National Post (National Edition)
Ontario's teeter-totter response takes new twist
Ford sterner but program still inconsistent
Ontario Premier Doug Ford struck a bullish stance at a news conference on his government's COVID-19 response on Friday. “I will lock down quicker than you can blink your eye,” he said in response to a reporter's question. “I won't hesitate for a heartbeat.”
His tough talk came as his government faces increased backlash over a teeter-totter response, as it tries to balance economic turmoil with curtailing a spreading contagion, alongside questions over what science and whose advice he relies on.
Ford backtracked on — or “updated,” as he put it — the standards in Ontario's colour-coded thresholds for COVID-19 restrictions on Friday, but he has not rolled back devotion to Dr. David Williams, Ontario's mild-mannered Chief Medical Officer of Health.
Nor did he deviate from his contention his government's pandemic response is based entirely on the advice of health and science experts.
“There's absolutely zero — from day one — zero daylight between myself and Dr. Williams,” Ford said at the end of the questions.
“I think an earlier question was, `why didn't you listen to the 100 other doctors?' This is who I listen to. I listen to Dr. Williams.”
As long as it seemed to be working, questions over how the Ontario government was handling the coronavirus data seemed tolerable.
The province reported 1,396 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday with 19 COVID deaths and as case counts surge, all bets were off.
Many early Ford critics, who were won over by his dismissal of a blindly pro-economic focus and embracing of masks, returned to skepticism and criticism. The NDP opposition called for a hard shutdown of two weeks in hot spots as a “circuit breaker.”
Whistleblowers spoke out to the Toronto Star, saying the provincial government's framework numbers seemed to be tinkered with by politicians and were not what the medical experts had recommended.
Provincial strategies that tried to corral disease spread but not the population, were ridiculed.
Ford's public support for Williams seemed necessary. It also seemed necessary to remind Ontarians that they were “staring down the barrel of another lockdown.”
The province's response is sparking outspoken criticism by health experts, not only against Ford's strategies but about Williams as well. There have been calls for Williams to resign, including from medical professionals often hesitant to publicly criticize peers.
“This framework relies on thresholds that will lead to increases in disease transmission in our communities and many otherwise preventable deaths,” said Amy Greer, Canada Research Chair in population disease modelling and associate professor at University of Guelph, in a video she uploaded
to Twitter, Thursday night, of the thresholds that were then changed by Ford Friday.
“We need a knowledgeable and competent public health leader to help steer us back on course,” she said. “Leadership during a crisis requires transparency credibility and trust. The Ford government has proven that they are unable to deliver.
“We require a new approach to our management of this pandemic to protect the health and economic interest of all Ontarians.”
Greer said she hesitated before posting her comments, fearing hate mail, but felt the public needed “to hear directly from scientists.”
Dr. Michael Warner chose a similar path.
Warner, medical director of critical care at Michael Garron Hospital in Toronto, was an early, outspoken champion of tough pandemic control. Like Greer, he released a public video plea to Ford, “for scientists to take the lead.”
“It is now clear that Ontario's reopening framework was created without adequate input from healthcare professionals, public health experts or scientists,” Warner said.
“Whether you are a business owner who's lost their business, an employee who no longer has a job, a loved one of a long-term care resident who has passed away, a health-care worker exposing themselves to risk every day or an average Ontarian just trying to make it through the day, it is time for Premier Ford to provide us with clear, honest answers.
“We also need to understand who is going to lead us at the next stage of this pandemic, because the current leadership just isn't good enough.”