Class action lawsuits against six of Ontario’s largest for-profit long-term care (LTC) home providers, claiming gross negligence that led to illnesses and deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, have been allowed to proceed.
In a ruling last week, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice certified class action suits against Sienna, Revera, Schlegel, Responsive, Extendicare and Chartwell.
The separate class actions were filed on behalf of thousands of clients, family members and visitors, who allege the companies were unprepared to provide care during the pandemic and failed to protect the health of residents and visitors.
Comments closedThe Ontario Superior Court authorizes six class actions against private operators of long-term care homes charged with negligence during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The complainants allege that the operators of these homes were not at all prepared for a pandemic and did not take the necessary measures to protect their residents and visitors. More than 200 centres, owned and managed by Chartwell Retirement Residences, Extendicare, Responsive Group, Revera, Schlegel Villages and Sienna Senior Living, are subject to these class actions.
Comments closedThe Supreme Court of Canada has decided not to hear an appeal by several churches that fought Manitoba’s COVID-19 restrictions.
Lawyers for the churches argued public health orders in 2020 and 2021 that temporarily closed in-person religious services, then permitted them with caps on attendance, violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
They lost that argument in two lower courts.
The Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled last year the restrictions were necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and allowable under the Charter.
Comments closedMarch 14, 2024 (British Columbia) – DoNoHarm BC, a grassroots group advocating for evidence-based public health measures, is leading a province-wide campaign to keep mask protections in BC medical settings. The campaign, “Vulnerability Isn’t Seasonal”, also calls to strengthen infection control with patient masking; wider use of N95 masks; and coverage in private practices like GP’s offices.
BC currently requires masks in hospitals and long-term care for staff, contractors, visitors and volunteers – but not for patients. While policy-makers have only guaranteed this measure for a “few months” over the winter, DoNoHarm BC notes that the last time BC discarded healthcare masking, multiple medical facilities suffered COVID outbreaks. At the time, removal of healthcare masking contradicted guidance from the World Health Organization, and prompted BC’s Human Rights Commissioner to state that the move “does not uphold a human rights centered approach to public health.”
Comments closedOntario’s Ministry of Health says it is launching an investigation into the practices of an Ottawa Appletree clinic after a woman was charged $110 to see a nurse practitioner for a routine cancer screening test.
Eileen Murphy says she registered with the Appletree clinic near Carling and Woodroffe last year because both she and her husband were without a family doctor. Their former doctor switched her practice from family medicine to dermatology in 2022.
Comments closedCovid-19 caused the average life expectancy of people worldwide to fall by 1.6 years during the first two years of the pandemic, a more dramatic decline than previously thought, a major study said Tuesday.
This marked a sharp reversal during a decades-long rise in global life expectancy, according to hundreds of researchers sifting through data for the US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).
“For adults worldwide, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a more profound impact than any event seen in half a century, including conflicts and natural disasters,” said Austin Schumacher, an IHME researcher and lead author of the study published in The Lancet journal.
During 2020-2021, life expectancy declined in 84 percent of the 204 countries and territories analysed, “demonstrating the devastating potential impacts” of new viruses, he said in a statement.
The rate of death for people over 15 rose by 22 percent for men and 17 percent for women during this time, the researchers estimated.
Comments closedAverage life expectancy, which has been rising for decades around the world, suddenly declined in 2020 and 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published on Tuesday in The Lancet.
Life expectancy has declined in the vast majority (84%) of the more than 200 countries and territories studied by the researchers, that is, for all intents and purposes, around the world.
On average, out of all the data reviewed, life expectancy declined by more than a year and a half in 2020-21 (1.6 year). This resulted in an excess of 15.9 million deaths, slightly more than the estimated 15 million estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) baseline.
Comments closedMonday marks four years since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.
Since the first cases in Wuhan, China, in 2019, there have been millions of infections and deaths around the world.
There have also been major successes including vaccines for nearly all age groups, the development of antiviral drugs to treat those at risk of severe illness and the proliferation of at-home tests.
Comments closedAn outbreak of COVID-19 at Kings County Memorial Hospital’s in-patient unit is over, Health P.E.I. confirmed Sunday.
The outbreak at the hospital in Montague was declared on Feb. 22. Visitor restrictions were put in place to limit the number of partners-in-care per patient.
The health agency is encouraging visitors to the in-patient unit to wear a mask and to stay away if they feel ill.
Comments closedIn the earliest days of the AIDS crisis, America ignored the problem, even though people were dropping dead by the thousands.
We’re repeating the mistake now with long COVID. Millions are suffering, but the government has largely turned its back, as new cases emerge with each passing wave.
So people are coming from all over the country this week to Washington D.C., in the footsteps of AIDS activists, to protest at the Lincoln Memorial on March 15th. They’re desperate for their stories to be heard.
Comments closedA study of 1,037,936 US children seen in 17 healthcare systems across the country shows that COVID-19 vaccines are moderately protective against long COVID: 35% to 45%, with higher rates in adolescents. The study was published today in Pediatrics.
The researchers estimated vaccine effectiveness (VE) against long COVID in children aged 5 to 17 years. Though severe COVID-19 cases are less common in children than in adults, persistent symptoms in children do occur.
“It is difficult to establish how much this results from differential reporting of symptoms at different ages, greater difficulty distinguishing long COVID from other childhood illnesses or effects of the pandemic (eg, disruption of seasonal viral patterns, or of school progress,” the authors wrote.
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