A look at what data is missing about COVID-19 in Hamilton and how it affects you
What we don’t know ranges from who has been vaccinated to information about who has died
Ontario Premier Doug Ford promised transparency at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I want to make sure the people of Ontario know what I know and the reason why we’re making decisions,” Ford said at his daily briefing April 2. “No holding back figures.”
Transparency hasn’t exactly worked out as described.
In Hamilton alone, there have been a number of gaps in the data that has left NDP Leader Andrea Horwath asking, “Why all the secrecy?”
“The people need to have that information because it helps them to connect the dots in terms of why the protocols have to be followed,” said the Hamilton Centre MPP.
The list of what we don’t know ranges from who has been vaccinated to how many have recovered to who has died.
Who has been vaccinated?
What we don’t know: There are no breakdowns of the 19,200 doses given out in Hamilton as of Jan. 26. No one has said how many went to the highest priority group of long-term care (LTC) and high-risk retirement home residents, staff and essential caregivers. There isn’t even information on how many are left to vaccinate in these homes. The same is true for hospitals, where staff evaluated for themselves what priority group they should be placed in. It’s unknown how many jumped the line and were wrongly vaccinated or what parts of the hospital are now protected and to what extent.
Why don’t we know: Public health and the hospitals blame the province’s vaccine tracking system for not providing breakdowns. It appears the province has had the data all along but hasn’t given it out because information sharing agreements are required to protect personal information. The Ministry of Health says it will give out comprehensive reports but hasn’t set a date.
Why it matters: The province plans to vaccinate all residents of LTC and high-risk retirement homes in hot zones by Feb. 5 and is diverting vaccines to make that happen.
How much vaccine is there?
What we don’t know: Public health stopped providing information Jan. 11 on how many doses of vaccine are in Hamilton or on their way.
Why don’t we know: Public health claims the province said to stop talking about vaccine supply. The guidance from the Ministry of the Solicitor General’s security group noted that publicizing storage locations or inventory levels may pose a security risk to both healthcare staff and the vaccines, but the province maintains public health units can disclose vaccine supplies at their discretion.
Why it matters: The vaccine rollout has been criticized for being too slow in Ontario, including Hamilton having 3,000 doses in a freezer for more than two weeks.
Who has died in Hamilton?
What we don’t know: The city reported details of individual deaths — such as sex, age and whether the person died in an outbreak — up until Dec. 16.
Why don’t we know: Public health was overwhelmed during a surge of cases and said it lacked the resources to provide the details. Around that time, it had as many as 458 COVID cases under investigation. However, it has since cleared the backlog and is now down to investigating fewer than 20 cases but it hasn’t resumed providing the data.
Why it matters: “People are dying,” Mayor Fred Eisenberger said two days before public health stopped giving out the information. “We’ve got to care about that.”
What age has the most deaths?
What we don’t know: The city stopped giving out exact ages of those who died in November. It now provides a chart showing the number of deaths in different age groups. The groups are in 10-year spans except for those age 80 and above, who are all lumped together.
Why don’t we know: Public health services cited privacy for no longer giving out the exact ages, although it’s not clear why this suddenly became an issue eight months into the pandemic or why those age 80 and over are all grouped together.
Why it matters: Almost threequarters of Hamilton’s deaths — 72 per cent — have been among those age 80 or more. As much transparency as possible is needed around those most vulnerable.
How many are recovered?
What we don’t know: The city’s website doesn’t flag that the status of some of its COVID cases aren’t known, so they don’t appear in either active cases or resolved.
Why don’t we know: Public health contacts those infected after 14 days to see if they are still ill but there is a group they can’t reach. It’s assumed they’re recovered but they don’t yet appear among the resolved cases. Public health has been saying they’ll flag this on their website since The Spectator noticed the discrepancy just over two weeks ago.
Why it matters: The active and resolved numbers are not accurate when they are missing cases — as of Friday there were 124 cases unaccounted for in the data.