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Ontario's ability to administer vaccine supply within 7 days is not an issue. The real issues at the moment are:1. Lack of focus on province-wide LTC residents in outbreak who are dying in numbers every day.
2. Lack of supply which depends on manufacturers/GoC.
The province has decided to divert vaccine supplies to needed regions in order to fulfill a commitment to fully cover the 4-5 regions identified as grey over a month ago. This ignores the facts on the ground.
A political commitment to a few regions in such a situation smacks of inequity especially considering the degree of outbreaks in non-selected regions. In all my work, I recommend ethical/timely allocation of resources to prevent as many deaths as possible.
This chart of weekly deaths per 100K is a proxy for LTC/RT home death which represent the bulk in most areas. You can see here that the province is crudely and actively affecting lives at risk. This became apparent when General Hillier admitted that he had to pivot to fulfill
a [political?] priority of completing certain regions entirely first. Vaccine shipments that were promised to regions like Niagara were actually diverted. https://twitter.com/NathanStall/status/1349441373955629058
This diversion excludes doses going to lower risk groups, including those who are receiving emails and invites to get vaccinated, linked to hospital hubs. General Hillier is only committing to complete the 1st dose for all Ontario LTC residents by Feb 15. https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/why-some-hospital-pr-executives-and-staff-on-leave-have-received-covid-19-vaccines-before-front-line-staff-1.5262295
That is a full two months after they first arrived, for a highest-risk population numbering only 78,000. That number may be lower by the time doses do arrive under the province's scheme.
How do we explain the political prioritization of certain regions and LTC's? One possibility is that demographics and regions with less impact on economic reopening are pushed aside. This would explain diversions away from Niagara and Simcoe-Muskoka and from LTCs to healthcare.
No one can dispute the criticality of healthcare but the fact remains that most of those dying *right now* are in LTC/RT's not healthcare. But healthcare and education will enable workforce reopening, not LTCs. Maybe it's that simple. Economy > senior lives. #Seniscide #ageism
... or maybe it is just another example of crude backroom politics. https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/doug-ford-ignore-ontario-public-health_ca_5fad8efac5b635e9dea03645
