The private cost of public service: how sharing science about COVID put experts in the crosshairs – CBC

Vaccine scientist says she was called ‘a fraud, and a loser and ugly’

Mar 12, 2025

Dr. Alex Wong vividly remembers the night, five years ago, when he read modelling data about the potential surge of COVID-19 positive patients in Saskatchewan. His kids were sleeping peacefully, unaware of what was coming.

“[It] basically showed that we were going to get crushed, like the system was going to get crushed,” he said, revealing that he and many others felt a deep-seated fear and anxiety about what was to come. “I read that and I just felt this horrible pit in my stomach.”

COVID-19 hit Saskatchewan in the spring of 2020, with the province announcing its first case on March 12.

It was the start of an exhausting journey for health-care workers, who say they’re still trying to recover from the toll it took on them.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/covid-19-doctor-opens-up-toll-stress-1.7480601