(CBC News) — Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé says his team is looking into “erroneous” comments made by a prominent Montreal health official on a local news station last week.
Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, head of the CIUSSS du Centre-Ouest de l’île de Montréal, has come under fire for comparing COVID-19 to the seasonal flu on CTV News.
“It probably isn’t much more dangerous than the seasonal flu,” he said in an interview on Sept. 14.
“It probably is at least equally as transmissible as seasonal flu, and unlike the seasonal flu, which has a tendency to affect the very old and very young, this seems to have been a virus that affected the very old and those with existing medical conditions.”
Health experts across the nation and around the world have cautioned against comparing COVID-19 to the flu as the mortality and transmission rate is considerably higher.
Rosenberg’s comments have been circulating widely online, providing fodder to pandemic deniers while frustrating those who recognize COVID-19 as a potentially fatal disease that can leave survivors with long-term health consequences. (…)