Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 (nCoV-2019)

[W. K. Lis]

Ontario Hasn’t Proactively Inspected 98% Of Care Homes Since March
Over seven months of the coronavirus pandemic, the Ford government thoroughly inspected 11 of 626 homes.

From link.

The Ford government proactively inspected 11 — or less than two per cent — of the province’s 626 long-term care homes from March 1 until October 15 this year, the province’s commission said in a report Friday.

The government’s 2018 decision to cut proactive inspections meant issues with infection prevention and personal protective equipment (PPE) weren’t identified ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, the commission said.

Under the previous Liberal government, almost all long-term care homes received annual “resident quality inspections” (RQIs). The Ford government now focuses on inspecting high-risk homes, leaving out the vast majority.

Only 27 homes had an RQI in 2019, the first full year the Progressive Conservatives were in power, the commission’s report said.

“This reduction in RQIs which are intended to provide a holistic review of operations in the homes left the Ministry with an incomplete picture of the state of Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) and emergency preparedness,” the commission said in its new interim report.

“This is a key gap as RQIs are the only resident-focused inspections that must include a review of IPAC. By their nature, a complaint about day-to-day issues in a home is very unlikely to identify problems with equipment and processes that would be used in an emergency.

‘No indications’ the government did inspections when pandemic began

“Importantly, we have found no indications that proactive RQIs were initiated by the [ministry] when COVID-19 outbreaks began globally.”

The government still does inspections when there is a critical incident, like an injured resident, or when a resident or family member complains.

Ontario announced the commission into what went wrong in long-term care in May. It started its work early after soldiers exposed horrific conditions in five homes that were hit particularly hard by the virus.

The majority of Ontario’s COVID-19 deaths are linked to long-term care. More than 8,700 residents have been infected and 2,265 have died as of Friday. Families have said that residents were not isolated from roommates who had the virus or showed symptoms and in one case, that staff refused to transfer patients to a hospital or give them oxygen.

Minister of Long-Term Care Merrilee Fullerton has insisted throughout the autumn that homes with outbreaks of COVID-19 have adequate staff and PPE. But a worker at one Scarborough, Ont.-home where 39 people have died recently told HuffPost Canada that isn’t true.

“It’s just amazing. Sometimes even gloves — basic gloves — they don’t have,” the worker said.

Premier Doug Ford vowed to fix the system after he made the soldiers’ report public on May 26.

It’s “appalling” that the homes were failing to follow “standard operating procedures” like cleaning patients or lifting them up before feeding them, Ford said at the time.

“I know the public wants answers and I promise you … I will get those answers.”

Fullerton said in a statement Friday that the government was already working on some of the problems the commissioners identified in their new report.

“We thank the Commissioners for their continuing guidance and for providing additional recommendations in such a timely manner,” she said. “We struck this Commission so that residents, families, and staff could get answers quickly, even as we are in the midst of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The Ontario NDP’s deputy leader said the report was proof of the “devastating consequences” of cancelling comprehensive inspections.

“Doug Ford tried to save a buck by cancelling annual comprehensive inspections … That cut is costing us so much more. It’s costing us lives,” MPP Sara Singh told reporters by teleconference.

“Doing the bare minimum and denying that there is a crisis isn’t working.”

 

[W. K. Lis]

From link.

 

[lenaitch]

So . . . absolutely nothing to do with the actual trial of the vaccine. You just know the opening post of Deb Deblinger under the title of VACCINES EXPOSED will be clicked a gazillion times.

 

[Northern Light]

The Bay had its application for Judicial Review of the Lockdown denied.

It may consider an appeal.

Court dismisses Hudson’s Bay application for review of Ontario lockdown rules

In a statement, Hudson’s Bay spokesperson Tiffany Bourré said the company is “disappointed” and will consider an appeal

www.theglobeandmail.com

I definitively side w/HBC here at this point, in as much as I think the judges should have carried out the review; if they wanted to uphold the government's decisions, so be it.

But the inconsistency and illogic drives me nuts.

I want to see a coherent thought process, based on evidence.

Based on my understanding of the epidemiology, restricting in-store dining makes sense, closing schools makes sense, imposing capacity limits makes sense; but letting Canadian Tire open, while saying that a local mom and pop store must close makes no rational sense and has no link to curtailing spread of Covid.

I could understand judges being deferential to government if they aren't going to call their own epidemiologists to submit research etc.

But I think we would all benefit from the judges telling the government it needs to explain the logic of its choices, and why they differ from almost every other jurisdiction.

 

[Northern Light]

Following on the above is Chris Selley's discussion of the NHL situation for the upcoming season.

To be clear, I give not one whit about the NHL...............

But his points about logic, efficacy, pubic health, and government competence still resonate.

