Alberta COVID panel strikes the name of contributor from report, issues correction

Adriana LaGrange, Minister of Health for Alberta, makes an announcement in Calgary, Alta., Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Todd Korol

EDMONTON — A panel commissioned by the Alberta government has struck the name of an expert contributor from its COVID-19 report, saying it was included “in error.”

The report, released without notice Friday, was updated Tuesday to say Dr. John Conly was only interviewed about an article quoted in the report.

“The pandemic data review task force regrets this error, and the name and bio has since been removed,” it now reads.

The correction comes after Conly, a physician and former head of medicine at the University of Calgary, told the Globe and Mail he was demanding his name be removed from the report.

The 269-page report calls for the government to halt COVID-19 vaccines without the full disclosure of risks and to end their use for healthy children and teens.

The report also recommends legislative changes to give doctors more freedom to prescribe alternative therapies in future pandemics, saying health authorities were too restrictive when it came to off-label medication uses.

The report points to remedies such as anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, which lacks scientific evidence as a treatment for COVID.

Doctors across the country have slammed the $2-million review, saying it promotes dangerous misinformation.

The Canadian Medical Association and Alberta Medical Association have said the panel’s report sows mistrust in medical and scientific communities.

“It speaks against the broadest and most diligent international scientific collaboration and consensus in history,” Alberta Medical Association president Dr. Shelley Duggan said in a statement Monday.

Premier Danielle Smith created the panel in 2022 to look at how data was collected and used to respond to COVID-19.

Smith has been a staunch critic of pandemic rules and vaccine mandates.

Dr. Gary Davidson, who led the review, was the former head of emergency medicine for the province’s central zone and chief of the emergency department at Red Deer Regional Hospital.

He has rejected the idea that there is a scientific consensus.

Health Minister Adriana LaGrange’s office is declining to say whether the provincial government will follow through on any of the report’s recommendations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 28, 2025.

Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press