Front Burner - Ontario's vaccine plan dangerously off the mark, doctor says

Episode Date: April 7, 2021

Vaccinate those getting sick and bring vaccines to the factories and communal work settings — two changes Dr. Naheed Dosani says should happen to Ontario's vaccine rollout plan. Today, host Jayme Poisson speaks to Dosani about who is being left behind as dangerous COVID-19 variants take hold.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. This is the root cause. We do not have enough vaccines from the federal government. And it's a joke.

If you live in Ontario, you might have heard Ontario Premier Doug Ford over the last few months rail against the federal government for a lack of vaccines. Every day we're giving out less vaccines than we have the capacity to administer is a day we lose. We've shown the people of Ontario, we have the capacity, we have the infrastructure. And at the end of the day, they've dropped the ball majorly. He claimed this was the big problem here,

the lack of vaccine supply, not the province's ability to administer them to people. And I want to be clear here, a lot of people argue these criticisms were warranted. Now though, the vaccines are flooding in and Ontario is getting nailed for not only failing to ramp up its vaccination rate, but also failing to quickly pivot its strategy to target the people, many of them young, who are now getting sick from variants running rampant in the province. The number of people in ICU today is 510, which is up from 387 one week ago. The Prime Minister himself took a bit of a shot at the Premier yesterday.

Later today, I'll speak to Premier Ford about the situation in Ontario. I know we'll talk about what the spike in cases means for hospitals and the importance of vaccinating as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. Today, Dr. Naheed Dasani is with me. He's a palliative care physician and health justice activist. And we're going to talk about the failures of Ontario's vaccine rollout. Hey Nahid, thank you so much for making the time to talk to me today. Thanks for having me on, Jamie. Really appreciate it. It's really good to have you here. So first, I want to talk about the vaccination rate in Ontario, Ontario's ability essentially to get vaccines into arms. And on Monday, the province had one and a half million

doses in the freezers, essentially, that had not been used. And what runs through your head when you hear that? You know, it's a really great question. You know, when I think about our vaccine rollout, I think about the disproportionate impact that this virus has had on communities where essential workers live, on racialized people, on people who live in low income areas. And I think about how badly these people are suffering, getting sick and dying from COVID-19 variants and how badly they need to be vaccinated. When I hear about one and a half million doses in freezers, it does not inspire confidence that we are urgently responding to COVID-19. COVID-19 is a 24-7 problem. We're not vaccinating 24-7 and it causes me great concern.

And I just want to mention, Ford addressed these numbers at a press conference on Tuesday. He said essentially that the province had just received this big shipment of vaccines. That's why the number was so big. What you don't tell the people, which I'm telling them right now, folks, we just got them two days ago. Over the last few days, they just literally landed on our doorstep. It takes a day for the distribution. We got it out and we are ready to go. We have over 1.3 million appointments booked. But I just want to note too that even before that big shipment showed up on the weekend, there were still several hundred

thousand vaccines that had not been administered. And I wonder if other relevant numbers we should talk about here are how many vaccines are being administered each day. So on Sunday, we saw 52,000 administered, which is very low. But this week, to be fair, an average of 72,000 a day. And is this where the province should be right now in terms of raw numbers? You know, we are in a state of emergency. This is a public health crisis. And we were promised and told that our vaccine daily rates would be upwards of 150,000 per day. And we have not seen that. You know, the numbers over this last weekend have not inspired that confidence and ability to really ramp up.

And so, you know, it's very clear that we have an ample supply of vaccine on hand. And yet the flow, the ability to distribute these vaccines is not happening. It's not just happening in raw numbers, but it's not happening in a way that meets the need in communities where the need is greatest. So again, you know, there are great concerns from the people I work with on the front lines who are saying, you know, why are vaccination daily rates so low? Why are they low on weekends? Why are we taking breaks on holidays? You know, why are vaccination daily rates so low? Why are they low on weekends? Why are we taking breaks on holidays? You know, things really need to change quickly to save lives.

Folks, we don't have an unlimited amount of vaccines. Folks, we don't have an unlimited amount of vaccines. As I told you, yes, the feds dropped quite a few vaccines onto us. Those are all taken. They're all spoken for. So if you change anything, just think, you're taking it off an elderly person. We need more vaccines. You know, obviously, as we just talked about, we're lagging behind. And because of this, it makes the question about who should be getting the vaccine first even more important, I think. And so, you know, as you also mentioned, there are these frontline workers.

We know that they're getting sick. We know that they're getting sick. Researchers in Ontario revealed today communities with essential workers have seen a 51% increase in infections due to more contagious variants. We are not vaccinating more in the highest risk communities. You need to make sure that it gets where it's going to have the biggest impact. And on Tuesday, Ford said that starting in mid-May, so two weeks earlier than expected, essential workers. First, people like teachers and farm workers, food manufacturers in group one, and then group two, people in restaurants, in factories, would start to get vaccinated. We have to go into the high-priority essential manufacturers, be it the meat packers, the poultry, the manufacturing sector.

