EDMONTON – The chairman of Alberta’s United Conservative caucus is denying he said he wanted more unvaccinated people to catch COVID-19 so the province could attain herd immunity.
Nathan Neudorf says he wants cases to go down and that getting more people vaccinated is the best way to achieve that.
On Friday, Neudorf, the legislature member for Lethbridge-East, told a local news program he hoped Alberta would see a rise in COVID-19 cases among the unvaccinated.
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He told the program that having infections sweep through unprotected people could result in herd immunity — leaving the virus with no one else to infect and thereby causing cases to fall.
Alberta has well over one million unvaccinated residents, including 660,000 children under 12, who are not eligible to get shots.
Opposition NDP critic Shannon Phillips calls Neudorf’s remarks “odious” and urged him to apologize and resign as caucus chairman.
In a statement sent to 660 NEWS, Neudorf said:
“To clarify the point that I was trying to make last week, COVID cases have risen in Alberta over the past several weeks, largely among the unvaccinated population. This is a matter of fact.
Looking at data from the UK, the hope is that cases will level off soon and drop due to the fact that most Albertans are already vaccinated. Vaccines work and are showing tremendous effect against COVID, including its many variants, and that’s especially true on serious infections.
Over 90% of those in ICU are unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated. For those under 12, we thankfully have seen very little in the way of serious outcomes. Right now, the flu is a greater risk to children than COVID. As a parent of 5 children, I too am concerned about all children and their health and safety.
I am confident in the approach we are taking as a province, it is time for our kids to get back to school and back to normal.”
