The public health professionals at Queens Park and in Toronto disagree. Bruce Arthur writes:
The two sides, while wasting three days, have their lawyers figuring that out. With a virus that we now know moves faster than traditional public health measures, every hour can count. The city and the province are wasting plenty of them.
But the jurisdictional disagreements are a sideshow for the real thing, because the actual divide is clear. Toronto medical officer of health Dr. Eileen de Villa looks at the data, looks at the backlog, looks at her resources, and thinks the city should take the extraordinary steps of closing indoor dining and restricting all unnecessary travel. And the province — chief medical officer of health Dr. David Williams, and Premier Doug Ford — looks at the same data, listens to her and Mayor John Tory, runs it through their advisory tables, and disagrees.
Between Sept. 20 and 26, 44 per cent of Toronto outbreaks involved restaurants, bars and entertainment venues. Two cases at Yonge Warehouse and Regulars Bar created a combined 2,300 possible exposures, which is enough to jam contact tracing if nothing else happens. Sources say Toronto Public Health has shared all its data with the province.
Then there is the data obtained by the Star’s Kate Allen and Jennifer Yang. Test positivity data shows the virus is again surging in Toronto’s most vulnerable neighbourhoods, but also across the city. And remember, the picture’s incomplete.
The battle again is between dollars and bugs. For Doug Ford, dollars have always driven policy. The irony is that, until the bugs outrank the dollars, there will be far fewer dollars driving the bus.
Image: cbc.ca
4 comments:
As much as I'd like to blame Ford for not closing Toronto's bars and restaurants, I can't. After political interference led to mismanagement during the SARS outbreak, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health was given additional power and made wholly independent from political meddling. The blame lies squarely with Ontario's CMOH, Dr. David Williams.
Dr. Williams decided not to close Toronto's bars, despite the evidence and recommendations of Toronto Public Health. In fact, it was Dr. Williams who decided to open the bars in August despite global evidence that this would be disastrous. Dr. Williams decided not to collect demographic data on Covid-19 cases, wilfully blinding himself to who is most vulnerable. Dr. Williams refused to order postmortem testing for Covid-19, concealing the true number of cases. Dr. Williams initially restricted testing to symptomatic people, despite the evidence that the disease was being spread by asymptomatic carriers, and Dr. Williams is once again restricting the availability of testing knowing full well that wide-spread testing is critical to keeping the spread of the disease under control.
The bottom line is that Dr. Williams is out of his depth and has got to go. This was clear back in July, when physicians and public health experts started calling for his ouster. If Ford is to be blamed, it's for not replacing Dr. Williams.
Cap
Dr. Williams's judgment has been called into question before, Cap. It doesn't help when the messages are mixed.
Cap's bill of indictment is pretty damning. Williams may be protected from political meddling but that isn't a licence for him to take a political tack to his own decision-making. The conduct listed does sound indefensible. But, if you do ditch Williams, you can't have Bonnie Henry back. Don't even think about it.
From here in Ontario, Mound, it certainly looks like Bonnie Henry is a superb doctor.
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