COVID-19 Roundup: Premier sets expectations for vaccine distribution

By David Hains and Jack Hauen

Premier on vaccine expectations

The federal government announced that it secured deals with pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna for millions of doses of the potential coronavirus vaccines they are working on.

Pfizer has also signed a deal with the United States government for 100 million doses.

There's a heated race to develop the first effective vaccine, with companies around the world pulling out all the stops to give their best shot to avert the pandemic. That includes the Canadian company Providence Therapeutics, which says it has developed a coronavirus vaccine that shows promising results in mice, and is looking for federal government funding and approval to proceed to human trials.

Asked about Ontario's expectations for a vaccine, Premier Doug Ford said he'd like to see vaccines distributed nationally on a population basis. "We do expect 38 per cent of anything the feds distribute throughout the country, we'd like to see 38 per cent of those vaccines," he said, referring to Ontario's population share of Canada. He also indicated that it will be an ongoing discussion point. "We'll have a further discussion with the deputy prime minister," on the subject, he added.

Even if and when an effective vaccine is secured, there will also be a logistical challenge to administer it to the population quickly and en masse. But a recent Angus Reid poll, as reported by CBC, shows that 32 per cent of the population would wait some time before getting a vaccine, and 14 per cent would choose not to get it at all. Forty-six per cent of respondents would get an available vaccine immediately, according to the poll that surveyed 1,519 Canadians on July 23 and 24.

You call me on your cellphone

The premier opened the door to allowing students to have cellphones in class in the upcoming school year.

That's a departure for a premier who promised to abolish the attention-grabbing devices in schools in the 2018 campaign and followed through on his pledge, much to the chagrin of many teenagers.

But asked again about the issue at his daily press conference, Ford expressed some openness to allowing cellphones in school on the grounds that the COVID Alert app could be useful for contact tracing and thus limiting the spread of the coronavirus. "Well, we can look at that," he allowed, without making a commitment either way.

The premier also alluded to the fact that the app is not a silver bullet, although every download helps. "I understand when you put these apps out not everyone's going to upload them and they're giving me ballpark percentages. But even a small percentage really helps out."

NDP outlines long-term care strategy

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath called on the Ford government to increase staffing levels and inspections, and tighten up standards in long-term care.

“Low staffing levels and a lack of standards and inspections mean seniors aren’t getting the time, care and attention they deserve,” Horwath said following a press conference Wednesday morning. “Too often, that’s leaving our loved ones — the parents and grandparents who built this province — to develop bedsores, to become malnourished or dehydrated, to suffer falls and to be more vulnerable to illness, including COVID-19, which took the lives of more than 1,840 people in long-term care."

Horwath said the Ontario government should:

• Hire thousands of long-term care workers, especially personal support workers (PSWs)
• Change PSW jobs from part-time to full-time, and increase the pay
• Guarantee residents a minimum of four hours of hands-on care per day
• Re-establish mandatory, comprehensive resident quality inspections for each facility, at least once every year
• Fund a strategy to recruit and retain quality PSWs in long-term care and home care

Horwath made the call after a roundtable with long-term care workers in St. Catharines. She said the workers described being understaffed and overworked, which is consistent with previous surveys and the government's report on staffing in the sector, released last week.

“With personal support workers spread thin, seniors in long-term care can wait days and days for help with basic hygiene like bathing and shaving," said Lisa Frame, a PSW at Radiant Care Pleasant Manor in Niagara-on-the-Lake, in an NDP release. "Seniors in long-term care suffer, and so do personal support workers who were burnt out to begin with and have been working overtime during the pandemic. Frontline workers enjoy giving care, and working as a PSW can be a very rewarding career, but they need to be properly supported. The Ontario government needs to assist with increasing staff levels and wages in long-term care and also provide support for recruitment of new staff and incentives to keep staff.”

The NDP is also continuing to push for a full public inquiry into the long-term care system during the pandemic, instead of the independent commission the Ford government has promised. Horwath said an inquiry would ideally look at overhauling the role of for-profit long-term care providers, which have seen higher death rates of COVID-19 than non-profits.