To the patients, families, and community members of Ontario,
We are doctors who are also parents, children and your neighbours in Toronto, Peel and York region. We see what our patients and communities have given up and may lose again this summer if we don’t take immediate action: time with extended family and friends, trips home and vacations, summer jobs and summer camps, pickup basketball and relaxed breaks with colleagues at work. You can only see your closest loved ones in hospital and in long-term care, and it’s been painful. You’ve been doing your best to follow public health advice, but it hasn’t been enough. In order to control the pandemic, get society back on its feet, return the health-care system back to normal and let the economy grow again, more needs to be done immediately.
Our health-care system cannot withstand where this third wave is headed. The new variants we are seeing are spreading faster and hitting a younger population. Our ICU capacity has never been tested this way before, and the dedicated medical and other health-care staff running the emergency rooms, COVID wards, and ICUs in hospitals across this province are stretched to the breaking point. Even in cities with less COVID, ICUs are filling up with transfers from the rest of the province.
We know you’re tired and worried, too. Already, many of you have avoided going for tests due to fear of becoming infected, missed your routine appointments, or had surgeries and tests cancelled for the second or third time during this pandemic. The need to cancel surgeries is now a province-wide problem. These are surgeries for cancer, for heart disease, for preventing blindness, for severe pain. More delays are going to mean people will have cancer spread through their bodies when it could have been stopped; lose their sight; lose their ability to walk; or die unnecessarily. We are worried about being able to care for all of you, whether or not you get COVID. If your teenager has a car accident or your child has a severe allergic reaction, if your grandmother falls and breaks her hip, if you have a stroke, we worry that we won’t be able to provide the level of care that you need and deserve. We need highly trained people and beds in our hospitals to provide care, and the projections for our ICU beds are dire and unforgiving: If nothing changes, we will not have enough room to care for you or your loved ones. You have seen the clips about hospitals in Italy and New York City last year: make no mistake, this is what we will soon face if we don’t make changes now.
There are ways to avoid this collapse of our health-care system, but they require immediate action.
As doctors in some of the hardest-hit regions in Ontario, we want each and every one of you to raise your voices – to tell your MPP and the Minister of Health and the Premier – that you are worried about your health care in this pandemic, whether you get COVID or not, and that they need to take immediate action to protect you. Call, write, text or tweet to tell them to take the following steps for the people of Ontario in order to protect the workplaces where COVID is spreading, put vaccines into the right arms in the right places, and provide the public with clear, consistent information.
Protect the workplaces where COVID is spreading:
Workplace spread of COVID remains a major problem. The government has already enacted policies to protect nursing homes and retirement homes from COVID. Let’s learn from that experience and apply it here. We ask for policies that:
- Support and enable companies to use more COVID testing across their factories, warehouses, grocery stores and construction sites.
- Create an equitable and transparent process to take vaccines right into the workplaces that are most at risk.
- Prevent Ontarians from having to choose between going to work sick and paying their rent. Until we have COVID under control across the province, mandate that companies give workers paid ‘COVID recovery days’ so they can stay at home if they are sick and can quarantine for two weeks without worrying about losing their jobs if they’ve had a confirmed close contact with someone with COVID.
- Subsidize and/or incentivize the small, medium and large businesses that may need help paying for their workers’ safety. We know you want your tax dollars spent wisely. It costs us $3,592 for every day someone spends in the ICU and $114 a day to pay for a minimum wage worker to stay home when sick. Let them get tested and self-isolate instead of infecting their coworkers.
- Ensure that only people who absolutely have to be at work in person to do their jobs are allowed to be there. Create benefits or fines so businesses will want to support everyone who can work from home to do so, and enforce these with unannounced visits from the Ministry of Labour.
- Require all workers to wear masks in all work spaces, the entire time they are at work, just as your children have to do when they are at school, only removing their masks to eat in a socially distanced manner.
If essential businesses need to stay open, they should do so safely to avoid COVID spreading. While nothing can be as safe as staying home, we would rather see Ontario’s workers spending time in their own workplaces than in our hospital beds.
