Seniors at mercy of the pandemic

Canadians as a whole should be ashamed of how we have treated our parents and grandparents in long-term care facilities through this pandemic.

Reportedly, governments prepared response plans for a pandemic they knew would eventually come. Did they not predict that seniors would be the most at risk? Apparently not, or there was no contingency because in the first wave some 80 per cent of deaths were in longterm care. And Canada's rates were close to twice that of other developed nations.

Then there was so much navel-gazing and arm-waving about giving this cohort priority for improved care and protection, but was anything done? Our politicians and bureaucrats should be ashamed for not acting quickly to protect our seniors in LTC. We must act now.

D.R. Brown, Cochrane