.

But if you're establishing a human right to refuse vaccines and not face employment or consumer consequences, Smith presumably cannot design a protected class only pertaining to immunization from one disease. One assumes it would have to apply to all vaccinations.

The Alberta Human Rights Act would effectively be protecting a newly-created freedom of one group of citizens, and in so doing limiting protections against disease for the other Albertans in their midst. That is, health-care workers would be free to be unprotected against an array of other diseases as they work in hospitals.

"You're opening the door to having resurgences of vaccine-preventable diseases potentially spread in a health care setting," said Dr. Lynora Saxinger, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Alberta.

Hep B, for example, is a chronic liver infection that can lead to cancer or liver failure, and is transmitted easily through blood. That vaccine, Saxinger said, has largely removed the previous risks of Hep B outbreaks in hospitals or other health facilities.

As with the COVID vaccine rules, the health-care sector's policies for other vaccination rules or disclosures had been well developed and considered, with discussion of impacts to liberties and workers' personal choice weighed against the consequences of higher risks to hospital patients. Smith's plan would yank that decision out of the hands of health administrators and have it fall squarely on the "freedom" side of that equation.

"It's basically saying that the science and the ethics behind what we're doing right now don't matter anymore, and that you can have someone in health care who could potentially be carrying a transmissible infectious disease and exposing patients to it on an ongoing basis and not do anything about it," Saxinger said.

New-wave thinking 

It's clear Smith has the health-care sector in her sights for this hard crackdown on ability to prevent unvaccinated workers. She has repeatedly linked the system's strain to the fact that health employers had required COVID vaccinations.

But the overwhelming majority of AHS workers complied with the requirement — over 97.7 per cent of part- and full-time staff, and 99.8 per cent of doctors. And when AHS was ordered by the Kenney government to rescind its mandate for employees in March, the agency expected to add back a mere 750 workers. More than 121,000 are on staff at AHS and its subsidiaries.

And remember, those vaccine rules came into effect during the Delta wave, before Omicron changed the stakes with regards to protection against transmission. Employers from the federal government to Alberta Health Services have dropped their COVID vaccination mandates, and Smith clearly doesn't want to enact any new passport system. 

But it's also worrisome for a premier to provide such clear blocks against new vaccination rules for anybody, should the virus evolve further or some other new virus emerge that a vaccine can firmly mitigate, said Saxinger.

When the new premier pledged no more lockdowns, at a time when nobody in the Western world was imposing COVID restrictions on restaurants or places of worship, she was making a promise that would only have consequences if things tipped back into extreme pandemic peril. But it's not the same at all with her plans for the Alberta Human Rights Act. 

Given how far-reaching such a move would be, you don't have to be a COVID pessimist to be concerned it could put lives at risk.