Put vaccines into the right arms in the right places:
Severe COVID infection is preventable with vaccines. At this point, vaccines on their own aren’t going to be enough to prevent our health-care system from collapsing, but vaccinating Ontarians is still the best way to get out of the pandemic in the long term, to restore Ontario’s economy, and to stop worrying about lockdowns. To make this happen as fast as possible, we must prioritize vaccination for the people at the highest risk of catching, spreading and getting sick from COVID. That isn’t happening right now. COVID has struck hardest in the neighbourhoods made vulnerable by chronic injustice and systemic racism so we need to fight hardest in those neighbourhoods. We ask for policies that:
- Send many more of the available doses to the hotspots identified by the Ontario Science Advisory Table until we can get things under control in those areas.
- Ensure that the plan for vaccine distribution is transparent to members of the public and that appointments are easy to access – there are lots of creative ways to do this and doctors are eager to help!
Provide the public with clear, consistent information:
Thankfully, we know much more about COVID than we knew a year ago. Ontarians need clear guidance about all aspects of managing COVID in their daily lives. The Government of Ontario should be the trusted authority communicating our latest knowledge about COVID. We ask for policies that:
- Improve public messaging about the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine and about the relatively low risk of blood clots compared to the vaccine’s very large personal and community benefits.
- Remind the public that it is still risky to go into stores and other indoor settings for longer than absolutely necessary.
- Encourage people to continue masking, to stay home as much as possible and to stay away from people outside their households.
- Provide clear, practical, current and reliable guidance for all Ontarians, whether they have been vaccinated once, twice or not at all. Tell them what is safe to do and not to do right now, and acknowledge that this will change as the virus changes, as scientists learn more and as more people are vaccinated.
This is a crucial moment for the people of Ontario, for its economy, for its people’s health and for our collective futures. Nobody can do this alone and we need your vocal support to keep you and your families and communities safe and out of our hospitals.
Raise your voice! Tell your friends and family, share this on social media or write to your local newspaper! And be sure to call, write, text or tweet to your MPP, the Minister of Health and the Premier to tell them that you are worried about your health care in this pandemic, whether you get COVID or not – and that they need to protect the workplaces where COVID is spreading, put vaccines into the right arms in the right places and provide the public with clear, consistent information.
Written and signed by: (There are more than 1900 co-signatories and counting. If you are a concerned physician in Ontario, please add your name here.)
Dr. Sohal Goyal, MD, CCFP, FCFP
Chair District 5, OMA
Lisa Salamon, MD CCFP (EM) FCFP
Emergency Physician, Scarborough Health Network
Chair District 11, OMA
Ayelet Kuper, MD, DPhil, FRCPC
Division of GIM, Sunnybrook HSC
Department of Medicine, University of Toronto
Silvy Mathew, MD, MSc HEPM, CCFP, FCFP
Family Medicine & Long-Term Care
Shady Ashamalla, MD, MSc, FRCPS
Head Division of General Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre
Abdu A Sharkawy, MD, FRCPC
Infectious Diseases, University Health Network
Dr Pamela Liao, MD, CCFP (PC)
Chair, OMA Section on Palliative Medicine
Andrew M. Morris, MD, SM, FRCPC
Infectious Diseases Specialist
Sinai Health and University Health Network
Kali Barrett, MD, MSc, FRCPC
Critical Care Physician, UHN
Kashif Pirzada, MD, CCFP(EM),
