InnisfilToday received the following letter from reader Pekka Reinio on Premier Doug Ford's current response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
We are undergoing the biggest public health crisis in a century. Many young people, like my two kids, are studying in front of their laptops. Their grandfather has been isolated in his small apartment for eight months. Small businesses in Barrie and Innisfil are hurting badly as COVID pummels our economy.
Despite the unprecedented challenges that we face, Premier Ford has thrown in the towel in our crucial fight against the pandemic. Doug Ford’s wishful thinking and half-measures have allowed COVID to reach record numbers in Ontario. His new colour-coded lockdown system is woefully inadequate to address our rising COVID caseload.
Let's not forget that each number in this caseload is a human life.
In the just released Ontario budget, there was no new spending for public health, LTC homes or education, each of which are considered the front lines in the fight against COVID. This failure will cost lives and businesses because we can't help our economy recover if the virus continues to spread.
In August, Ontario’s COVID numbers dropped below 100. Throughout the summer, Premier Ford, Christine Elliott, and their Health Advisory Team should have been focusing their time, resources and money on testing, contact tracing and isolation enforcement to keep those numbers low.
What we see instead is complacency. We rarely meet our testing capacity, contact tracing has broken down, flu shots are in short supply, and individual COVID test results are long-delayed.
Premier Ford has dropped the ball. Families are grieving. Businesses are exasperated.
Now, we are entering the winter season and a subsequent surge in the virus with no understandable plan going forward.
Businesses, families, and LTC residents will continue to pay a steep price under Ford’s ineffective leadership. As we face a new wave of COVID cases, Ontario needs strong, thoughtful and responsible leadership to fight the pandemic, to protect our businesses, and to save lives.
Pekka Reinio
Barrie