Hospital worker blows whistle on spread of New Brunswick’s mystery illness: Bombshell report

A Vitalité Health Network whistleblower has told The Guardian that previously healthy young adults suspected of having the mystery neurological illness are experiencing rapidly deteriorating health and that the number of cases are growing.

Twenty- and thirty-year-olds in New Brunswick, some of them caregivers, are reporting brain atrophy, muscle wasting, hallucinations, and insomnia, all neurological symptoms that are usually rare in young adults.

The whistleblowing hospital employee also does not believe it’s a New Brunswick disease. The employee told The Guardian’s Leyland Cecco: “We’re probably the area that is raising the flag because we’re mostly rural and in an area where people might have more exposure to environmental factors.”

Meanwhile, the Government of New Brunswick is blocking federal scientists, who are standing by to help, from supporting research into the mystery neurological illness dogging parts of New Brunswick.

According to a federal scientist quoted in The Guardian story, there are teams waiting and ready to begin conducting the research needed, but “New Brunswick has specifically told us not to go forward with that work.”

This bombshell report follows incendiary stories by Macleans, The Walrus and the Globe and Mail, in addition to another story by The Guardian. 

Still, questions persist. Why is the Premier not allowing federal scientists into the province to investigate?

With at least nine cases involving two people in close contact, why is the Premier not launching an environmental study of the illness?

Caregivers of patients suspected of having the illness, including a nursing student in her twenties, have developed symptoms. What is the province doing to protect caregivers from the illness?

There are also unanswered questions about reporting the number of cases of the illness on the government’s website. The number, 48, has not changed since spring 2021. Multiple sources suspect that the cluster is likely to be as high as 150. This number does not take into account the cases involving young people still under investigation.

What will the government do differently to alert the public of a disease cluster in the future? Remember, the only reason we know anything about this mystery illness is a leaked memo to the press.

In a recent report by CBC’s Fifth Estate, several people within the cluster region who felt they were experiencing symptoms found it impossible to see a specialist because of long wait times. They also felt that practitioners dismissed their concerns.

The government, on the other hand, after continuously botching their COVID response, including over the Christmas holiday, has unsurprisingly offered no strategy to tackle this mystery illness.

Instead of calling for all hands on deck to investigate this mystery illness, the Premier is preventing scientists from doing their job, fighting healthcare workers who deserve fair wages, and forcing hospital closures.

The Premier and his friends at the Irving-owned Brunswick News are focused on a completely different priority: enriching their business executive friends by promoting privatized health care, never mind overwhelming evidence that a robust publicly-funded health care system would serve us all better.

New Brunswickers deserve answers and leadership. But it has become abundantly clear that Premier Higgs does not believe himself answerable to us – he answers only to the Irvings.

Want to see more quality reporting by the NB Media Co-op? Become a member or donate today.

Tracy Glynn is an editorial board member of the NB Media Co-op. Aditya Rao is a board of director member of the NB Media Co-op.