As Dr. Saqib Shahab stood in front of a group at Darke Hall in Regina, accepting the University of Regina’s distinguished Canadian award for himself and his team, he talked about how he didn’t feel he deserved it.
Shahab, Saskatchewan’s chief medical officer of health, said he felt he was just one of many doing his job during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When this whole discussion started, I thought I would do a conference for the Lifelong Wellness Center in a classroom with some coffee,” Shahab said later.
“I’m very honored, but … that goes to everyone who has worked so hard. I was just one person doing my job along with so many other people.”
In his speech, Shahab spoke of people who stayed at work when many others went home at the start of the pandemic: police, firefighters, health workers, taxi drivers, farmers, natural resource workers, etc.
“Although many stepped back and were able to do so, all of these people and many more stepped forward and I never saw in the face of significant risk that anyone hesitated to step forward to do their job which is essential and had to be done.” Shahab said.
While speaking to the crowd, Shahab returned to the pandemics of the past and the pandemic the world is experiencing now. The doctor said he remembers the March 2020 trip vividly: from initial reports to widespread public health measures to vaccines and successive waves and variants.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Shahab was celebrated for the calm and steady leadership he showed, and the sweater vests he sported during press conferences, but later, a more negative faction began to form and led to threats and even protests outside their homes.
On Wednesday, Shahab said people need to empathize with those who are worried or scared.
“We have to understand where people are coming from and really try to encourage people to do what’s best for them,” he said.
Shahab said that the last 2 and a half years have been very tough for many people.
“I would continue to empathize with people who were finding things very difficult and I think we need to continue to support each other as we continue to work our way out of this pandemic,” Shahab said.
The doctor also took the opportunity to look ahead. The province is in the midst of a seventh wave right now, seeing cases and transmission increase, but Shahab said the province needs to respond to where we are now.
Shahab talked about current levels of immunity: between vaccinations and natural immunity through infection, it’s relatively high in our population. He noted that this is a different space than the province was in early 2020.
He took the opportunity to promote the new bivalent vaccine, which protects against the original COVID virus and the Omicron strain.
“I think we should all use our own toolkit and protect ourselves and others as we navigate the fall,” Shahab said, noting that he got bivalve as soon as he could and encouraging others to do the same
Adoption of the new vaccine does not appear to have been rapid, with the province expanding eligibility from those 70 and older to anyone 18 and older.
Shahab said he wanted to give people the benefit of the doubt that they might be waiting for Pfizer’s version or waiting to receive it at the same time as the flu shot.
“I think all of these decisions are fine. The important thing is to go get your flu shot and whatever bivalent vaccine you choose,” Shahab said.
In his speech, Shahab said respiratory viruses could increase this season, noting that Australia, which has its flu season ahead of North America, saw an earlier and more severe flu season.
As for the future, Shahab said it is difficult to predict. He said we’ll likely continue to see more contagious and less severe variants, but he doesn’t know if it will become something that pops up every year like the flu.
The doctor talked about misinformation and how it spread, the need to keep up with the science as it changes, and to make tough policy decisions and act transparently with the knowledge we have.