About the Episode

Laura Meffen and Jill Davis are not doctors. Nor are they nurses or PSWs. But nobody knows the price to be paid for being on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic better than they do.

Residents in long term care, and the family members who love them, are paying a heavy price for our debates about what should be opened or closed and the province’s focus on the needs of business. More relaxed levels of social isolation for the rest of us mean that the most basic levels of human contact are forbidden to them. Many residents are forced to live for months in something akin to solitary confinement. When politicians or the public make the bad decisions, they pay – in levels of isolation from loved ones that border on inhumane.

Listen to Laura and Jill’s heartbreaking accounts of COVID-19 and long term care in the 905.

(This episode was recorded before the provincial government’s recent extension of ‘Red Level’ to most of the 905 Region, and it’s adjustment of the restrictions in place under each level, following allegations that the restrictions were too lenient and that they ignored advice from Ontario Public Health.)

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Gayle Laws: research

Wendy Nicholson: sound engineer, podcast consultancy.

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