Chris Selley: Banishing Canada's NHL teams to U.S. would be nothing but public-health theatre

Governments should not be lauded for implementing pointless, symbolic restrictions — especially since they've gotten so many truly important things so wrong

nationalpost.com

 

[jayme2016]

Following on the above is Chris Selley's discussion of the NHL situation for the upcoming season.

To be clear, I give not one whit about the NHL...............

But his points about logic, efficacy, pubic health, and government competence still resonate.

Chris Selley: Banishing Canada's NHL teams to U.S. would be nothing but public-health theatre

Governments should not be lauded for implementing pointless, symbolic restrictions — especially since they've gotten so many truly important things so wrong

nationalpost.com

The issue is we can't say who cares about the NHl but on the other hand say every effort must be made to make sure baseball/basketball and rugby should be allowed to play.

 

[tiffer24]

Ontario is reporting 2,357 cases of #COVID19 and over 67,200 tests completed. Locally, there are 665 new cases in Toronto, 448 in Peel, 174 in York Region and 170 in Windsor-Essex County.

https://covid-19.ontario.ca

 

[Northern Light]

The issue is we can't say who cares about the NHl but on the other hand say every effort must be made to make sure baseball/basketball and rugby should be allowed to play.

Huh?

No, the issue is whether a public health measure is effective in protecting the public.

Period.

Its about fairly and equitably imposing restrictions to mitigate the risk of harm, based on measurable evidence.

 

[Richard White]

The issue is we can't say who cares about the NHl but on the other hand say every effort must be made to make sure baseball/basketball and rugby should be allowed to play.

The problem is that the NBA and MLB have 1 team in Canada. The Wolfpack travel internationally.

The NHL can make a Canadian Division work because they have enough teams to do it.

The only stumbling block I can foresee is the CFL Factor. The CFL wasn't allowed to play because of the various travel issues across the country along with financial issues. I can see the CFL raising a stink if there is an All-Canadian NHL division this season.

I can however see people saying that the NHL is more important to Canada's national identity than the CFL.

People would be much more pissed off if iconic teams like the leafs or habs were forced down south for the season than if they were to let things slide and travel across Canada.

All things considered.. Hockey IS Canada and I can see exceptions being made.

 

[TrickyRicky]

One thing I haven’t stumbled across yet is what does the “normal” surge pressure on our ICU’s look like at this time of year? Like do we still have ample ICU capacity at this time of year or is it all filled up normally during flu season?

This is kind of relevant because it matters to contextualize the point at which pandemic public health restrictions can be lifted and what systemic changes need to be made in the even that Covid-19 becomes endemic.

 

[gabe]

As if 2020 couldn't get worse... .

https://twitter.com/x/status/1340680394983825410

https://twitter.com/x/status/1340517373338595328

 

[TrickyRicky]

Just a one day snapshot but today you can see that Toronto’s numbers are back down to proportional to population. Toronto is 21% of the Ontario population and had 21% of lab reported cases.

Lockdowns work. They just do.

 

[Admiral Beez]

We’ve been invited or asked to attend a Covid funeral, max 15 people allowed. My 75 y/o mother in law was planning to go, so I sent the grandkids over to successfully dissuade her. The guy in the box doesn’t care who’s there, and the surviving family will understand, in fact they’ve recommended to most to stay away until the celebration of life event in post-vaccine 2021. So, now it’s just my wife making a brief drop-in whilst I wait in the getaway car.

 

[WislaHD]

The problem is that the NBA and MLB have 1 team in Canada. The Wolfpack travel internationally.

The NHL can make a Canadian Division work because they have enough teams to do it.

The only stumbling block I can foresee is the CFL Factor. The CFL wasn't allowed to play because of the various travel issues across the country along with financial issues. I can see the CFL raising a stink if there is an All-Canadian NHL division this season.

I can however see people saying that the NHL is more important to Canada's national identity than the CFL.

People would be much more pissed off if iconic teams like the leafs or habs were forced down south for the season than if they were to let things slide and travel across Canada.

All things considered.. Hockey IS Canada and I can see exceptions being made.

I don't get the big deal really, its not like any Canadian NHL team is going to be allowed fans at home games.

Both MLS and and NBA will be starting 2021 in temporary locations in the United States.

 

[lenaitch]

We’ve been invited or asked to attend a Covid funeral, max 15 people allowed. My 75 y/o mother in law was planning to go, so I sent the grandkids over to successfully dissuade her. The guy in the box doesn’t care who’s there, and the surviving family will understand, in fact they’ve recommended to most to stay away until the celebration of life event in post-vaccine 2021. So, now it’s just my wife making a brief drop-in whilst I wait in the getaway car.

I really do think personal safety, and that of others, takes precedent over ritual. I've had two friends pass during this thing, both at the beginning, and both families said they will do some kind of celebration 'later'. As time passes, I'm really not expecting there will be.