August 15, 2024

SACKVILLE – With new details in an article published in the New York Times Magazine, Green Party Health Critic and MLA for Memramcook-Tantramar Megan Mitton says there needs to be a public inquiry into what is causing such high rates of atypical neurodegenerative disease among New Brunswickers, with especially alarming rates in young New Brunswickers. 

“The patients and their families deserve answers to what is making them sick, and New Brunswickers deserve to know if there are environmental factors involved or not,” said Mitton. “Clearly the Higgs government has no interest in getting answers, so we need an independent public inquiry to get to the bottom of it.”

The article reveals that senior officials from Public Health New Brunswick requested that Dr. Alier Marrero stop reporting new cases of atypical neurological disease to provincial authorities and that the Public Health Agency of Canada “step back from public communications” because of “heightened sensitivities in New Brunswick.”

 “The new details back up what I’ve been concerned about all along, that the Higgs government was worried about possible environmental causes, so they shut down the full epidemiological study, told Dr. Marrero to stop reporting cases, and muzzled federal scientists,” added Mitton. “Despite promises of successive governments, Public Health New Brunswick is still subject to political interference. This must end. A Green government will make public health an arms length body, directed by the Chief Medical Officer of Health. We will also cooperate with the Public Health Agency of Canada to carry out the necessary environmental testing to find answers.”

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