As deadline looms for workers to get vaxxed or tested, Manitoba PC leadership hopeful raises more objections

Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Shelly Glover is continuing to raise objections with Manitoba's requirement for front-line health-care workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19  or face frequent testing.

Over the past week, Glover has told two media outlets she remains concerned the plan to require front-line workers to get their shots by Monday or take rapid COVID tests up to three times per week will leave the health-care system short-staffed.

During a Friday appearance on CBC's Power & Politics, Glover suggested the province ought to come up with an alternative to testing or vaccination for workers who've already contracted the virus.

"I've spoken with nurses and health-care aides who are not vaccinated because some of them have had COVID and they believe very firmly in the science to support that," said Glover, claiming she met with a group of 350 health-care workers who oppose vaccination.

Glover made similar comments in a story published Wednesday by the Western Standard, a conservative publication based in Alberta.

"They have legitimate reasons for not wanting to take the vaccination. Many had COVID. They believe their natural immunities are stronger than the vaccinations," Glover is quoted as saying. 

"To not have any other options but vaccinate, get tested, or get out, that's irresponsible when it comes to our patients. I don't want patients to suffer so we've got to come up with other solutions."

Manitoba has no plans to terminate workers who refuse vaccination or testing. If a worker declines both options, the matter will be referred to human resources, civil service commissioner Charlene Paquin said in September.

Microbiologist says comments 'sow doubt'

Jason Kindrachuk, a microbiologist at the University of Manitoba and the Canada research chair in emerging viruses, said science does not support the idea recovered COVID patients with no shots have as much protection from the disease as recovered patients who get vaccinated.

He also expressed concern with the way the term "natural immunity" has been used to obscure the fact vaccines bolster the human body's own immune response.

"Having the separation of natural immunity versus vaccine-mediated immunity, we've got to move away from that. Immunity is immunity," Kindrachuk said in an interview. "Whether we're presenting it with the virus or we're presenting it with the vaccine, ultimately we are inducing an immune response."

The microbiologist said he is concerned by Glover's comments because of the potential they may confuse the public.

"I think that what it does is it sows doubt in what the research and certainly what the data from across the globe is telling us," he said.

In a statement, Glover said she will follow scientific and medical advice if she becomes premier and said COVID infection is no basis for exemption from the provincial plan.

Nonetheless, she insisted she still has concerns with the province's plan to require front-line health-care workers to get tested or get vaccinated.

"I have consistently said from the beginning that we need to find more alternatives to keep front-line nurses and other health-care professionals on the job," Glover said in the statement.

"The point regarding natural immunity was brought up to me and I was using it as an example of some of the questions people have."

In a statement, rival leadership candidate Heather Stefanson said she "has listened to medical professionals since Day 1, and will continue to base health policy around science."

The resignation of former premier Brian Pallister led to the leadership race slated to conclude Oct. 30, when the Progressive Conservative party plans to announce its new leader.

PC voters are using mail-in ballots to select either Glover, a former Conservative member of Parliament, or Stefanson, the MLA for Tuxedo, as their new party leader. 

That person will succeed Pallister and interim Premier Kelvin Goertzen as Manitoba's next premier.