Three years ago, the principle of informed consent was unceremoniously dumped as a guidepost for public health matters. Most of the population seemed to have nearly limitless confidence in those who employed central planning to manage a pandemic response. Despite the subsequent train wreck, we are still seeing many individuals professing shock that they have been misled, once again.

When Brad MacLeod visited a pharmacy in Ancaster last week to get a COVID-19 vaccination, he was quite pleased. It was his sixth shot. But that happiness turned to alarm the next morning when MacLeod checked his vaccine certificate and realized he had received the same bivalent COVID-19 shot he received last November instead of the one he wanted — the new monovalent vaccine targeting the XBB.1.5 subvariant.

And who knew that the U of T has a Faculty of Information?

“There’s so much confusion around emerging variants and new vaccines and which protects against which that it’s very difficult for experts to stay abreast of what’s going on,” said Colin Furness, assistant professor with the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information…