Journalist Thomas Gerbet of Radio-Canada released a disturbing scoop this week: no, Public Health has never “validated” the methodology of the Ministry of Education to test ventilation in schools, contrary to what Minister Jean-François Roberge said.
Posted on April 3, 2021 at 5:00 a.m.
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The issue of ventilation in schools is scientifically complex and politically explosive. We know that the coronavirus can be transmitted by aerosols, in poorly ventilated rooms. Many schools in Quebec are precisely poorly ventilated.
The education ministry tried to reassure worried parents by running tests which the minister said showed there was no serious ventilation problem.
These tests measure the level of CO2 in a classroom, canary in the mine of coronavirus infections: the more CO there is2, the less ventilated the classroom, the more it may contain aerosols contaminated with coronavirus.
PHOTO JACQUES BOISSINOT, ARCHIVES THE CANADIAN PRESS
Jean-François Roberge, Minister of Education
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I will summarize the test roughly: we take measurements before and after opening the windows, we average the “parts per million” of CO.2. I quote Minister Roberge, in January: “The CO test protocols2 carried out in our schools were established jointly with the Public Health and they are validated by this one. They are rigorous. ”
Except that it is absolutely false, we learned this week Radio-Canada.
The two-headed hydra that is Public Health – that of the Ministry and that of the National Institute of Public Health (INSPQ) – has never “validated” the tests recommended by the Ministry of Education.
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The two “Public Health” have in fact expressed serious reservations about the scientific legitimacy of the tests recommended and defended by Jean-François Roberge.
But the two Public Health have made these reservations very discreetly, in the secrecy of pharmacies, far from the light of day. This of course had the merit of letting the politician say what he wanted, without the risk of being contradicted by the scientists employed by the state.
Since the CBC revelations, Mr. Roberge’s cabinet no longer uses the verb “validated”. He now affirms that the two Public Health “have been consulted and have commented” on the protocol cobbled together by Education …
The verb “validated” has disappeared from the explanations.
The opposition parties are demanding the resignation of Jean-François Roberge, on the grounds that he lied. Rima Elkouri on Friday denounced this lie. Let me bring up the most disturbing subtext of this affair, beyond the ministerial lie. It lies in the independence of science in this government …
> (Re) read Rima Elkouri’s column
Are “the” Public Health autonomous, within the State?
I was asking the question about the Dr Horacio Arruda 11 months ago, he who mixes politics and public health with his two titles of national director of public health and deputy minister. This week, Ariane Lacoursière asked questions about the two hats of Dr Arruda. Our national director often looks like a minister when justifying decisions. This is not his job.
> (Re) read a column by Patrick Lagacé
> (Re) read the article “Le Dr Is Arruda wearing one too many hat? “
I come back to the saga of ventilation tests in schools: for months, a heavyweight government minister said that “Public Health” had “validated” his tests, when it was false … And “Health public ”has never, never, never publicly protested against the fact that it had been exploited in this way.
No, it took a journalist to dig and ask the right questions, on the strength of documents provided by confidential sources, for the truth to see the light of day … After months of distorted debate.
Beyond knowing if Mr. Roberge lied, it does not take a great effort of the imagination to understand that the politician understood that he could instrumentalize the science embodied by “Public health” to get out of a quagmire. Politics. This is what Jean-François Roberge did.
Public Health has understood so well that politicians lead the show that the Dr Richard Massé, special advisor to public health of the MSSS – and former national director of public health -, participated on January 8 in a press conference on the protocol of tests of Education … While the INSPQ had him said at the end of November that these tests were not scientifically valid.
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We must draw the necessary lessons: Public health employed by the State is not autonomous, in any case, not completely. It is tragic, in these times when uncertainty is already rampant in a population at the end of its rope.
Not autonomous? For example, try to get a regional public health director to say what he thinks of the return of third, fourth and fifth secondary students in face-to-face each day in the red zone, try to have a clear answer from him as to whether if it is appropriate in this third wave …
> Listen to an interview with 98.5 FM
Between the lines, you will hear the eggs on which a regional DSP works so as not to contradict the decisions of the politician.
No, I am afraid that if we want clear opinions on public health, opinions expressed without regard to political sensitivity, it is neither the MSSS Public Health nor the INSPQ that we need. To ask questions.
It is to the experts affiliated to the Schools of Public Health of Quebec universities that we must ask questions: they are not employees of the State.
These do Public Health, not Political Health.
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