The Long Term Care Commission has just released the transcript of it's interview with Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams. It took place on Feb 22nd from 10 AM to 2:30 PM. 232 pages. Speed reading.
The LTC commission notes the difficulty it had getting info for this meeting w Dr Williams, they had to go to an arbitrator to get his notes unredacted and only received 217k documents on Friday, calling it a "gargantuan task" to read them
THREAD:
Summary after reading Dr. Williams testimony before Long Term Care Commission:
Long Term Care homes were getting Covid test results IN THE MAIL. Dr Williams acknowledged he did not raise alarm bells even though prompt results were critical
Dr. Williams was aware the PPE stockpile was being destroyed and not replaced
Said he had submitted plans to replenish stockpile - it started getting destroyed in 2017, submission was made to start purchasing more in 2021 (pg 141)
Williams says he only became aware in 2nd or 3rd week of feb that lack of PPE a big problem (pg 143)
He says he was shocked PPE was not made in Canada and North America
Williams assumed LTC homes had a 4 week supply of PPE, even though in 2007 the Auditor General found less than 50% had
Dr Williams also says he did not believe there was asymptomatic spread until late summer.
Dr. Williams defended his decision not to prevent staff from working at multiple homes saying there was no evidence that was causing spread, he says staff were coming to work infected from community (SARS resport recommended staff only work in 1 place)
The testimony got testy at times, Dr. Williams had a lawyer, the Commission clearly got frustrated with lack of clear answers in some instances.
Today Health Minister Christine Elliott said she has every confidence in Dr. Williams
When asked about his testimony to LTC Commission by @robferguson1 & if he would like to clarify his responses (which are being criticized)Dr. Williams says they were complicated Qs & not a lot of time to answer them, adding some things they do well, some things can they do better
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NEW: Retired General Rick Hillier begins vaccine update, says vaccinating 16-18K a day, hopes to have all long term care residents finished with second dose next week.
In phase two, which begins 1st week of March, pharmacies will begin distributing vaccines.
Retired General Hillier says vaccination plan is inclusive of hospitals, family doctors and pharmacies. (remember each public health unit is doing a their own plan unique to own region)
This right here is the chart the government will use to prove its case for lockdowns. It indicates lockdowns worked in France and Australia #covid19
This graph makes the argument that the sooner lockdowns are put in place the lower the future #covid19 case counts will be
How long should lockdowns be? "we don't believe anything less than 4 weeks is effective, longer is more effective." Dr. Brown as he releases Ontario's modelling numbers #covid19
Exclusive: 96% of residents at Sunnycrest long term care in Whitby have tested positive.19 have died. 67 staff are positive. An inspection done less than 2 wks ago found "widespread failures" caused "actual harm to residents." No one was screened upon entry, PPE improperly used
Staffing was down to less than 50%, food & high risk medications were given up to 2 hours late. Wounds were not treated properly.This was happening as the outbreak started - just a couple of weeks ago. The daughter of a resident said to me "nothing was learned from the 1st wave"
This was Neville Pereira. He died of "COVID19 on Sunday at Sunnycrest long term care in Whitby - he was 94. His daughter tells me he was excited to turn 95, that was his goal.
Premier Doug Ford says he is glad to hear Federal announcement vaccines are coming to Canada as early as next week and will be distributed per capita, notes we are very far from the millions needed to vaccinate people en masse. #covid19
General Rick Hillier is outlining how vaccines will be distributed. Phase 1 will get 2.4 million vaccines through the 1st quarter (equals 1.2 million people bc need 2 doses) #covi19
Long term care residents and healthcare workers will get vaccinated first but there won't be enough doses to cover all of them so focus will be on red zones first. #covid19
BREAKING: the controversial bill that grants Premier Doug Ford's friend and supporter Charles McVety's Canada Christian College university status has passed.
Prior story on the Ford government introducing a bill that grants Charles McVety's Canada Christian College University status. It raises memories of the Ford government's early patronage scandals that had them plummeting in the polls pre-pandemic toronto.citynews.ca/video/2020/10/…
Canada Christian College still has to go through independent PEQAB process however many wonder why the college was granted university status in the bill BEFORE the process was complete.
BREAKING: Provincial modelling shows Ontario will hit 2500 #covid19 cases a day at 3% growth and roughly 6500 a day at 5% growth by mid December.
New modelling projects #covid19 ICU capacity will break 150 bed threshold in best and worst case scenario within 2 weeks - that means surgeries will have to be cancelled #covid19
we are at about 4 percent growth now but heading higher. #covid19