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Home→Documents→COVID-19 health care rationing and death policies – Part 1 (Sep 13)

COVID-19 health care rationing and death policies – Part 1 (Sep 13)

Canadian Liberty Posted on by

Updated: September 13, 2020

 
Health Care rationing: seniors in long term care homes who became ill were kept out of hospitals: (March 29, 2020: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/03/29/ontario-developing-last-resort-guidelines-on-which-patients-to-prioritize-if-hospitals-are-overwhelmed-by-critical-covid-19-cases.html).

  • “The provincial government has developed a “triage protocol” for doctors who may soon be forced to make ethically fraught decisions over how to ration critical care beds and ventilators–a policy document that will shape life-or-death choices over which patients to prioritize if hospitals become overwhelmed by the COVID-19 outbreak.”
     
  • “. . . long-term-care patients who meet specific criteria will also no longer be transferred to hospitals.”
     

 
 
Hospitals were half empty! Canadians were told to isolate at home. Many were afraid to go to hospitals, or they went in at the last minute, e.g., with a ruptured appendix. There were almost 11,000 unoccupied beds in Canada and 53,000 surgeries were cancelled. Ontario’s Minister of Health estimated that 35 died waiting for cardiac surgery (“‘All of our rooms are empty’: Hospital ERs vacant during pandemic” CTVNews.ca, April 29, 2020 https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/all-of-our-rooms-are-empty-hospital-ers-vacant-during-pandemic-1.4918208).

 
 
Ontario Ministry of Health definition of confirmed outbreak was widened. What good did this do?: (“COVID-19 Outbreak Guidance for Long-Term Care Homes (LTCH) Version 1 – April 1, 2020)” https://web.archive.org/web/20200406203248/http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/publichealth/coronavirus/docs/LTCH_outbreak_guidance.pdf, accessed August 28, 2020).

  • “There should be a low threshold to test residents and health care workers within the home for COVID-19; even one compatible symptom should lead to testing” (p. 6).
     
  • “In the context of the pandemic, a single laboratory confirmed case of COVID-19 in a LTCH [Long Term Care Home], in a resident or staff member would trigger an outbreak and would be declared” (p. 4). Compare this pre-COVID February 2019 document, which defines “Confirmed respiratory infection outbreak” as “Two cases of acute respiratory infections (ARI) within 48 hours with any common epidemiological link (e.g., unit, floor), at least one of which must be laboratory-confirmed; OR Three cases of ARI (laboratory confirmation not necessary) occurring within 48 hours . . . ” (p. 2) (“Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care Infectious Diseases Protocol Appendix B: Provincial Case Definitions for Diseases of Public Health Significance” http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/publichealth/oph_standards/docs/respiratory_outbreaks_cd.pdf, accessed August 28, 2020).
     

 
 
Isolation of seniors within care homes: (“COVID-19 Outbreak Guidance for Long-Term Care Homes (LTCH) Version 1” April 1, 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20200406203248/http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/publichealth/coronavirus/docs/LTCH_outbreak_guidance.pdf, accessed August 28, 2020).

  • Symptoms are very broad, e.g. “fever,” “cough,” and “mild respiratory symptoms” (p. 2).
     
  • Anyone with any symptom is isolated, including staff and “essential visitors.” Could these policies have caused residents to suffer significant neglect if, at times, both staff and “essential visitors” were unable or afraid to attend? Only “emergency first responders . . . in emergency situations” were “permitted entry without screening” (p. 2).
     
  • “Screening must include twice daily . . . symptom screening, including temperature checks. Anyone showing symptoms of COVID-19 should not be allowed to enter the home and should go home immediately to self-isolate. Staff responsible for occupational health . . . must follow up on all staff who have been advised to self-isolate . . . ” (p. 2).
     
  • “As LTCHs [Long Term Care Homes] are now closed to visitors, accommodation should be considered for essential visitors who are visiting very ill or palliative residents, or those who are performing essential support care services . . .”
     
  • “Essential visitors must be screened on entry for illness including temperature checks and not admitted if they show any symptoms.”
     
