2020 a year of misinformation, muddled messages, infections
Too few followed public health advice to stem rising tide of novel coronavirus
The year so many people would like to forget, 2020 was a year marked by a failure to contain the microscopic culprit behind COVID-19 — the novel coronavirus.
Public health messages were unable to penetrate key demographics that were spreading the virus. Misinformation spread online and among local political leaders who could not get on the same page as public health authorities.
At least 142 Niagara residents with COVID-19, most of them the community’s most vulnerable seniors, have died since the first local pandemic death was recorded on March 24 — a St. Catharines man in his 80s who was also the region’ first confirmed COVID-19 case 11 days earlier.
Since then, nearly 4,300 Niagara residents have contracted the virus. And while Niagara kept its infection rate low during the late spring and summer, the dam broke in the fall. As of Sunday afternoon, there were 975 active COVID-19 cases in the region, 85 of them in hospital — both pandemic records for Niagara.
People who didn’t listen
In the summer, the pandemic was at a low ebb. The daily case count usually
in the low single digits. Some days there were no confirmed cases at all.
By mid-july, COVID-19 related deaths stopped. Patients were no longer in hospital. Outbreaks were rare, small and short-lived.
Dr. Mustafa Hirji, Niagara’s acting medical officer of the health, however, kept banging his drum. By late summer, he was repeatedly issuing warnings that if the public did not take infection control seriously the virus could surge in the fall with a vengeance.
The warnings went unheeded among groups of young adults who were becoming the driving demographic for new infections by gathering at house parties or at bars and restaurants where they avoided public health guidelines.
By early October, the health department tracked the emergence of a superspread cluster of 20-somethings that went on to infect at least 73 Niagara residents and spread to dozens of workplaces and homes. The cluster, which was not declared over until late November, triggered outbreaks at two longterm-care homes.
The stage was set for Niagara’s second wave. Younger adults spread the virus in gatherings, eventually exposing older demographics including the elderly. This would remain the story of the second wave until more recently when cases among middle-aged Niagarans began to keep pace with those under 40.
Politicians behaving badly
To curb the spread of the virus, Hirji used his powers under provincial legislation on Nov. 12 to limit the size and nature of gatherings and restaurants and bars — key locations where younger adults were spreading the virus among themselves.
Some political reaction was visceral. Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati, who made headlines early in the pandemic by appearing in maskless photos at events, went on radio to falsely claim Hirji’s orders were not the law. He would later admit in an interview he had not read the provincial act that gives medical officers of health their powers to fight communicable diseases.
A week after the orders were issued, regional council passed amotion asking Hirji to reconsider the order. He did not, and the province would later impose tighter restrictions on Niagara, then the whole province.
It was not the first or last time local politicians pushed against efforts to combat COVID-19 with misstatements or false claims.
The local political response to the pandemic was often muddled.
“The one thing I am disappointed in is that too often local people in leadership positions were not singing from the same song sheet, which I think contributed to muddling the message to the public,” said Hirji.
The confusion began early. In March, while public health tried to rally councillors to support a “Stay home Niagara” public education campaign, Diodati struck on his own with a short-lived “crush the curve” campaign that involved selling bright yellow T-shirts from a local online vendor who claimed money from sales were to go to local charities. What little money was raised from the shirts — falsely labelled “safety gear” by the Crush the Curve website — did not go to local agencies fighting the pandemic. The website is now defunct.
In May, Niagara-on-the-lake Lord Mayor Betty Disero and Diodati lobbied their colleagues at regional council to back a logistically dubious plan by a pair of hydro executives to build a COVID-19 lab they claimed — without evidence — would test all 450,000 Niagara residents in as little as a month.
Despite the deep flaws in the plan being laid bare, including by Hirji, the politicians ultimately granted the pair regional authority to ask the province to build the lab. To date, nothing has come of the scheme.
There were several other pandemic pitfalls by Niagara politicians in 2020 including: á Regional council delayed a final vote on a mask bylaw by two weeks after presentations by local anti-mask conspiracy theorists.
When that bylaw was later extended to April 2021, West Lincoln Mayor David Bylsma — he openly supported the local antimask group — appeared maskless in a photo the next day with his fellow mayors.
á Bylsma and Diodati wanting public health to include drinking juice and wearing a toque in COVID-19 messaging, even though that will not prevent an infection.
á Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff attended a large, maskless indoor party at a Niagara Falls restaurant. He was ultimately given a pass for the incident by his boss, Premier Doug Ford.
á Niagara West MP Dean Allison falsely claimed on radio that COVID-19 was the flu.
á St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik incorrectly said the virus was not spreading in restaurants. He clarified he meant it was not passing from staff to customers, which was in line with public health evidence.
á Diodati, incensed by a Standard reporter who fact-checked his claims, said the reporter should be afraid to order takeout because restaurant staff will “spit in his food.”