You saw what happened in Amazon out in Brampton. He also said that the province was going to start vaccinating people in COVID hotspots. So they're already offering people over 50 in certain postal codes the vaccine. And will this do anything? This is welcome news that is definitely moving in the right direction. We must remember that COVID-19 variants are spreading at a rate that is 2.7 times higher in communities where essential workers live. We also have to remember that essentially people in low-income neighborhoods like Jane and Finch in Toronto are eight times more likely than people in Rosedale, for example, to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19, but they've been shown to be four times less likely to be vaccinated. We have literally had a rollout plan that has had the people most impacted by this pandemic have actually been vaccinated the least. This is what

systemic discrimination looks like. So when we talk about moving essential workers up in the vaccination plan, when we talk about looking at vulnerability, not just by age, but by postal code, which is likely a surrogate for income, then we're starting to get at the crux of the issue. This third wave is not just about age. It actually has so much to do with the social factors that are impacting the spread of this virus. And while these announcements are great, one has to wonder if, you know, moving up by two weeks is too little too late. I know it will help a lot of people, but I think we have a long way to go. So, OK, I want to stick with that with you for a few minutes then.

So, you know, just just taking this decision to move up two weeks like group one moves up two weeks to mid May. We've still got factory workers, people who work in restaurants, grocery store workers who actually probably won't receive the vaccine until mid June. It looks like right now at this current rate. And given how fast the variants are moving, you know, what do you think needs to be done in addition to this? Yeah, you know, this move to get people who are essential workers vaccinated two weeks earlier is a good step. But in the context of the bigger picture, it won't be enough. In fact, the recent lockdown measures in isolation won't be enough because what we know about this current pandemic is that the infections are happening in workplaces where essential workers are.

Peel Region has about 300,000 essential workers from food processing to manufacturing and logistics. And according to a new report by the Ontario Health Coalition, the growth rate of the variants is three times higher in these neighbourhoods. And so we really need to rethink things. And we've been calling for policies like paid sick leave to support people who are on the front lines of this pandemic from the very beginning. People don't have the ability to take a day off to get a COVID test or just be sick or deal with an unknown outbreak in

their workplace. But also things like getting people paid time off so that they can get vaccinated, supporting mobile vaccine programs that go to people's workplaces, and also just in general at a sort of macro view, reallocating vaccine supplies to make sure that these supplies are getting to hardest hit neighborhoods. This is what health equity looks like. And this is what a compassionate approach to this pandemic looks like. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about

money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo, 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Cops. the ability to take time away, even just a few hours or a day for a medical appointment or for a procedure. And when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccination for essential workers, this is a really hard proposition. And when we are able to support teams that show up at factories, at production plants, at warehouses to get people vaccinated, we break down barriers.

We meet people where they're at and thereby can optimize the rate of vaccination in our communities. I think this is a really important step that can increase vaccine uptake across the province. So, Nihid, I can't help but think that we just sort of did this, right, in long-term care homes. And, you know, while there were criticisms that it was happening too slowly, there were teams and they did go into long-term care homes and they did get that job done and it's working. So why is that not happening at the Amazon factory where I don't have the numbers right in front of me, but I believe

the last time I looked, it was close to 900 cases connected to the to the warehouse. Truly, Jamie, your guess is as good as mine. We had a very robust infrastructure that supported vaccination very quickly, actually, when you think about it in Ontario's long term care homes. And it's that kind of infrastructure. It's that kind of determination that we need actually at this time to get essential workers vaccinated. But let's remember this vaccine rollout in multiple ways had inequities baked into it. We've talked about a lot of them, but one of the biggest ones is the lack of connection and support for family doctors and primary care health teams to deliver vaccines. Each and every year, family doctors across this province deliver hundreds of thousands of vaccines in a very robust

and efficient way. And we haven't tapped into this at all. Still, most family doctors in Ontario are not able to vaccinate and are not empowered to do so. And yet, when it comes to hardest-hit communities, family doctors and primary care health teams have connections and long lasting relationships that can that can really meet people where they're at again. You know, more recently, you know, I came across a patient we were caring for who, you know, was labeled as vaccine hesitant. And when I started to speak to her in her native tongue, Gujarati, I speak some broken Gujarati. I've been known to break it down from time to time. And I was able to communicate with her even in that way, just by speaking in her language. All of a sudden, she wanted to get the vaccine.