  • “Discontinue all non-essential activities. For example, pet visitation programs must be stopped for the duration of the outbreak. If possible, discontinue all communal activities/gatherings, school programs and on-site day cares or intergenerational programming for the duration of the outbreak” (p. 7).
     

 
 
April 1, 2020 press conference by Dr. David Williams (Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health) and Dr. Barbara Yaffe (Ontario’s Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health): (“Ontario health officials provide update on COVID-19 – April 1, 2020” | cpac: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah-fbBod9Bw or select “April 1” at https://video.isilive.ca/ontariomhms/archives/2020-04.html).

  • Symptoms are very non-specific and broad. What good did this do?: At 40:31 Dr. Yaffe says: “. . . just to look for those symptoms is a challenge, particularly in seniors . . . They may not mount a fever, they may have a lot of other symptoms, and they may not have obvious symptoms. Any change in their health condition, . . . it’s important to say okay let them get tested for COVID-19 and if we have one positive case that’s called in, that we call that an outbreak for COVID-19 and it’s important to test every other person in that facility, resident or staff and staff who have the symptoms.”
     
  • Symptoms could be another illness. False alarms are OK. Sensitivity is to be ramped up. Number of outbreaks could be very high because definition is widened. Did this kind of focus do any good to prevent some of the deaths in April? Did it let residents get to hospitals or allow for proper treatments to counteract the death panel policies? At 55:11 Dr. Williams says, “the first sign of some symptoms . . . we’re doing the part of declaring an outbreak right from the get-go. That we may say . . . –a false alarm–but that’s fine. As I said I don’t mind false alarms. That means the numbers you might see may be quite larger as they go through that initial phase of saying, is it really an outbreak or is it some other illness? Is it another viral illnesses? or is it influenza? Is it a different thing altogether? And so it may be an outbreak but it may not be a COVID outbreak . . . but we want to ramp up the sensitivity, to raise the alerts. That means those number of outbreaks by the numbers, or by the classification, will go up just because we’ve widened the definition.”
     
  • LTC residents are vulnerable because many have comorbidities, their immune system is weaker and they live with others: At about 39 min, Dr. Babara Yaffe says, “what we’re seeing certainly in the States and starting to see . . . in all parts of Canada is that. . . residents in long term care are a very vulnerable group for a variety of reasons. They tend to be older, they tend to have comorbidities, other underlying illnesses. Their immune system may not be what it used to be and they’re living in a congregate setting . . . and we see very serious outbreaks that spread quickly with a lot of illness and unfortunately death.”
     
  • Ventilators talking point, authoritarian COVID-19 restrictions and focus on testing and numbers At the beginning Dr. Williams says, “. . . and so we’re halfway through what I call the the week of lots of intensity as far as looking at how well we’re doing with our physical distancing as well as the we start to see as the numbers rise that we’ve noted with our laboratory testing. . . ”
     
  • Ventilators and testing rather than focus on treatments, also negative expectations At the start: “a certain percent of those will be hospitalized and a certain percent of those will end up in ICU and a number of those will have to be ventilated and unfortunately some in that time they’re a certain percent at least based on population data may succumb to the illness . . . ”
     
  • Dr. Williams refers to a “command table” (a fraction of the Ontario government’s cabinet that has all the power) and how they base their planning on computer modeling: “and we’re looking at those intently with all our planning at the command table as we’re doing a lot of scenario design and planning based on the evidence we’re getting from various scientists and groups who have done versions of modeling and I continue to look at the modeling and revise the modeling and we hope to have some report on some of their projections perhaps by next week but they keep changing and altering depending on our data just because we’re so in the modeling projections were so early in the curve.”
     
  • Negative expectations, all about numbers instead of treating disease: “we’ll first go over to the numbers and let Dr. Yaffe talk about those because the numbers, and this time we’re getting larger numbers coming forward . . .”
     
  • New type of system being introduced with COVID-19, new institutions: “The tasks and the logistics of pulling all those together and making sure they’re exactly correct as all these new groups are being brought in whether it’s new labs being brought in, new institutions being brought in new regional groups and new offices . .. ”
     

 
There is more analysis of that April 1 press conference here, including “waves,” plans into the summer, contact tracing, isolation measures, lockdown of “non-essential” businesses, social distancing, authoritarian language and terminology.

