Shahab breaks down while discussing COVID modelling

Many people are feeling the pressure of 20 months under a pandemic, particularly as COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Saskatchewan and the health-care system reaches a breaking point.

On Wednesday, Dr. Saqib Shahab — the province’s chief medical health officer and one of the people at the forefront of the province’s fight against COVID — showed some of that pressure, breaking down briefly while speaking to media.

“We’ve always worked hard and we’ve pulled together and it has been a divisive time many times,” Shahab said before pausing and then continuing, his voice thick with emotion.

“In the past, there has been mention that, ‘Dr. Shahab just pleads to the public and he doesn’t direct an order.’ But I have no shame in pleading to the public. We’ve come so far and we just have to pull along for the next few weeks and months.

“It is distressing to see what is happening in our ICUs and hospitals. I’m sorry, but it’s a very challenging time.”

As of Wednesday, there were 82 COVID patients in Saskatchewan intensive care units and 117 people in the province’s ICUs overall.

Shahab said it’s distressing to see healthy, young, unvaccinated people in the ICU and dying.

“To see young lives lost to a vaccine-preventable disease, how can we accept this in a country where we’ve had vaccine available for everyone ever since July?” Shahab said.

The doctor talked about how public health orders and government policies can make a difference, but he noted that individual behaviour is also key.

Shahab had just finished explaining the latest modelling for the province that showed just how bad things could get, including a graph showing a huge spike in cases — way above the capacity of the province’s hospitals — if nothing were to change and no booster vaccines were given.

“Apologies if I’m being a bit unprofessional, but it is very challenging because we all want this to be behind us and it won’t be for many months for other reasons and we’ll have to look at booster doses and other precautions for the next little while,” he said.

“But right now we have an opportunity as the modelling shows … by reducing our contacts, getting as high a vaccine uptake as we can and just being careful in our social contacts and we can turn this around.”

In many ways, Shahab has been the face of the provincial government’s COVID orders and decisions, which means he also has borne the brunt of many frustrations.

Through the pandemic, Shahab has endured fiery rhetoric from critics as well as protests outside his work and, at one point, his home. Most recently, a man was charged with uttering a threat toward him and Premier Scott Moe.