It's not that she was vaccine hesitant. She just needed someone to speak to her in the language that she knew. someone to speak to her in the language that she knew. And it's that kind of discussion that we're trying to have to say that supporting people to get the vaccine is more than a jab. It's about emotionally connecting. It's about building trust. It's about building on trusting relationships. And sometimes, you know, that's what you need to do to get there. You need to speak to someone in the way that they connect with. But it also leads me to think about other things, like how, you know, this pandemic response might be different

if our elected leaders looked like the racialized people and essential workers who are getting sick and dying from COVID-19. It's hard to not see that the lack of an urgent response is the response. You know, I've often questioned and wondered, is this just systemic racism in action? It's hard not to think that. So essentially, you're saying the decision to not reallocate doses, to not deploy these mobile clinics to really ramp things up, to not use family docs right now, to not institute paid sick leave, either to stay home when you are sick or to get paid so that you can go get a

vaccine. To not do all of that is a choice. It's a total choice. Knowing what we know now with the science and the evidence and what we understand about who this virus is impacting and who it's really not impacting, when we don't take steps to do the things you just said and listed, this is what the systemic discrimination looks like. Nikki, you also serve as the medical director for isolation hotels and PEAL. I know that you work in hospitals and palliative care. You see who is being affected by this disease day in and day out, particularly now. Who is this hurting? What is the effect of this? The people that I see that are being impacted by this third wave are younger. It's a shifting demographic.

They're people who are essential workers. They are working jobs where they have no choice but to go to work. if they don't go to work they won't be able to pay their bills and there's no alternative to that. I have a patient we admitted into the isolation hotels who was working in a factory and really wanted to go take some time off to get a COVID test. But unfortunately, because of a lack of paid sick leave, was not able to and ended up going to work because, you know, he had to choose between his health and paying his bills. And he ended up contracting the virus unknowingly, brought it home, the entire household, eight family members got sick. And I just remember

the disappointment and the tears streaming from his eyes as, you know, he explained that he was so frustrated. The media and the government were often saying that people who were getting COVID-19 were people who were, you know, partying or not following public health guidelines. And he said, I'm just trying to make ends meet. I'm just trying to pay the bills. I'm just trying to support my family. And look what happened. We need to think about how to support our essential workers and how precarious work, a lack of decent wages, a lack of paid sick leave has really impacted people during this pandemic. Labor is a determinant of health. And we need to think about the systems that are causing people to fall ill and stop blaming them, but re-look at these systems

and really inspire change in them. This gentleman who got sick, I can't imagine the stress that he must carry, that people must carry, knowing that they could bring this disease home to their families, because they don't have any other choice. Essential workers like Louise Bultby enjoy their jobs jobs but the risk of becoming infected can be overwhelming. I think we're really really tired. I think many of us are you know it would be wonderful to have the vaccine. Absolutely the people I talk to are are living in fear. They're often very anxious.

They're worried and when I've seen family members and extended members of the multi-generational household get sick, there's been immense guilt. And with that guilt comes suffering, not just from the health consequences, but just knowing that, you know, this virus started at work and that, you and that you brought it home to your family. Can you imagine what that's like? And we're not hearing that narrative. We're not hearing that story. And we need to talk about it more.

And I sometimes wonder, Jamie, so many colleagues like myself and others are using data where we can to talk about the power of social policies like paid sick leave. And now we're telling stories like this one. We've done cost effective arguments. What will it take for our governments to listen and to act so that those who have been disproportionately impacted by this virus do not have to suffer anymore? so that those who have been disproportionately impacted by this virus do not have to suffer anymore. When we look back at this time, I think we will wonder why we didn't just invest in people, why we just didn't invest in those who invested in us. We got through this pandemic because of essential workers and their service to our communities.

And we will wonder why we didn't invest in these people to support them. It's so disappointing. It must be really, I don't know, is frustrating the right word for you? I don't even know if frustrating is a fair word to compare what it must be like for you to watch this. It's one word of many words we could probably use, Jamie. But as I talk to colleagues who are working in hospitals and in community and in public health, I get the sense that people are absolutely frustrated but are starting to get demoralized because of the fact that we didn't have to be in this place. Because every death from here on in should be labeled not just a COVID-19 death, but a vaccine- vaccine preventable death.

A delayed rollout has had significant consequences on our communities, but on those communities that have been hardest hit by COVID-19. And, you know, if we care, if we care about each other and those who are most vulnerable in our communities, our governments, and we will push our governments to make the policy changes that are necessary to inspire a better future so we can get out of this pandemic as soon as possible. All right, Nahid, thank you so much for this. We're really appreciative. Thanks so much. Okay, so before I let you go today, a quick update. Yesterday afternoon, Premier Ford was talking about keeping schools open.

Dr. Lowe must have said it 50 times yesterday on the news that schools are safe. It's not happening in the schools. It's happening when there's a community spread in hot areas. Well, he had barely wrapped up his news conference when the Toronto District School Board announced it would move all kids to remote learning until April 19th. Peel, another hard-hit region, made a similar move on Monday. Also worth noting, Ford said Tuesday to stay tuned for further restrictions, though he wouldn't say what people can expect. That's all for today. I'm Jamie Poisson.

Thanks so much for listening to FrontBurner. We'll talk to you tomorrow. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.