B.C. Tory leader’s vaccine stance criticized by health experts

Public health experts are pushing back after B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad expressed regret over getting his COVID-19 shot, saying that leaders have a responsibility to promote the scientific consensus.

Rustad confirmed Tuesday that he regrets getting COVID-19 vaccines, after avoiding questions about his stance a day earlier.

He told reporters at a news conference Tuesday that he had a heart problem about six weeks after getting a second shot. He says when he went in to get the third shot a few months later, he talked to health officials about the issue.

The question they had for me was only one word: Moderna? Rustad said. That tells me that there has been some issue, and so from that perspective, I do regret getting the COVID vaccines.

Rustad did not take further questions at a second event later that same day. CBC News has reached out to the B.C. Conservatives for additional comment.

Dr. Brian Conway, medical director of the Vancouver Infectious Diseases Centre, said a lot of things are said out of fear or lack of knowledge during the pandemic. In response to the video, he stressed that it’s important for political leaders like Rustad to show and promote trust in vaccinations.

Vaccines have changed civilization over the past two generations, Conway said in an interview with CBC’s The Early Edition prior to Rustad’s new comment.

Before the pandemic, we didn’t even give a second thought to all the shots we were consenting for children to receive virtually from birth. I think we need to get back there. … The best thing that he could do for us all is to sit there on camera and get his flu shot and his COVID shot as soon as they’re available. Caroline Colijn, a Canada 150 Research Chair in mathematics at Simon Fraser University who worked with officials over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Rustad had no obligation to support the B.C. NDP’s policies on the subject.

But she says scientific evidence shows the risk of future health problems — long COVID, heart problems, and chronic disease — is much greater if one contracts COVID-19, in contrast to the risk of getting the vaccine.

There’s actually very careful tracking of adverse outcomes from vaccines. They do happen, she said. Adverse outcomes from COVID are much worse.

Colijn added that scientists would have to continue to monitor the impacts of COVID-19 and the vaccines on the general population — and undermining people’s belief in vaccination could make the impact of chronic diseases worse.

Of course, people will share their personal views and experiences, she said.

But I think, around public health, especially now, we really have a responsibility, and our leaders have a responsibility, to think about the science, to think a little more deeply than the surface.

WATCH | Rustad responds to questions about video Monday:

John Rustad questioned on COVID-19 vaccine stance

B.C. Conservative Party Leader John Rustad was questioned on the campaign trail after the B.C. NDP surfaced video of him saying he regretted taking the ‘so-called vaccine’ for COVID-19.

During his Tuesday news conference, Rustad said that he historically has gotten the flu shot every year and that last year was the first time he didn’t receive one due to his schedule.

I believe that it’s a good thing to have, he said.

From my perspective, those flu shots are available and need to be available, especially for vulnerable people, for seniors — and the same goes for COVID shots for people that need them, that are vulnerable, he added.

Certainly, government will pay for for those as they have for things like flu shots, so nothing will change along those lines.

‘So-called vaccine’

Rustad’s Tuesday comments came a day after the B.C. NDP shared a clip of him saying he has regrets about getting the so-called vaccine for COVID-19.

The video excerpt released by the NDP is an edited version of a longer video posted online (new window) by the B.C. Public Service Employees for Freedom, a group of former workers (new window) — both vaccinated and unvaccinated — who say they believe vaccination mandates in workplaces violate medical privacy and human rights.

The group says the conversation took place on June 14.

WATCH | Excerpt from Rustad’s conversation with B.C. Public Service Employees for Freedom shared by NDP:

John Rustad says he regrets taking ‘so-called vaccine’ for COVID-19 in clip surfaced by NDP

In video from July surfaced by the B.C. NDP, Conservative Party of B.C. Leader John Rustad discusses COVID-19 vaccine mandates with the group B.C. Public Service Employees for Freedom, saying he regretted getting the ‘so-called vaccine.’

Reporters asked Rustad multiple times about the video and his stance on the COVID-19 vaccination program during a news conference on Monday.

He repeatedly dodged the questions but said the previous inability of unvaccinated doctors and nurses to get their jobs back in B.C. was a horrendous problem.

The government lifted the vaccine mandate for health workers in July.

NDP Leader David Eby said of the video that Rustad was promoting the idea that vaccines don’t work when, in fact, COVID vaccines saved so many lives in this province.

CBC News with files from The Canadian Press, The Early Edition, Corey Bullock and Rafferty Baker