Emergency Physician, Co founder, Masks4Canada
Graham Slaughter, PhD, MD, FRCPC
Division of GIM, Sunnybrook HSC
Joyce Cheung, MD, CCFP(PC)
President, Etobicoke Medical Society
OMA District 11 Delegate
Umberin Najeeb, MD, FCPS (Pak), FRCPC
Division of GIM Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Hemant Shah, MD, MScCH, HPTE, FRCPC
Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Toronto
Raymond H Chan, MD, MPH, FRCPC
Cardiologist, Scarborough Health Network
Andrew D Baker, MD, MHSc, FRCPC
Medical Director of Seniors Health, Humber River Hospital
Chair, OMA Section on Geriatric Medicine
Dominik Nowak, MD, MHSc, CCFP, CHE
Adjunct Faculty, Department of Family and Community Medicine
Cynthia Whitehead, MD, PhD, CCFP, FCFP
Department of Family and Community Medicine
Lindsay Melvin, MD, MHPE, FRCPC
Division of General Internal Medicine, University Health Network
Ariel Lefkowitz, MD, CM, MEd, FRCPC
General Internal Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Zac Feilchenfeld, MD, MHPE, FRCPC
General Internal Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Barbara Haas, MD, PhD, FRCSC
Department of Critical Care Medicine and Division of General Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Brooks Fallis, MD, FRCPC Critical Care
William Osler Health System & Michael Garron Hospital
Allan Grill, MD, CCFP(COE), MPH, FCFP, CCPE
Family Physician, Markham
Associate Professor, Dept. of Family & Community Medicine, University of Toronto
Adil Shamji, HBMSc, MPP, MD, CCFP(EM)
Emergency Physician, Michael Garron Hospital
Neil Isaac, MD, FRCP(C)
Radiologist, Toronto
OMA District 11 Representative
Seema Marwaha, MD, FRCPC, EdM.
Internal Medicine, Toronto
Editor-in-chief, Healthy Debate
(There are more than 1950 co-signatories and counting. If you are a concerned physician in Ontario, please add your name here.)
ENGLISH
COVID Letter Final All 66 Signatures
FRENCH
COVID letter final French
TAGALOG
TAMIL
COVID Letter Final for Translation-tamil
HINDI
COVID Letter Final for Translation-Hindi
SIMPLIFIED CHINESE
ARABIC
AMHARIC
FARSI
FarsiLetter to Ontarions
PUNJABI
PUNJABI TRANSLATION ਉਨਟਾਰੀਓ ਦੇ ਮਰੀਜ਼ਾਂ
MALAYALAM
Translated version – MALAYALAM
URDU
#raiseyourvoice letter Urdu
The comments section is closed.
I will not be getting these jabs. I’ve spoken to my family doctor . He in turn is also waiting to get these experimental shots. My insurance will not cover these shots. I won’t be calling it a vaccine as a true vaccine takes years to achieve. Nothing is legally required to make me do otherwise. Masks and washing my hands are what I will continue to do .. people need to do their research before hand.
It is not too late yet to make a positive change to save our lives and the lives of our community. We must all act now before it gets any worse.
Very logical and science-based plea for assistance from those representing the many more of their colleagues on our “front lines”.
IF there is a democratic governing party listening, then let’s hope for some real effective actions — not just more folksy platitudes and defensive excuses blaming someone else other than those wielding 100% of Queen’s Park power to “fix” this mess — even though less than 40% of us voted for them!
Thank you for all the care you are providing, i’m STILL waiting almost a year now for a doctor to see my daughter about a bulge protruding between her eye and nose, and growing, after several mri. Really considering moving to Florida or back to Sweden, Food for thought. Doctors around the world have great documented results treating cov19 outpatients with existing medication, if you really care its worth reaching out to them, they are easy to find and willing to help.
Thank you to the RN,s,doctors, &all health professionals for your courage in holding the line.I am also frightened,heartbroken & angry and will most definitely contact Dougie Ford & his entourage again.
