When you do nothing wrong, but still get COVID-19

Prince Edward Island has more than 1,000 active cases of COVID-19, but that doesn't mean those people have been careless or disregarding public health guidelines.

During a COVID-19 briefing Tuesday, Premier Dennis King and Dr. Heather Morrison urged Islanders to show compassion and understanding for people who have tested positive.

"People who have been doing everything that they've been asked to do right down to a T have tested positive," King said.

"It's frustrating, I know that, but let's not wrongly assume that someone who has been positive has been [flouting] the rules or not obeying the public health protocols."

Morrison said Omicron is more transmissible and infectious than previous variants, and people shouldn't feel guilty if they caught COVID-19 through no fault of their own. She has previously advised Islanders to consider all public places as potential exposure sites.

"People can contract COVID-19 even though they are following all the guidelines and there is no value in wondering, 'What did I do wrong?'"

King said one woman he spoke to contracted COVID and questioned if all the health measures were worth it.

"She told me that she was double vaccinated, she was going in for a booster later this month, she wears a mask everywhere, she keeps her contacts small and her comment to me was, 'I feel like that was all for nothing,'" he said. 

"And my response to her was that I think it was for everything and the reason that so many of us have done those very things are the very reason we are able to weather this storm."

Sarah Carr, a psychologist in Charlottetown, said there is no shame in getting COVID-19, but there is still a certain stigma around it.

"People really don't want you to know that they have it, and when they find out they are embarrassed and ashamed," she said.

"They feel like they've done something wrong or there's something about them or how their behaviour has been throughout the pandemic that's led to them getting COVID."

She said people tend to fear what they don't understand, and she expects the stigma around COVID will decrease as the number of cases rise and people become more familiar with the disease.

She said she read comments online of people being bullied and shamed for having COVID-19.

"To those people that are doing the bullying, I just wonder if they have the ability to put themselves in another person's shoes and feel what that's like. It's also a product of fear and panic and misinformation that this pandemic has really brought to light."