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A Canadian government epidemiologist in charge of reviewing the scientific literature on Covid-19 has testified in court that there is little information on the effects of airborne transmission of the virus.
Dr. Lisa Waddell, of the Emerging Sciences Group at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), said: “There are not many studies looking at vaccination status, and most of the studies were conducted before widespread vaccination.
Waddell also said she was not aware of whether the Canadian government had conducted its own independent study to assess the impact of in-flight vaccinations.
Waddell testified as a government witness on May 31 in defense of the government’s travel vaccination mandate. The Liberals suspended the travel order (banning international migrants) on June 20, warning it could come back depending on circumstances.
Four lawsuits are currently challenging jurisdiction in federal court and are pending at the same time. While the government wants the court to declare its objections, the applicants still want the case to be heard by a judge.
Waddell submitted an affidavit in support of the government’s position, highlighting her criticism of the expert reports submitted by the applicants.
For example, an expert report on in-flight transmission did not mention a study published in the October 2021 Journal of Travel Medicine, “SARS-CoV-2 delta variant outbreak on an airplane: vaccinated air passengers are more likely than unvaccinated.” He said.
“Vaccine was suggested to have a protective effect (hazard ratio: 0.33, 95% CI: 0.08–1.43) but was not statistically significant in multivariate analysis,” said the study, which examined flights from South Africa to China in June 2021.
Most of the studies she reviewed have flaws, Waddell said, adding that they were “highly susceptible to bias due to their retrospective analysis of in-flight transmissions.”
“We also have a number of simulation-type studies that are clearly based on many assumptions that are known at the time,” Vaddell said.
Report
Waddell and her team were responsible for reviewing and evaluating data on the in-flight transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
They summarized their findings on November 25, 2021 in the report “Evidence for the risk of in-flight transmission of Covid-19: Update 3”.
The report says, “By all accounts, the risk of getting caught in flight is low.”
In a meta-analysis, the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 in the airplane cabin from January to June 2020 was estimated to be 1 case for every 1.7 million travelers.
Waddell described that as low risk.
The report also states that “the particle number in the air during flight is lower than in retail items in airplanes, restaurants, office spaces, homes and other forms of transportation.”
The PHAC official confirmed during cross-examination that no analysis was done after November 25.
Given the time between the publication of the report in November and her cross-examination in May, Waddell was asked whether any new studies had been published examining the impact of the vaccine on the spread of the virus.
“So we looked at what has been published since 1999 [report] … And there doesn’t seem to be any additional statistics on vaccination because of the ability to protect against in-flight transmissions,” she said.
She was asked if she agreed that her report did not single out vaccination as one of the strategies to prevent in-flight risks.
“There wasn’t a lot of evidence on that, as a general strategy, it wasn’t reviewed in the literature and it wasn’t discussed in the review,” Waddell replied.
Vaddell also said the PHAC briefing does not recommend vaccination as a requirement for air travel.
Other testimonials
The government produced 16 witnesses and experts in court to defend the order. The Epoch Times reviewed the affidavits and cross-examinations of the four.
Jennifer Little, executive director of Transport Canada’s Covid recovery team, wrote the travel mandate policy and testified on June 9 and 10 that neither PHAC nor its parent department, Health Canada, had commented on the mandate.
Another witness, who sat on the advisory panel to Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam starting in December 2021, said the order on transportation and the issue of COVID-19 are rarely discussed.
When Dr. Eleni Galanis was asked if anyone presented any information or analysis related to Covid-19 in the transportation sector during the meeting with Dr. Tam, she said, “I don’t remember such presentation of information.”
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Noye Chartier is a reporter for The Epoch Times in Montreal. Twitter: @NChartierET Gettr: @nchartieret
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