For the physicians who are screaming for tighter measures and in turn, further harming the people of this province, let me remind you of the oath you took to do no harm. Please provide hard evidence/data to suggest that Covid 19 is overloading the healthcare system no more than the average flu. The Ontario ICU capacity dashboard continues to show ICUs functioning at below capacity. This is a fact. The infection fatality rate (IFR) for Covid 19 is at 0.15% (at that). Instead of looking at one piece of this puzzle I.e. the healthcare system piece, try to put on that critical thinking hat you paid a high price for via the expensive education you went through to get your medical license, and start to look at overall population health. Focus on promoting proactive/early interventions for Covid19 such as vit D/zinc/ivermectin/hydrochloroquin. For the cases that are coming into the hospitals, look at that reasons WHY they’re coming in. Is it truly because of Covid19 infection or adverse events secondary to Covid19 vaccines? Both the disease and the vaccines cause similar clotting/bleeding issues. You know this so I don’t need to tell you more. Learn to look outside the box. Instead of shutting down different narratives or fear mongering, try to critically think about other narratives. They might teach us something. That’s part of having healthy discourse and the perks of living in a democratic society (although it doesn’t feel like one of late). Stick to facts/raw data which is all available on stats Canada website. There have been more suicides, overdoses, undiagnosed cancers, missed/cancelled surgeries resulting in negative outcomes this part year alone that FAR exceed Covid19 mortality. If you are truly concerned physicians, you would know the true harm of these lockdown measures that have no scientific base to them. Talk to the real front line healthcare workers and they will confirm what I have shared here about the fatalities as a result of Covid19. Stop the fear mongering and let’s work on rebuilding lives again.
If they care so much for their patients why are they not thinking outside the box?! What I find to be an incredible about this open letter is there is not ONE mention of EARLY treatment. No mention of Ivermectin, zinc, vitamin D, intravenous Vitamin C, and several other anti-viral treatments. If they really cared they would be pushing for ivermectin and screaming back at the Canadian government. It’s a generic drug that has been administered billions of times, it won the Nobel prize and it’s effective as a prophylactic and treating seriously ill patients. There are 52 trials with 17,500 patients in multiple countries. Mind you everyone from the WHO, to CDC, to Fauci, Bill Gates and big pharma don’t want to use a cheap drug combined with vitamins because there’s no chance to make hundreds of billions off of that and they are doing everything they can to squash it. Are these doctors all so ill-informed that they have not done any research or are they just sheep thinking that vaccines (aka gene therapy) are the only way to help people? Let’s face it, people are still getting sick after being vaccinated and still being hospitalised (albeit at lower numbers) and they will need treatments. Many of our doctors are complicit in this entire mess. Oh, and pushing masks when there are dozens and dozens of studies showing that they don’t stop a coronavirus or any other virus.
Learn something here from Dr. Pierre Kory & Dr. John Campbell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19DPijOoVKE
Or at the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance – https://covid19criticalcare.com
EXACTLY! How can doctors not be convinced, or at least willing to try Ivermectin, when you watch actual verified cases of complete recovery from COVID because of the application of this extremely safe, proven and inexpensive drug!! I believe that it’s a doctor’s duty to present all options to their patient, as evaluated by their own critical examination and not by what the drug formulary or medical authority says. We all know that the US FDA or Health Canada’s approval processes are way too slow.
#justsayNO to experimental injections! Thousands of people dying and maimed from these trials continuing thru 2023. Long-term effects unknown. Stand for #healthfreedom
End the Lockdowns!
People are flying to the US then walking across the border to avoid quarantine. Rolling multiple suitcases across the Peace Bridge couldn’t be more obvious. The Border Patrol needs to be granted the power to put additional screening measures for Canadians crossing the border in taxi’s and on foot. Are the greyhound busses that cross the border also being screened? #COVIDIOTS are just finding other ways to avoid punishment and also are bringing more cases cases from the globe by flying to the US instead
Fully Agree!
Stop the work arounds at the border. Close the borders until we are under control. Let’s not import covid
Unless a very strict travel BAN is imposed, new variants will keep flooding into this Country. Unless and Until a TOTAL BAN is imposed, we are heading towards DISASTER!!
Paid sick time for all works, mandatory it’s a must and it must happen now
I agree with everything that’s been said. It all makes so much sense. The bandaids haven’t worked. Let’s take this pandemic SERIOUSLY and do what NEEDS TO BE DONE!
The federal government has walked us right into this pandemic bu importing the virus from Day 1 and now they are importing the Variants. Our provincial government failed to prioritize health over the economy. This is the worst medical disaster in Canada’s history. Never let the Politicians manage a pandemic.
