Stayner, Ont., doctor speaks on the importance of getting vaccinated

BARRIE, ONT. -

With vaccination rates largely stagnant and cases rising, the past president of the Ontario Medical Association says effective messaging is needed in order to get more of the population immunized.

Dr. Sohail Gandhi, who operates his practice in Stayner, says week-over-week, the number of patients in Ontario’s intensive care units (ICU) has dropped from 78 to 70, at the same time as daily cases are rising.

“I’m very grateful to see that the number of people that are critically ill seems to be level and is not rising, and that tells me that the vaccines are working,” Gandhi says.

However, of those being treated for COVID-19 in the ICU, Gandhi says approximately 99.5% of them are not fully vaccinated, saying the province needs to continue to repeat this fact in order to encourage the remainder of the population to get immunized.

“The more you repeat that and the more you say ‘listen, this is going to keep you out of the hospital, this is going to keep you from getting a tube shoved down your throat to help you breathe,’ the more we keep doing that, the better it will be,” Gandhi says.

The rise in cases over recent days comes as Canada has reopened its border to fully vaccinated American citizens. Gandhi says he would have liked to see the federal government wait a little while longer to make this move.

While the border hasn’t fully reopened for fully vaccinated Canadians just yet, Gandhi says travel for fully vaccinated Canadians is as safe as it can be.

“What we’re seeing is that even the fully vaccinated crowd who does get a breakthrough infection of some sort, it seems to be very, very mild, a day or two of sickness, so I think we’re about as safe as we can get it,” Gandhi says.

With some raising concerns about fully vaccinated people being diagnosed with COVID-19, Gandhi says it’s not a surprise.

“The key thing is the intensity of the disease is much much less,” Gandhi says. “Whatever vaccine you happen to get and whatever disease you happen to get, the intensity seems to be much, much less, and we’re seeing the same pattern repeat itself with the COVID vaccines, which is very helpful.”

Gandhi says it’s time that he and other professionals in the medical community start to shift their attention to other crises affecting health care, saying it’s critical the backlog of other procedures gets back on track.

He also says he is concerned over a rise in mental health challenges by his very own patients.

“I’m starting to get quite a bit more concern about the mental health aspects of COVID,” says Gandhi. “I’m seeing many, many more people with depression and anxiety in my own practice, and I think we need to start doing some forward-thinking and planning for the future as to how we help these people.”