 
 
Authoritarianism and obsession with testing rather on patient treatment – this makes sense with the health care rationing/death panel policies they announced: (“Premier declares Ontario’s low testing numbers ‘absolutely unacceptable'” | April 8, 2020: https://www.qpbriefing.com/2020/04/08/premier-declares-ontarios-low-testing-numbers-absolutely-unacceptable/)

  • “Premier Doug Ford publicly blasted the low rate of COVID-19 testing in his own province and vowed the number of people tested for the coronavirus will increase from a daily average of just over 3,000 to about 13,000 soon. “My patience has run thin. No more excuses,” said the premier.” So all these professionals who are normally concerned with helping people are told to test and count instead.
     
  • The press secretary is quoted explaining this: “”By expanding testing of these groups, we can identify cases as early as possible and contain the spread.”” What is the evidence that there was ever any containment of a viral spread with these isolation measures? The government did not focus on preventing the deaths of the most vulnerable. They had a healthcare rationing policy! They were focused on tracking people and their tests. There has never been any kind of reaction to a single disease like this while people are dying constantly of major illnesses such as cancer the same as in past years (and probably many of those deaths could be prevented with a focus on opening up competition to other forms of health care and improving the economy, which has instead been hit hard by these policies). There has never been a doctrine that healthy people should be isolated!
     
  • Listen to the emotional authoritarianism from the Premier which is supposed to impress us: “”We have everything in place, no more excuses,” he said. “Let’s come up with solutions, not excuses.”
     
  • New institutions, testing obsession He added that he has “all of the confidence in the world” in Matt Anderson, the head of the province’s new super agency, Ontario Health, to implement the new testing policy.” The obsession is over testing kits and supplies. Aren’t there more important health concerns? “Two weeks ago, the province announced plans to ramp up its capacity to analyze tests to 18,900 per day.” This is a huge push to bring in a type of system that is unheard of.
     
  • Is this “sanity”? Dr. David Fisman is quoted: “”We could literally be doing 10,000 more tests a day to protect [!?] patients, healthcare workers, long term care, and the prison and shelter systems,” he wrote. “Why in the name of sanity are we not?”” Sanity!? Does it work to prevent serious illness or death? Most of the deaths have been with the elderly who could have used BETTER, ACTUAL TREATMENT–like being allowed into hospitals. But there was a healthcare rationing policy biased against the elderly!
     
  • Governments are more interested in biological surveillance! A former deputy health minister Dr. Bob Bell is also quoted pushing for more testing: “”I think we should also be encouraging people to be tested if they have influenza-like symptoms as well,” he said, adding that the general advice from family doctors and telehealth to people who have milder symptoms to self-isolate without being tested should change, so that the province can know how many people actually have COVID-19.” So it’s all about potentially tracking or testing everyone who is ever even mildly sick with cold or flu symptoms. And it’s also about isolating people from each other.
     

 
 
Reality of Ventilators. And notice how much this procedure has been talked about (“An ICU doctor explains what happens when you’re put on a ventilator with the coronavirus”, April 17, 2020: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/what-its-like-to-be-on-a-ventilator-with-coronavirus-2020-4)

 

Articles by Researchers

Were conditions for high death rates at Care Homes created on purpose? Related video: https://youtu.be/UrD8lkhc4aw
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341832637_All-cause_mortality_during_COVID-19_No_plague_and_a_likely_signature_of_mass_homicide_by_government_response
Articleby Jon Rappoport: “Death by killing old people, not COVID–the basic deception” and analysis of the sources

 
References for further Research
Ontario Newsroom
Video Archives of Ministry of Health Press Conferences

Continued: Part 2

 
COVID-19:
Coronavirus Concerns I (Short)
Coronavirus Concerns (full)
Vaccine Choice Canada Invites Elected Representatives to Consider the Evidence
READ Legal Challenge against COVID-19 measures filed in Ontario Superior Court (press release)

Value for value: canadianliberty.com/support
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