The leadership of the Athabasca Health Authority (AHA) is talking about the importance of combating false information.
This comes after a video was published online where the claim was made that Black Lake community members were being chased into the bush by people looking to force them to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
AHA CEO Allan Adam said he was made aware of the video Monday morning upon returning from a trip to Uranium City.
“I knew right away that it [the video] had nothing to do with our communities and any type of information like that usually what I try to do is put a stop to it,” he said.
Leadership at Black Lake First Nation, which is currently without a chief, put out a statement disputing the claims made by people in the video and also asked the public not to try to contact the band office.
The video and the claims being made about the community were being shared by a number of accounts on both Facebook and Twitter. One of the more prominent people pushing the narrative was former National Hockey League (NHL) player Theo Fleury, who tweeted about Black Lake on two different occasions on Monday.
Adam explained he worked closely with the health authority’s executive director to put out a statement refuting the claims made in the video.
“That had to be done right away because this misinformation, it looked real, it sounded real, they were actually talking to people,” he said.
Dealing with online misinformation regarding COVID-19 is nothing new to Adam and the AHA. He explained people have brought forward information they have found on places like YouTube pushing conspiracy theories.
“What we’ve been trying to do is just say, ‘No,’ you know we have to go on what’s out there, what is science, what is backed by science and the various agencies that monitor these types of things, we have to go by that word and we have to go by what is actually real,” said Adam.
There are currently no active cases of COVID-19 in any of the communities served by the AHA. Adam credits a number of steps taken by health officials for the decline in active case counts. Adam explained contact tracing has been especially helpful in getting numbers down to zero.
“As soon as we know that it’s [the virus] in the community, right away, we act on it,” he said.
These approaches were also used by health officials to deal with a recent outbreak of tuberculosis, which has recently been declared to be under control.
When it comes to vaccine uptake Adam said they are happy with where the numbers are going in their two largest communities.
“We’re at a state where Fond-du-Lac is doing really well, almost 50 per cent vaccinated and Black Lake, its inching forward, but it’s doing really well too,” he said.
Overall when it comes to dealing with false information Adam encourages people not to share things like the video as it creates issues for no reason. He added people who generally create and spread information like what was in the video do not generally have good intentions.
“It was not a good idea; it was not a good thing to do and without any facts or even talking to people knowing what is actually going on up here in our communities and putting out stuff like that,” he said.
(Athabasca Health Authority CEO Allan Adam getting his COVID-19 vaccine: Photo Courtesy of Athabasca Health Authority Facebook)