Thread by @TorontoStar

#StarExclusive: Lower-income Ontarians continue to die of COVID-19 at much higher rates than those with higher incomes — a troubling pattern repeated in each of the province’s six pandemic waves, new data shows. torstar.co/SCso50JOx7u

Researchers at the University of Toronto have found that death rates from the virus in Ontario’s lowest-income neighbourhoods have been roughly double those in the province’s richest areas throughout the pandemic. thestar.com/news/gta/2022/…

“It begs the question: Among whom are we flattening the curve?” said Dr. Sharmistha Mishra, an infectious disease physician and mathematical modeller at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital.
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With another wave expected this fall, Mishra and other experts are calling for the province to further fund tailored prevention and treatment strategies for the most vulnerable, including older Ontarians and communities with the lowest income brackets.
thestar.com/news/gta/2022/…

Research has shown that in every wave of the pandemic, Ontario’s working poor, racialized and immigrant populations have not only suffered disproportionate rates of infection but also have had inequitable access to testing, treatment and vaccines.
thestar.com/news/gta/2022/…