Medical association president cautions against expansion of bubbles

Keep your bubble small until you receive the vaccine, or your loved ones have.

That was the message from the president of the Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA) on Wednesday, just over 24 hours after the province loosened public gathering limits.

“(It) is an expansion, but it doesn’t give people licence to ignore the public health recommendations in place to maintain that physical distancing during visits, whether inside or out, by wearing masks, practising safe hygiene and so on. That will really be with us for a long time,” Dr. Barb Konstantynowicz said before giving her suggestion as a family doctor.

“I would suggest that anyone that has health risks or is over the age of 50 should really consider whether or not they want to partake in that increased size of bubble.”

Konstantynowicz said she understands humanity’s desire to connect with others and this could be a welcoming message from the province, but also gave a warning.

“As far as the health of the population, I think we still need to be incredibly vigilant and although the restrictions have been lifted, we don’t have to personally partake in that lifting,” she said.

“I think that it’s vitally important to get those vaccines out and rolled out into the most vulnerable. I have to say, we’re all vulnerable to this virus … I would agree that now would not seem to be the best time to reduce restrictions. It is still time for every one of us to be incredibly vigilant and use our time to vaccinate wisely, as opposed to opening up the province.”

Konstantynowicz added Saskatchewan is facing the reality that the virus is not gone, and the herd immunity simply isn’t here at this point. When you throw in the increased prevalence of variants, she said the logical solution in her eyes as a family doctor isn’t to loosen restrictions at this point in the pandemic.

“What is logical to my … brain is, ‘Keep the restrictions on.’ On the other hand, to some extent, I appreciate the imposition that these restrictions have caused, but I would caution … be very cautious about if you are going to open up your own personal bubble,” she said.

As the president of the SMA, Konstantynowicz didn’t have a clear message from all Saskatchewan doctors but did offer her thoughts on what others may be saying to their patients at this time.

“For the most part, physicians would prefer people not expand their bubbles and follow the more strident restrictions until our herd has been vaccinated,” she said.