Totally agree with this statement. As a retired RN, I worry about the lackluster performance of our government. There could be so much more done to prevent the spread of COVID. We should follow the great example of Australia and New Zealand.
The time to act is now. Please listen to our medical community.
Thank you so much for the work you do and for putting out this letter. I will be sharing this with people I know.
The measures that you suggested would go a long way in helping get Ontario’s Covid-19 situation under control. I believe that other actions could also help. These include re-opening testing to any person who wants one, waste water monitoring in all Ontario municipalities, greater use of rapid testing in hot spots, re-doubling contact tracing and utilizing best practices from around the world.
Being an “essential” worker I do not trust the Ford government or my employer to keep me safe. More needs to be done, and should have been done months ago. That’s what brought us to this point. Negligence and inactions. Thanks for bring this to light.
Agree completely. C. Harris MSc.
Thank you for your hard work and your constructive suggestions.
The premier is increasingly losing touch with the evolving needs and necessary steps to control the pandemic. I don’t see this improving.
My suggestion is that where possible healthcare workers act directly on the advice of the scientific Advisory group. Shift the leadership from Ford to the Advisory group. The public leadership during the SARS pandemic came from the medical leaders at the time, which worked well.
• for example, on who gets the vaccines next, per your open letter and implementing accordingly;
• shutting down businesses using existing powers, e.g. as Dr. Loh is doing in Peel;
• directly communicating with the Ontario public, through your own daily press conferences (e.g. Dr. Juni daily and Dr. Tien on vaccine supply and distribution plans) and public service messaging on TV, radio and other media.
If police services can refuse to carry out a provincial directive, how far can the Covid-19 medical leadership override, circumvent or make redundant the incompetence of Ford. Public confidence in current political leadership is low.
Thanks to the doctors who write this open letter. I appreciate their concerns.
I have written to both my MPP and to the Minister of Health Christine Elliott. I stressed the need for a robust and comprehensive sick leave plan for Ontario for not and not limited to just this pandemic.
2 separate families in our neighbourhood with parents who work at hospitals. They have no issue sending their kids out to play daily without masks (our kids and friends wear them). One even has the audacity to have large weekend gatherings of 5+ families with kids. The hypocrisy. No concern for our child or us! Try getting your own people to follow the rules first! No fan of the Premier but hardly the only person to blame here. I’m not listening anymore.
So you are saying that because you see irresponsible behaviour by others, you are not listening anymore. I suggest that you continue listening to public health advice from these and other doctors and keep a safe distance away from people who are not following best practices.
Martin Utrosa, “following best practices”….Oh, please. Open your mind and think a little bit. I know that right now, even at hospitals, there are not “followings” “best” practices, by med professionals. Ask yourself- why? Because those “best practices” are for you, just to control you, with a pretext of “it is for your own good.”
Maybe your neighbors know something that you don’t and don’t want to know? For example, that masking, especially kids, is really harmful. So, follow your neighbors, they are right. And stop listening to media.
I feel for all of the heath care providers and support your efforts to make changes. I think political agendas get in your way too often. Perhaps now they will listen. Thank you for pushing them.
We all need to adhere to what is recommended to stay safe. Everyday I witness people who do not.
I live in Northern Ontario. My fear is soon many people from the south of here will come to their cottages and holiday excursions and get groceries, spirits and gas etc . It is only a 4 hour drive. It only takes one.
Thank you
Thanks for taking action to raise healthcare workers voice, you are the frontline heroes. Ontario’s Government has not listened to doctors from the beginning of this pandemic, they have acted very slow and now here we are again in the third wave. Doug Ford said they got their lessons from the first wave and they have to protect long-term facilities and senior homes, we had even more deaths in senior homes in the second wave, then they opened everywhere when the case numbers was around 1000 per day and not with increased number of cases they say they have to cancel surgeries. This is just a proof that Doug Ford is not able to handle the pandemic, we are facing a disaster in Ontario. I am asking for his resignation.
