Tweet

The Globe and Mail

1 Oct, 10 tweets, 6 min read

During the first wave of #COVID19, one of the biggest news stories was the carnage inside long-term care homes. Seniors were among the most vulnerable groups to COVID-19, and pre-vaccine, thousands died as outbreaks occurred in facilities across Canada.

tgam.ca/3F9shwV

The situation was made more devastating by the horrific details about how these residents were treated. Over the last several months, a coroner's inquest has looked into 7 LTC homes in Quebec, where things got so bad that the military was called in.

tgam.ca/3F9shwV

@TuThanhHa

🔊Today on #TheDecibel, @TuThanhHa describes the testimony he’s heard and talks about what needs to change to prevent this from ever happening again.

tgam.ca/3F9shwV

@TuThanhHa

What stories from the inquest have stuck with you most?

🔊@TuThanhHa: “There's one story which exemplified the absurd situation people were in."

playpodca.st/decibel

@TuThanhHa

🔊@TuThanhHa: “A couple were sharing a room at the Herron nursing home. The wife dies and the husband, who has Alzheimer's, doesn't quite grasp it. So every few hours he keeps rediscovering her.”

playpodca.st/decibel

@TuThanhHa

We’ve talked about the crisis in long-term care before. Why is this crisis, in particular, worth continuing to talk about?

🔊 Canada has seen issues come up before around “our inability to provide adequate care and adequate lodging for elderly people,” says @TuThanhHa.

@TuThanhHa

🔊 @TuThanhHa: “But the circumstances are different. First, the scale. We've never had so many fatalities before. And the circumstances: these were really squalid, gruesome conditions.”

playpodca.st/decibel

@TuThanhHa

🔊 @TuThanhHa: “But the public discourse has already moved on. We're all talking about vaccines, we're all talking about recovery and return to work, return to school.”

playpodca.st/decibel

@TuThanhHa

🔊@TuThanhHa: “I couldn't just let go of the fact that thousands of people died in terrible circumstances. That's the reason why I kept listening to hearings. This inquest in Quebec is also exceptional — it's the only (province) holding public hearings.”

playpodca.st/decibel

National reporter Tu Thanh Ha unpacks the disastrous chain of events that led to a collapse of care inside Quebec’s long-term care homes during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic

tgam.ca/3F7FFS8

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More from @globeandmail

The Globe and Mail

@globeandmail

1 Oct

On Campobello Island, NB, the prolonged closure of the Canada-US land border has made life even more difficult than normal.

“We’re basically trapped here.”

tgam.ca/campobello-nb

The community of about 800 people is linked to Canada only by a seasonal ferry that stops running at the end of September.

For most of the year, the island's only year-round road access is through Maine.

tgam.ca/campobello-nb

For people on Campobello, where fishing and tourism are the biggest drivers of employment, the Canada-U.S. border closure has led to economic pain and renewed calls to finally get a permanent transportation link to the rest of Canada.

tgam.ca/campobello-nb

Read 6 tweets

The Globe and Mail

@globeandmail

1 Oct

#BREAKING: In split 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court upholds the Ontario law that slashed the size of Toronto’s city council nearly in half during the last municipal election.

theglobeandmail.com/canada/toronto…

@fordnation

The Supreme Court of Canada found the change imposed by Ontario Premier @fordnation did not violate the free-expression rights of candidates or voters.

tgam.ca/2WAMtq8

The majority of the panel ruled that everyone had several months to adjust to the new system before the October 2018 vote.

The dissenting judges, however, found the timing of the legislation did amount to an infringement of free-expression rights.

tgam.ca/2WAMtq8

Read 5 tweets

The Globe and Mail

@globeandmail

1 Oct

Merck & Co. said Friday that its experimental #COVID19 pill reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half in people recently infected with the coronavirus and that it would soon ask health officials in the U.S. and around the world to authorize its use.

tgam.ca/merck

If cleared, Merck’s drug would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19, a potentially major advance in efforts to fight the pandemic.

tgam.ca/merck

Merck and its partner said early results showed patients who received the drug, called molnupiravir, within 5 days of COVID-19 symptoms had about half the rate of hospitalization and death as patients who received a dummy pill.

tgam.ca/merck

Read 5 tweets

The Globe and Mail

@globeandmail

1 Oct

Why did nursing homes in Quebec crumble under #COVID_19′s first wave?

tgam.ca/3F7FFS8

More than 4,000 care home residents have died in Quebec during the pandemic, but not all were directly due to COVID-19. Some were left to languish – without food, water or basic sanitary care – during the first wave and essentially died of neglect.

tgam.ca/3lvyfPJ

The most infamous example was a home called Résidence Herron, where 47 of the 139 residents passed away after the home’s staff disappeared once the novel coronavirus struck.

theglobeandmail.com/canada/article…

Read 5 tweets

The Globe and Mail

@globeandmail

1 Oct

Season Foremsky used to add shocks of colour – think hot pink and purple – to her long brown hair, to make people smile. She loved watching kids’ movies with her two little girls, and taking them to the park. Her favourite song Metallica's Fade to Black.

tgam.ca/3D6a15x

Foremsky was an ER and ICU nurse, caring for COVID-19 patients in Calgary. She died at home this week, in an apparent drug overdose. In the days and months prior, she detailed the trauma and abuse health care professionals face in hospitals amid COVID-19.

tgam.ca/3D6a15x

“I’m tired. I cry before my shifts. I have severe anxiety but I still give the best care I can,” she wrote on Facebook on Sept. 17. Earlier that week, demonstrators protested outside hospitals against masks, vaccines and vaccine passports.

tgam.ca/3D6a15x

Read 7 tweets

The Globe and Mail

@globeandmail

30 Sep

As Canada marks the first National Day for #TruthAndReconciliation, #TheDecibel looks at its origin in #OrangeShirtDay, and explore how to meaningfully measure progress toward reconciliation.

tgam.ca/3ilMZQo

One way to measure progress is the ‘reconciliation barometer,’ developed by Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers.

theglobeandmail.com/canada/article…

@starzyklab

🎧 @starzyklab, principal investigator on the project, and @rymoran, a collaborator, join #TheDecibel to help explain what exactly the project is measuring, and how this gauge can be used to inform the conversation around reconciliation.

tgam.ca/3ilMZQo

Read 9 tweets

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