Alberta’s government communications regarding Covid19 have taken a dark and vile turn as the failure of the government to impose meaningful control measures has seen Alberta skyrocket to the top of the country in terms of active and per capita infections.

Number of Active Covid19 cases in Canada – Alberta has the highest absolute and per capita infections.

Last week, we started to see more public discourse coming from government talking heads about the role comorbidities were playing in the deaths of Albertans who had contracted Covid19.

This stacks on top of previous “don’t worry” verbiage from the Premier in the Legislature about Covid19 not being that big of a concern because the average age of death was 83, and the average life expectancy in Alberta was only 82.

In that speech Premier Kenney also incorrectly referred to Covid19 as a form of influenza and suggested homeless people would have immunity to it.

Yesterday, the government started to report individual deaths from Covid19 along with information available on comorbidities.

Besides being an incredible violation of patient information that may make it possible to identify people’s personal medical history, it also has the illusory effect of downplaying the significance of the death of residents who were otherwise living well with underlying medical conditions.

It’s cold comfort to those whom the government has failed to protect – over 500 Albertans as of this writing – who have contracted Covid19 and seen their lives end prematurely in the name of keeping the economy open.

And on that front, we are now seeing numerous businesses that are closing on their own due to the government’s inaction on enforcement and lack of clarity on Covid19 controls.

This government will do almost anything to minimize Covid19 deaths, except actually minimizing them.

Robbie Kreger-Smith is a consultant for restaurants, communications, and marketing with previous partisan political experience in Alberta.

Connect: @RKSAlberta

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