Via The Star, a long interview with Canada's Chief Medical Officer of Health: Theresa Tam reveals the toll handling COVID-19 took on her. Excerpt:
In a wide-ranging interview with the Star, Tam reflected on that experience, opened up about the so-called “Freedom Convoy” movement, and shared what she thinks must be done to rein in an eruption of misinformation — an issue she says is the top threat facing public health today.
It’s also a threat that targets health professionals themselves: especially the person with the unenviable task of guiding a nation through a crisis that was both catastrophic and poorly understood.
For Tam, the experience was just as personal as it was punishing. Her words were broadcast across the country every day. People were stuck at home with little to do. And, Tam notes, it was the first pandemic in the social media age.
“That throws yourself out there as an individual a lot more,” she said. “You're exposed to anyone who can comment in the comment sections. So that was tough.”
Despite being born in Hong Kong and raised in the United Kingdom, she was accused by conspiracy theorists of working for Beijing and covering up the origins of the disease. Transphobic internet trolls claimed she was not a woman. Commenters seized on racist and misogynistic tropes to raise doubts about her expertise and credibility. None of it was true.
“That was unacceptable,” Tam said.
“You kind of had to call out people on that. Not even from a personal perspective — I just think it's unacceptable in our society.”
She tried not to read the comments, which her communications team monitored closely. The posts disturbed her staff and colleagues. Tam was grateful her parents didn’t use social media, because they would have found the onslaught “very upsetting.”
Still, she found ways to cope with the barrage of attacks and a relentless schedule that left little time for rest.
A colleague’s husband helped her put her 1992 mountain bike on a set of rollers so she could cycle from the safety of her home. Before bed, she took up learning Korean: she likes the food, and was interested in the K-pop and K-dramas that have swept the pop culture landscape in recent years.
She got her piano tuned — she also plays the cello, violin and trumpet — and listened to different kinds of music depending on her mood. If she needed structure, she turned to Bach. Other times, Taylor Swift did the trick.
Sometimes, during the pandemic’s longest nights, a staff member would read out letters that kids wrote to her. The former pediatric disease specialist is particularly tickled by the LEGO displays she received, including one from colleagues that depicts her at one of her infamous pandemic news conferences, dressed as Wonder Woman. (Tam, a LEGO aficionado, keeps that one in her office.)
Those were the kinds of handholds Tam hung on to when the “Freedom Convoy” — a demonstration that saw hundreds of vehicles gridlock downtown Ottawa in protest of COVID-19 vaccination mandates and other pandemic restrictions — rolled into town.
“There were very, very targeted challenges to public health, and people like myself,” Tam recalled. “So that was hard. It meant maybe no movement, really, during that time. You're stuck at home. Friends bring you meals. It was a very restrictive time.”
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