Doctor says comments twisted out of context

Milburn removed as head of emergency medicine in eastern zone

SYDNEY — Dr. Chris Milburn admits his opinions can be perceived as controversial but says his commentary on a morning radio show panel nearly two weeks ago have been taken and “twisted” out of context.

“It’s a scary time in the world, where the surveys show that over 50 per cent of the people are afraid to say their opinions in public … that’s 50 per cent from one end of the political spectrum,” said Milburn, an emergency room physician at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital in Sydney.

“Those are the people who will come out and say, ‘That Milburn’s an absolute idiot, and I think he’s terrible; he’s a horrible person, etc.’ They’re not very afraid to speak out and tell me that.

“But the kind of people who feel like they want to support me are mostly doing so quietly and behind the scenes because they’re afraid they’ll get in (crap) with it.”

The commentary in question revolved around a June 10 panel discussion on CBC’s Information Morning featuring Milburn along with lawyers Anna Manley and Candee McCarthy.

During that segment, Milburn opined about “experimental” vaccines: “This (COVID-19) vaccine’s only been around commonly for about six months, or less than six months; we have no idea if we’re going to see a bunch of weird autoimmune disorders from this vaccine. Nobody knows that yet. We can’t tell you any long-term data because there is none. So, we’re going to be forcing people to get what is essentially an experimental vaccine — we don’t like to call it that, but this is still experimental (phase) …”

ENDED TENURE

That sparked enough backlash to abruptly end his tenure as department head of emergency medicine for Nova Scotia's eastern health zone and even led a Halifax reporter to get a comment on the matter from the province’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Robert Strang.

“I think he’s had a strong response from the community in Cape Breton,” Strang told reporters during a June 11 COVID-19 update briefing.

“My only other thing I would say is he’s trained as an emergency physician (and) I’m trained as a public health physician. I don’t try to practise emergency medicine; he shouldn’t try to practise public health medicine.”

In a post-cabinet meeting news conference last Thursday, Health and Wellness Minister Zach Churchill backed Strang’s comments, albeit more reservedly.

“The benefits of the vaccines are starkly obvious,” Churchill said.

Milburn — who said he himself has been vaccinated — added his comments also got distorted into people thinking he’s an anti-vaxxer.

“Here’s my thing: We know that there is no such thing as a completely safe vaccine,” he said.

“There’s low-risk, lowerrisk and higher-risk vaccines. People, unfortunately, like to think in terms of black and white, as in, ‘this is safe or this is not safe.’ But nothing in the world is completely safe; there’s only degrees of risk.

‘I DON’T HATE STRANG’

“Now I’ve been told that, as a doctor, my job is to convince people to take the vaccine. But I’d like to look at this way: my job is to inform patients and let them make a choice based on what we know.”

While Milburn doesn’t necessarily agree on the methods that Strang and Premier Iain Rankin often employ during those briefings, he wants to be clear these are mere personal opinions and should not be viewed as a personal attack on Strang.

"I think he’s probably a good-hearted guy," Milburn said, "but in a really difficult circumstance and doing his best under those conditions.”

And just as Milburn has his distractors, he also has garnered supporters — including, most importantly, his wife.

In a recent letter, Sydney physician Dr. Julie Curwin wrote in her husband’s defence: “When you get called an ‘anti-vaxxer’ on social media for stating that you don't think people should be forced to get the vaccine, given that long term safety data aren't in yet (even though you yourself got vaccinated and think it is probably safe); when you get accused of hating poor people for pointing out that children living in poverty suffer disproportionately from school closures (a fact which has also been highlighted by the Yale University School of Public Health, among others); and when you get fired from your job as ER chief for challenging the prevailing government orthodoxy, it's not surprising that doctors — and others — are afraid to speak out on these issues.”

ONLINE PETITION

There is also a Change.org online petition, proposing that Milburn take over as the province’s chief medical health officer.

“Dr. Chris Milburn has shown that he cares more about the health and wellness of everyday Nova Scotians than Robert Strang,” the petition reads.

“When Dr. Milburn made mild public comments about the way the pandemic was being handled, Strang told him to stay in his lane. Strang said Dr. Milburn is not trained in public health.

“Dr. Milburn was then removed from his position as head of emergency medicine for Cape Breton. Nova Scotians deserve a chief medical officer who will do what's best for all of us, no matter what. Dr. Milburn has proved he is capable and competent.”

The ER doctor's takeaway from all the banter?

“What I do really like about this is that it has started the discussion,” he said.

“There are people blasting things back and forth online about what I said, but there are also others supporting my views.”