Toronto Public Health vice-chair questions city’s COVID-19 policy
Toronto Public Health vice-chair questions city’s COVID-19 policy
Toronto Public Health has a policy on the COVID-19 pandemic. The following letter (with the author’s permission) from Toronto Public Health Vice-chair Ron Schuler questions the rationale and effectiveness of that policy, noting that all public policy is subject to revision and updating. He also questions whether a policy on a pandemic that has not yet become a pandemic would be appropriate.
Dear Dr. Schuler,
Dear Colleagues:
Thank you for inviting me to a meeting of the Toronto Public Health Committee for the purpose of discussing and debating the Public Health Officer’s COVID-19 pandemic Policy Statement.
I hope this letter doesn’t give the impression that I am questioning the content of our Toronto Public Health Policy Statement. I certainly don’t think that was what was intended. To the contrary, I believe it is a very solid document, which is why it is being released so quickly.
I do think, however, that we should make a basic point to ensure that we are using our COVID-19 Policy Statement as a model for our response and not repeating the same mistakes that we made with H1N1. Many people are quick to blame the public health officers for having made “stupid mistakes” with the H1N1 pandemic, when we should be focusing on what we know are the mistakes being made in the public health response to COVID-19. That is why I am presenting some of those recommendations in this letter.
1. The main problem has been our response to “high-risk” groups or individuals: namely, individuals with underlying health conditions, individuals who are homeless, or homeless, individuals who use drugs or have alcohol problems, the elderly, and those who are racialized or otherwise socially vulnerable. All those groups carry heightened risk of poor outcomes from
