Death of Sheila Annette Lewis Spurs Reaction on Social Media

Alberta resident Sheila Annette Lewis. Courtesy of Sheila A. Lewis

A prominent professor of health policy in the United States has reposted several items on X, formerly known as Twitter, about the death of Sheila Annette Lewis to his more than 456,000 followers.

She’s the Alberta woman who had a legal battle with Alberta Health Services over her refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine in order to get a life-saving transplant.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University reposted the tweets Aug. 24, the day it was announced Ms. Lewis had passed away. Dr. Bhattacharya was one of the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which argued against lockdowns for healthy young people during the pandemic, saying efforts should be concentrated on protecting the vulnerable.

He’s not the only one. Former Ontario MPP Roman Baber, who is now the federal Conservative candidate for the York Centre riding in Toronto, also commented on the case on social media.

“The Canada Health Act forbids discrimination, but Sheila Lewis was denied transplant because of a lawful medical choice,” he wrote on X.

“Her death is a tragic failure of medical ethics and the administration of justice,” he said.

Others have also expressed frustration on social media.

Paul Mitchell, a former People’s Party of Canada candidate in Alberta’s Red Deer-Mountain View federal riding in 2019, told The Epoch Times the requirement to get the COVID vaccines for transplant patients should have been dropped long ago.

“Here we are, where people who are in desperate need of medical care are still being discriminated against,” he said. “And obviously, telling somebody who needs an organ transplant that they have to go down to the United States, spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get the type of medical care that they need, that’s ridiculous. And the types of delays that occurred as Sheila fought this battle, I believe that that cost her life,” said Mr. Mitchell, who also did work for the provincial Wildrose Party, which was merged with the Conservatives to form the United Conservative Party in Alberta.

Ms. Lewis was diagnosed with a terminal illness in 2018 and was told she would not survive without an organ transplant. She was placed on an organ waiting list in 2020, but despite having all her previous vaccinations, was informed in 2021 that a COVID-19 vaccine was required to receive the organ transplant.

Ms. Lewis expressed concern about the experimental nature of the vaccines, and argued the transplant policies violated her charter rights. Ms. Lewis took the case to both the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench and the Alberta Court of Appeal, but the courts ruled against her.

Her lawyers then filed for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, but were told in June that the country’s highest court would not hear the case.

Later that month, Ms. Lewis announced she had found a hospital in the United States that was willing to perform the surgery. On the website GiveSendGo, Ms. Lewis raised over $124,000 for the procedure.

Mr. Mitchell said many people are not going to forget about the case.

“There’s lots of people that are extremely upset about this,” he said. “We’re supposed to be a compassionate country, and telling people that they’re not able to get medical services that they need is nuts … This type of story, it’s going to spread all over the world.”

Ms. Lewis is not the first person denied a transplant over the COVID vaccines. In May, 35-year-old Garnet Harper of Sudbury died, leaving behind a wife and five children.

Mr. Harper had been diagnosed with Stage 5 kidney failure in February 2022. He was denied a place on the transplant list by the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) because he refused to get the COVID vaccine—although he had received other vaccines as an adult, according to his wife Meghan Harper.

He passed away in May 2023 from complications related to dialysis. Ironically, as his wife sat by her husband’s bedside, she got a call asking if they’d be willing to donate his organs for transplant.

In July, the LHSC told The Epoch Times in a statement that the policy had changed in May, and transplant patients no longer had to get a COVID vaccine, although it was still strongly recommended.

Mr. Mitchell believes policies need to change.

“There’s so many data points pointing to the fact that the COVID jab is not as advertised … it didn’t fulfill any of the promises that were made,” he said. “Hopefully, coming out of this situation, we can get some changes that are really needed, and get a little bit more of a just situation moving forward so there aren’t more cases like Sheila’s.”

Alberta Health Services did not respond by deadline to a request for comment by The Epoch Times.