West Coast Valkyrie

impressions of Dr. Bonnie Henry

The Valkyrie known as Eir, from 13th century Nordic poetry, is a goddess associated with healing, medical skill and the ability to predict the future. Eir has been compared to the Greek goddess Hygieia.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Health Officer for the Province of British Colombia, has been the voice of calm and reason while providing the public with daily updates on the COVID-19 pandemic and drug overdose emergency.

Valkyries

Selfless, brave, noble, loyal and dedicated to their people and their sisters — Valkyries, in Teutonic mythology, were beautiful supernatural warrior-maidens. During times of battle they were sent to mingle with the combatants and determine which of the warriors should fall. As choosers of the slain, the Valkyries determined not only who would gain admittance to Valhalla but also who died in battle — sometimes using magic to ensure that their preferences were brought to fruition.

Invisible, except to those who were fated to die, the Valkyries rushed through space on their fiery steeds, brandishing gleaming steel spears, wearing breastplates, helmets and shields. Sometimes Valkyries also took the shape of beautiful maidens in swans’ plumage who could fly through the air. Upon making a hero’s fate known to him, a Valkyrie returned to Odin, the God of War in Valhalla, to announce the fallen hero’s imminent arrival.

The Valkyrie known as Eir, who appears in 13th century Nordic poetry, is a goddess associated with healing, medical skill and the ability to predict the future.

Eir has been compared to the Greek goddess Hygieia.

Some also consider the Valkyrie Eir as a form of the goddess Frigg — who is associated with foresight and wisdom.

Dr. Bonnie Henry

As Provincial Health Officer for the Province of BC, (2018 to the present) Dr. Henry has been providing the public with daily updates on the COVID-19 pandemic and drug overdose emergency.

Prior to this role, Dr. Henry was the deputy provincial health officer (2014-2018) and also served as the interim provincial executive medical director of the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) (December 2013 - August 2014). From 2005 to 2014, she was the medical director of Communicable Disease Prevention and Control and Public Health Emergency Management with the BCCDC and medical director for the provincial emerging and vector-borne diseases program, as well as a provincial program for surveillance and control of healthcare associated infections .

Dr. Henry joined Toronto Public Health in 2001 as Associate Medical Officer of Health, where she was responsible for the Emergency Services Unit and the Communicable Disease Liaison Unit. In 2003, she was the operational lead in the response to the SARS outbreak in Toronto. She was a member of the executive team of the Ontario SARS Scientific Advisory Committee.

Dr. Henry is a specialist in public health and preventive medicine and is board certified in preventive medicine in the U.S. She graduated from Dalhousie Medical School and completed a Masters in Public Health in San Diego, residency training in preventive medicine at University of California, San Diego and in community medicine at University of Toronto.

She has worked internationally including with the WHO/UNICEF polio eradication program in Pakistan and with the World Health Organization to control the Ebola outbreak in Uganda.

Dr. Henry is an associate professor at the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine. She is the past chair of Immunize Canada and a member of the Canadian National Advisory Committee on Immunization and the National Infection Control Guidelines Steering Committee. She chaired the Canadian Public Health Measures Task Group and was a member of the Infection Control Expert Group and the Canadian Pandemic Coordinating Committee responding to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic.

She has been involved with planning, surveillance and response to mass gatherings in Canada and internationally, including with the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. She is also the author of “Soap and Water and Common Sense” a guide to staying healthy in a microbe filled world.

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