In early September, Conservative Party MP Dean Allison held a four-day independent, unsanctioned “inquiry” for “Canadians to share their personal experiences of injuries…from the COVID-19 vaccine(s).” The event heard testimony that alleged the response to COVID-19 was “a miserable failure,” not least due to the “assaults on freedom and other malign actions.”

An opinion piece in the Toronto Sun subsequently claimed that COVID-19 vaccine programs “killed thousands of Canadians,” repeating a call for an immediate stop of COVID-19 mRNA vaccinations, as well as “resignations, arrests and a full public inquiry…by the prime minister.”

It further claimed that Canada’s COVID-19 vaccination efforts represent, at best, the “biggest health policy mistake in Canadian history.”

But testimony heard at this inquiry — and responses to that testimony — conflate factual claims with ethical claims. As a consequence, it fails to recognize the ethical factors critical to understanding and justifying COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

As public health ethicists, we’re interested in clarifying the factors necessary to substantiate claims about “policy mistakes” and informing expectations for future vaccination policy decisions.

The conflation of facts and ethics

Some of the claims made in the Allison inquiry and related reporting pertained to facts, both stated and omitted. Other claims were ethical in nature. The difference is critical to understanding and justifying COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

For example, questions of facts are:

How many people were injured or died as a result of COVID-19 vaccination

How were vaccine candidates tested and regulated

How many people were saved by vaccines.

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