Minister didn’t sound alarm despite early concerns virus could spread in care homes

Critics blast retired MD in charge of long-term-care after her testimony to commission

Ontario’s long-term care minister — a retired doctor — feared the world was seeing asymptomatic spread of COVID-19 early on last year, wanted to “lock down” nursing homes sooner and call in military medical teams faster.

Why didn’t Merrilee Fullerton speak up at the time and go public?

“I might see something early. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s accurate,” she said Monday after the release of a transcript detailing her testimony to a provincial commission investigating the heavy toll of almost 3,900 COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.

“I’m not the chief medical officer. I’m not a public health expert,” Fullerton added, explaining she discussed the concerns internally, including with chief medical officer Dr. David Williams who recommends decisions to Premier Doug Ford’s government after consulting with a table of science advisers.

“Of course I was raising concerns … I was in my role,” she said, acknowledging that, as a doctor, she would have better instincts and insights than “the average politician.”

Fullerton faced a barrage from the opposition over her two-hour appearance before the commission.

Fullerton’s testimony took place behind closed doors Friday; the transcript was released Sunday night.

“The minister knew seniors were not safe,” charged New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath, saying the testimony shows Ford’s late March promise of an “iron ring” of protection around nursing homes was “a lie.”

Horwath pointed to testimony about the Feb. 5, 2020 mention in Fullerton’s notes about the virus spreading in people without symptoms, the March 12 concern about not “locking down” nursing homes, and an April 17 note that military medical teams were needed in the hardest-hit homes within 24 to 48 hours.

“It’s really clear from the minister’s testimony that she was flagging some concerns that the government then took weeks and sometimes months to act upon,” Horwath said.

Fullerton cautioned against reading too much into her testimony through “hindsight.”

“I find it offensive the way this is being mischaracterized,” Fullerton said. “My background as a family doctor perhaps makes me slightly different from the average politician … but again, I was not a public health expert.”

Her Feb. 5, 2020 note was written more than a month before Ontario was shut down during March break, as the province had only a handful of cases and the federal government was repatriating Canadian passengers who had been stranded on infected cruise ships.

“I had been following what was going on around the world, and these were largely anecdotal cases at that point. There was a paucity of research, a paucity of evidence, and there hadn’t been any real large-scale studies into it then.” she told MPPs in the legislature’s question period.

“Dr. Williams would have been in tune to the latest science and research and had more inputs available to him from a public health standpoint than we did at the cabinet table.”

Williams told the commission last week there was no evidence until summer that COVID-19 could be spread by people not showing symptoms, prompting commission counsel John Callaghan ask if he was aware of the precautionary principle of taking action developed after SARS.

Callaghan told Fullerton her note about asymptomatic transmission was “one of the earlier ones” the commission has seen flagging that concern. “You were ahead of the chief medical officer of health in many respects, from your notes anyway,” he told her.

Fullerton also told the commission she “refused” to appear in a planned March video portraying COVID-19 as low risk and that her ministry, created in 2019, was viewed as a “spinoff” of the larger Ministry of Health and considered a junior partner.

Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca said Fullerton’s testimony makes it imperative for the premier to face questions from the commission, which is due to report April 30.

Ford is not scheduled to appear.

The government has refused to extend the commission’s reporting date, saying its recommendations to improve the long-term care sector are needed soon. But commission officials have said they face a “gargantuan … almost impossible task” in getting through more than 200,000 pages of documents requested from the government and delivered only last week.