College of Physicians & Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA) Council
2700 – 10020 100 Street NW
Edmonton, AB Canada T5J 0N3
Dear CPSA council members,
RE: Mandatory mRNA vaccine mandate for Alberta physicians
Thank you for allowing me to listen Friday morning during council’s discussion on a vaccine mandate for Alberta physicians. Let me please provide the perspective of a physician who loves his job, cares deeply about his patients, and continues to avoid the mRNA vaccines. I am a pediatric neurologist and researcher specializing in epilepsy and neurocritical care at Alberta Children’s Hospital (ACH). I have a Master of Public Health from Harvard University and before returning to ACH in February 2020, I spent 6 years on staff at Mayo Clinic where I developed expertise in neuroinflammation. Both medical school and pediatric neurology residency were completed here in Calgary. I am also a father of 3 young children and remain very much pro–vaccine. While I refuse to take this novel experimental mRNA therapy, my wife, children, and I are completely vaccinated, including yearly flu shots. This is not a contradictory stance as these current mRNA vaccines represent a dramatic departure from using, for instance, live attenuated viruses. Rather, they represent a completely novel and experimental therapy with no long–term data. Consider that the CDC just updated the definitions of immunity and vaccine on September 1, 2021 – 13 days ago –swapping out the prior “produce immunity” to “provide protection”.
