Toronto Public Health’s vice-chair responds to backlash over Sun column about COVID-19, says her only aim was to ‘promote discourse’
“The Sun’s COVID-19 column has been attacked for being anti-vaccine, anti-vaccination, anti-religion, anti-vaccine-in-general, and anti-government. The columnist’s anti-vaccine comments were, of course, not directed at the author of the column, but rather at her views on COVID-19,” writes Toronto Public Health’s vice-chair, Dr. Anne-Marie Auclair. “The only reason I agreed to write the piece, to answer questions from readers, was because I was hoping to promote public discourse and to make a valuable contribution to the ongoing discussion. In the end, all I wanted to do was provide honest information that was based on scientific evidence, which is what I’ve always done. A good proportion of my readers would not have agreed with my position. That’s life.”
“The columnist’s anti-vaccine comments were, of course, not directed at the author of the column, but rather at her views on COVID-19,” writes Toronto Public Health’s vice-chair, Dr. Anne-Marie Auclair. “The only reason I agreed to write the piece, to answer questions from readers, was because I was hoping to promote public discourse and to make a valuable contribution to the ongoing discussion. In the end, all I wanted to do was provide honest information that was based on scientific evidence, which is what I’ve always done. A good proportion of my readers would not have agreed with my position. That’s life.”
She did not mention the “anti-anti-vaccine” comments made by her co-author, and also ignored, even though she wrote, “I also wrote about the role of science in public health, which is far less controversial.”
In addition, Toronto Public Health did not mention her co-author’s “anti-vaccine comments at all.” Nor did it acknowledge her column’s response to Dr. Joelle Emerson’s column, which stated, “The author seems to be saying that it is