Political orientation as a risk factor for covid

In/justice in Canadian healthcare during covid times

It has been observed since the start of covid that “liberals” and “conservatives” have markedly different perceptions of covid, masks, and vaccines. This has been seen in polls conducted in the United States beginning in 2020 and persists in 2022. Dr. Robert Malone summarizes/analyzes a recent New York Times poll on the issue here. His bias is rather to the conservative side and this is reflected in his writing, which he perceives as a corrective to the NYT’s rather liberal analysis of the poll (paywalled).

(Dr. Malone does find reasons for cautious optimism in this poll)

While polls have analyzed behaviour (mask-wearing, vaccination), and beliefs (how risky covid is, whether schools should reopen), what has not been analyzed is the question of whether political orientation leads to a higher rate of covid, or other illnesses. Large-scale analyses that compare one state to another have been conducted, however, to my knowledge, no individual-level studies have been done.

Why is this important?

1. Decisions and behaviour around vaccination and boosters are strongly influenced by political orientation, and

2. Ability to visit a hospital, work in a hospital or nursing home, obtain an organ transplant in much of Canada depends on 1.

Therefore,

3. Political orientation affects ability to access some forms of health care in Canada in 2022.

This is a horrific state of affairs from a societal point of view, and represents a terrible loss in terms of what it means to be a civil society.

From a health point of view, however, the effects are…interesting.

A. THE STANDARD CANADIAN POINT OF VIEW: LOSS OF HEALTH CARE FOR THE INDIVIDUAL IS A DISASTER

Canadians have discussed the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in terms of covid and related restrictions since 2020, with varying opinions as to whether loss of freedoms and rights is justified or not.

However, what has been less discussed has been what has happened to the Canada Health Act during Covid times.

This was the act that established federal standards for healthcare in Canada:

“Program criteria

• 7 In order that a province may qualify for a full cash contribution referred to in section 5 for a fiscal year, the health care insurance plan of the province must, throughout the fiscal year, satisfy the criteria described in sections 8 to 12 respecting the following matters:

  • (a) public administration;

  • (b) comprehensiveness;

  • (c) universality;

  • (d) portability; and

  • (e) accessibility.”

Here is the Act on universality:

“Universality

10 In order to satisfy the criterion respecting universality, the health care insurance plan of a province must entitle one hundred per cent of the insured persons of the province to the insured health services provided for by the plan on uniform terms and conditions.” (emphasis mine)

Here is the Act on accessibility:

Accessibility

• 12 (1) In order to satisfy the criterion respecting accessibility, the health care insurance plan of a province

  • (a) must provide for insured health services on uniform terms and conditions and on a basis that does not impede or preclude, either directly or indirectly whether by charges made to insured persons or otherwise, reasonable access to those services by insured persons;” (emphasis mine)

Whether we look at the issue from the perspective of the Charter or the Health Act, some of the exclusions of unvaccinated Canadians from healthcare are heinous and illegal.

In terms of harm caused due to these exclusions, there are stories of denial of care due to vaccination status. And there is the story from Alberta of a patient denied access to transplantation due to unvaccinated status.

This is a terrible, terrible injustice, which has caused harm.

(On the other hand, perhaps it was a way of increasing vaccination rates…)

B. THE ALTERNATIVE CANADIAN POINT OF VIEW: AVOIDING VACCINATION IS WORTH THE INCONVENIENCE OF DENIAL OF CARE

Readers of my previous work will be less scandalized by this perspective than members of the federal Liberal cabinet perhaps. Nonetheless, it is an absurd point of view.

Or is it?

Because fifteen percent of Canadians appear to have opted for it. This is four million people or so, a rather large number of people to portray as willful anti-science idiots, although the Toronto Star made a memorable attempt

as did Prime Minister Trudeau

If we accept the premise that health care for Canadians who are unvaccinated is at times less adequate than for those who are vaccinated, there is also the compensatory factor of avoidance of potential side effects from covid vaccines. Among these potential side effects appears to be the risk of contracting covid itself, which is seen in Ontario data from this site - or was, until April 2022 :

What this data showed was that for many weeks throughout the winter of 2021/22, the rate of contracting covid was highest among recipients of covid boosters. The province removed this dataset from public circulation in the spring of 2022. Here is a screenshot:

A reasonable argument, one might say scientific argument, would be to prefer to belong to the purple or pink as opposed to green group, from the point of view of catching covid.

SUMMING UP: Politics as a risk factor for covid?

While the study has not been done to answer this exact question, there is a considerable amount of indirect evidence to indicate that _______ politically-oriented people are at higher risk of contracting covid due to health behaviours connected to their perceived covid risk.

I will leave the further implications unwritten for now.