The Ontario government said time & time again that they would listen to / were listening to the health experts & scientists … obviously that’s not true and now it’s well past the time they started doing so. Thank you to all the health workers who have been working their butts off & putting themselves and their families at risk to help everyone even those non-masking non-believers who don’t think there is a pandemic and who continually put themselves and everyone else at risk.
Maybe should raise your voices to MPs/Trudeau to get more vaccines faster instead of waiting till Moderna had a problem.
Maybe should ask people to take personal responsibility and companies to practice safe policies. Tell patients to get vaccine on day off, weekend or 24hr pharmacy if essential worker.
Maybe should do our jobs instead of complaining on MSM or social media and rilling up the public. EU, Italy ICUs had it worse and India now also but don’t here them whining all the time. Tired but maintain professionalism vs emotions.
India was saved by ivermectin, later sued the WHO for obstruction, a lot of the deaths in India, and corruption, which of course not mentioned on mainstream news networks. Visit Trial Site News re other countries using ivermectin.
Thank you
Thank you for your bravery and for being on the front line. I am heartbroken and frightened and angry and will share your message
I am adding my voice to the voices of the medical professionals who warned us about what was coming and now have to deal with the the imminent collapse of our medical system. This should have been addressed by Premier Ford as soon as the numbers started to rise. Our health care providers have been left with an impossible situation any so many citizens have been unnecessarily bereaved.
Doctors (and nurses) saved my spouses life after she suffered a severe brain injury in a car accident 20 years ago. I already know that what they do every day is special. Covid has made what they do every day extraordinary. We all need to listen to these experts and we need leaders not politicians. These doctors are stepping up to be leaders. Thank You.
THANK YOU!!!!
THANK YOU!!!!
THANK YOU!!!!
I can’t say it enough. Thank you for doing this, and for all the hard work you have been doing for over a year now to help all of us get through this.
This is powerful. Thank-you to all who put this together. We all need to act more quickly when government inaction will lead to unnecessary suffering and or death. When your small cut is turning an “angry” bright red colour, a little antibiotic cream in time will prevent a possible case of severe infection.
Thank you for taking this initiative. I find it sad that Ontario’s health system has had to reach the point of collapse because these critical medical decisions have been left in the hands of politicians and bad ones at that. When I am ill or need medical attention, I need the help of a qualified medical professional, not a politician. I am grateful that you, as a group, are standing for us when we feel powerless and vulnerable. I am sharing this far and wide and hope that others will do the same.
A heartfelt thank you. Will certainly write to my MPPs.
Please listen to our medical professionals
Thanks for voicing out and your effort.
Yes.
I agree with the doctors.
Thank you for your effort.
agree we need to protect those at highest risk as identified and also advocate that elderly over 80 many with other serious king and heart disease get their 2nd dose sooner. 4 months is too long for them to wait, younger healthily and in non vulnerable environments (eg wfh) have the benefit to take caution so those who can’t can be better protected.
And a calm out for those who are not taking this seriously to please think about more than yourself
Thank you for speaking up.
Thank you for speaking up for us!
Kudos to all the doctors in Ontario. You are all heroes and it is about time that the government listened to you. Thank all of you and all hospital workers for your dedication and compassion for the people of Ontario. Thank you for giving a voice to those people who cannot. The Ford government has failed Ontario miserably. It is time that they listen to the health professionals. If your advice would have been listened to in back in January, we would have this crisis now.
Thank you for doing this. Sincerely. We have to trust the experts and science on this. Distributed as requested
We hear your desperate plea! We wholeheartedly support all healthcare professionals, and thank them for going above and beyond expectations for us. We strongly agree with all your recommendations, and promise to put pressure on our Federal & Provincial politicians to act NOW. We will share this letter with family & friends. Please stay safe! T & B
Do the right thing! We need to be moving forward not backward!!!
Make sure that we can start living again, being outdoors, seeing others, GETTING EVERYONE VACCINATED ASAP!
We are fed up, COVID exhausted and done!
Essential workers need funding, vaccinations and to be looked after by this government that has screwed up!
Thank all of you for your dedication and compassion for the people of Ontario. Most all Thank You for giving a voice to those people who cannot. Our essential workers need to be treated with respect and dignity. They work tirelessly for us. We need now to speak out for them. The Ford government and the employers of these companies need to work together to bring vaccines to the work place.
Thank you for doing this. We will do our part to raise our voices.
This brought tears to my eyes.
Looks like Ford is only sorry for having to close businesses and not for the awful job his government has done. God bless the doctors and health care workers
Thank you for your words and service. If only the Ford government would listen.
Not worried at all about this Flu!!!!
With 99.997% survival rate!!! Worried for our children mental health as doctors like you enjoying nice salary & empty hospitals while our children have no school!! Shame on you!!!! For misleading the public!!!! SHAME ON YOU!!!!!
Dumb ass. Survival rate has nothing to do with it when hospitals are overrun.
Pray to God that you don’t need to go the ER. Your views might change if you are diagnosed with cancer and the doctor tells you that they cannot operate.
David Berg, why some people are so naive? Like you, for example. That’s exactly the point – why surgeries and other treatments, postponed again? There is no right to do that, with the pretext of overrun hospitals. All of this- “apocalyptic situation” because of Covid, doesn’t “smell” nice. Hospitals, especially ED, always! were and are busy. There are always transferring patients between hospitals! I know that, based on my own experience.
If doctors, who signed this or other similar letters, don’t want D. Ford to be a Premier of Ontario, they should find another way to do that, and not by manipulating public with fear mongering. Doctors should give hope to the patients, and not “crying” 24/7 about patients, apparently, dying from Covid. Why they don’t “cry” about cancer patients dying at this same moment?
Promoting more restrictions, lockdowns, shutdowns etc. – has nothing to do with health.
But, strangely, the same is happening, almost identically, at the same time, in other parts of the world. …..
Tali S. I agree with you!
You obviously have not been inside a hospital recently if you think that anything is like it always is. Trust me, it’s not.
You also obviously did not actually read the letter. They are crying about the cancer patients, and all the other patients- including the ones with COVID-who are suffering and will possibly die. That is the point they are making. If you care so much, help them out. Share this letter, write to your MPP, and above all, follow their advice- wear a mask, wash your hands, stay home, do not socialize outside of your own household… it’s not a lot to ask to save the lives of all those people, is it?
You are correct some of these MDs are now pushing their political agenda. Stop the whining and do the job. Stop the MSM appearances and social media. Italy EU and now India have it worse. Tired but no excuse for emotions vs professionalism.
Try telling the families of the 23, 944 Canadians who have died so far from “this flu” that it has a “99.997 survival rate”. I’m sure they’ll be glad to know that.
Some facts:
-COVID19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2, a coronavirus, not influenza
-It is a novel (new) virus, which makes it very dangerous and very unpredictable
-It is mutating, like all viruses, creating new variants that are more contagious and more deadly
-More people getting infected means more mutations and more variants
-Many people who survive have long term, life altering complications, and could still die as a result
-It also affects the mental health of people who are at high risk and have been living in isolation and fear for over a year now and we would all appreciate it if you would just shut up and listen to the people who are trying to keep us, and you, alive
Unfortunately you’re wasting your breath. This person is a Covidiot who squaks about government control and wouldn’t listen to truth and facts if it smacked them in the face.
I honestly don’t know how much more truthful you can get than over a thousand doctors who are on the front lines pleading for necessary changes.
Its time to petition the Lieutenant Governor Elisabeth Dowdeswell, to remove the Ford government for non confidence.
Premiere Ford and his Cabinet are guilty of ignoring generally accepted medical advice and risking the health of the entire Province.
Please consider putting your voices behind those who have had enough.
http://www.lgontario.ca/en/contact-information/
Thank you, Rick. Sharing.
“Require all workers to wear masks in all work spaces, the entire time they are at work, just as your children have to do when they are at school, only removing their masks to eat in a socially distanced manner.”
If ONLY our children were actually in school! Did you forget that this government has closed schools down with no estimated re-opening date, despite the advice of many physicians about the importance of keeping in-person school open?
They have not forgotten that Amos. That is part of the reason they are doing this. Everyone knows it is important for children to be in school but it is not safe for them to be there right now. If something isn’t done immediately to improve the situation, they won’t be able to go back for a very long time. And that is the least of our worries. Many more people will die if things don’t change.
Thank you for your service!
Our political need this guidance
Thank you to all members medical / health professionals for what you are doing for us during this pandemic !!!
Thank you for doing this … I will do my part.
You have my full support.
Thanks. You have my full support
Thank you, thank you, thank you. But you can’t di it alone. We need to flood the gov’t with this messaging. Please everyone reach out – daily. Once isn’t enough!
I sent my e-letter to my conservative MPP on Sunday and I received an e-response. It was very professional but the response is what I have heard time and time again at the press conferences.
Discouraging. Not listening, not acknowledging and not even considering a course correction.
Was today’s apology sincere? Still blaming others and not taking responsibility. That apology should have also been directed to the Scientific Advisory Table. Shameful.
Please make it clear that a “person who lives alone” is different than a “single
parent” as the April 17 stay at home order says as it pertains to who can join another household. And please share this clarification with law enforcement to help in split/joint/shared custody situations where bubbles overlap. PLEASE!
Ford needs to put in place A CURFEW in Ontario. It’s working in Quebec. Keeping us locked down is not working. How much longer is it going to take him to wake up and follow a program that works. He’s not listening to the those who know. We need a CURFEW now!!!!!!!
I fully endorse this letter. This is our way out of the devastation of the pandemic. As a physician I’m deeply concerned about the terrible impact on marginalized communities.
Ford does not listen
Agree wholeheartedly
I urgently ask our MPP’s to do everything in their power to vaccinate those most vulnerable: homeless, elderly w/o internet access & all elderly, who are still awaiting a vaccine appointment, truck drivers crossing into U. S. – why are they not vaccinated by now?!?, all healthcare providers, childcare workers, educators, grocery store, LCBO staff, coffee shop staff.. the list goes on We ALL need this vaccine and please emphasize the most vulnerable should be at front of line to receive theirs.
I support these doctors in their fight for safer workplaces and sick leave immediately to curb the level of spread of Covid.
Well done! Keep up the work.
Stop your medical tyranny! You have no right to cancel medical care of people, Covid or no Covid. Stop manipulate public with gossips and squabbles. Everyone is paying taxes – source of your salaries, coronavirus or not. Stop violations of children’s rights – forcing them wear useless masks and lossing their minds. Don’t treat people as if they are stupid- with your insincer emotions on tv or anywhere else. You should help people, and not to play politicians.
PA – how about you give up all of your rights to free medical care in the province, country so that you can let those who really need care and believe in SCIENCE so their work. We don’t want to treat you in the emergency unit, ICU or any other hospital unit with this sort of disrespectful conspiracy theory rhetoric.
Maybe, from your point of you, I am a “conspiracy theorist” (what is OK with me), but I am not rude, unlike you. Your reply demonstrates utter disrespect to human being-what is unacceptable for a doctor. God forbid to have to deal in life with a doctor like you-with a superiority complex, who considers herself to decide whether to help or not.
As far as I know, one of medical professionals duties is to help anyone, even criminals. And what was your answer? “We don’t want treat you in…”. ICU or ER are your property?
P.A.- SM may have been a bit rude but your comment was insulting and disrespectful . How would you feel in their place? SM did not say they wouldn’t treat you, just that they don’t want to have to put up with your disrespect while they do their job and save your life- free of charge and regardless of the fact that you don’t even believe they have the right to do their job. No doctor wants to “cancel medical care of people”, which is why they wrote this letter. They are trying to help people. And btw, cancelling things like surgery also means they don’t get paid, so they are really saving the taxpayers money. (And yes, they do have the right to do it.)
In regard to CoVid19, we need to take more direction from Doctors and less from those who just think about Money.
Doctors, not all of them, but many, unfortunately, just think about money and power.