The pandemic has brought more changes to Toronto than could have been imagined.
For too many it brought the death of a loved one and sometimes more than one: Parents died separated from their children and grandchildren, who were unable to offer a final few words or embrace.
The dead in Toronto include war brides and their soldiers; high school sweethearts who died hours apart; survivors of the Great Depression, cancer, Nazi occupation, the Battle of Berlin, and a man named Gene Goldman, 88, who was thrown from a moving truck the night of his high school prom and into a sea of electric jellyfish and survived.
“It took an entire global pandemic to kill him,” his son Michael Goldman said in his obituary.
The dead in Toronto include a trucker, a prankster, musicians, a postal worker, a polyglot, woodworker, dancers, snowbirds, coaches, salesmen and a 93-year-old named Raymond Harden who slept with a Blue Jays blanket spread across his bed, even in the long-term-care wing of the community complex where he lived.
Many were immigrants, with decades of life in Toronto under their belt.
The oldest publicly recorded death in Toronto was Foon Hay Lum, 111, one of Canada’s oldest women, who helped secure a formal apology and compensation for all Chinese-Canadians who paid a tax designed to discourage them from moving here after they’d help build the Canadian Pacific Railway that had united the country when it was new.
The youngest named Toronto victim was Jamal Ali, 45, a devoted family man and Scarborough basketball coach who bought shoes for the players who couldn’t afford them.
More than 60 per cent of those who died were over 80, according to current Toronto Public Health data. One person in their 20s died of COVID in Toronto and one in their 30s; seven between the ages of 40 and 49.
The worst-case scenario, according to modelling released by the province in April, has not yet come to pass — 15,000 deaths in the province; 3,000 in Toronto.
Not yet, and hopefully never. Those estimates were for deaths over two years, the amount of time it will likely take to achieve herd immunity or for a vaccine to be found.
Since the pneumonia of unknown cause was first reported to the WHO country office in China on Dec. 31, new terms have been added to our everyday vocabulary, including social distancing, PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), Zoom and COVID-19, as the illness came to be called.
As late as Feb. 24, the city was being told by health officials that “the risk to our community remains low.”
At first only travellers from China were a concern, then travellers from the U.S. and Iran. On March 11, when the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, there were still no confirmed community transmissions in Toronto, but we were told to expect it.
On March 16, we learned it was being transmitted locally. It was spreading like wildfire in nursing homes.
There were shameful moments, including racism towards Asians in Toronto because this epidemic happened to start in Wuhan.
That run on toilet paper looked good on no one.
Our nursing homes were not prepared.
Tents popped up around the city because many people experiencing homelessness feared they were at risk of being infected in close quarters in shelters.
It hit poorer and immigrant neighbourhoods harder.
Hundreds of businesses have closed, from beloved restaurants to a store on the Danforth that used to supply the film industry with props and costumes.
There are things Toronto can be proud of — millions of people acted together to flatten the curve when it could have turned out differently.
Medical professionals and support workers, cleaners, TTC workers, shelter workers, put their lives on the line to care for others.
Neighbours shopped for neighbours; the young and the healthy self-isolated to prevent spreading the illness to someone less likely than them to survive.
COVID-19 changed the way the city celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, Mother’s Day, Ramadan, Passover. It was the quietest Good Friday and Easter Sunday on record. More animals crept into the city, including a family of foxes at the Beach. Birdsong became easier to hear.
Fans missed their sports.
Nature lovers missed the Cherry Blossom festival in High Park, except for the guy who climbed the fence at night and peed there (and was found and fined).
The world watched in fascination the U.S. citizens who proudly declared their ignorance of the disease by continuing to congregate by the hundreds and thousands.
Making cloth masks became a cottage industry, whether to wear them or not controversial. We got sick of Netflix, baked bread. Teenagers went nocturnal.
We’ve stopped shaking hands, perhaps for good.
Millions of Canadians lost jobs. Food banks ran low and the Rogers Centre became a food distribution depot.
The city took the opportunity to greatly expand bike lanes — an experiment that could probably not otherwise have been conducted, and that could have lasting impact on the way we commute to work.
Plenty of people went into this with big plans. It has been said that Shakespeare wrote “King Lear” while in quarantine during the bubonic plague.
On social media there was talk of disappointment around getting things done — books unfinished, attics untidied, weight going up instead of down.
For most, working from home, with or without kids, dealing with the stress of the unknown, applying for wage subsidies, shopping for food, cooking food, was enough to handle.
It’s not over yet. The virus is still racing through the U.S. and it has returned to China, with Beijing once again in lockdown, and to New Zealand, where it was thought to be eradicated.
“Be patient,” Tory said, adding that he hopes that when it is finally over, some of the best things Toronto has done remain in place.
“It’s hard, because people get busy again,” he added.
“Let’s not forget some of the good that’s come out of this, both in terms of how fast we can do things when we co-operate, and how much we cared for each other in a material way.”
Francine Kopun is a Toronto-based reporter covering city hall and municipal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @KopunF
TORONTO – Health Canada has authorized Moderna’s updated COVID-19 vaccine that protects against currently circulating variants of the virus.
The mRNA vaccine, called Spikevax, has been reformulated to target the KP.2 subvariant of Omicron.
It will replace the previous version of the vaccine that was released a year ago, which targeted the XBB.1.5 subvariant of Omicron.
Health Canada recently asked provinces and territories to get rid of their older COVID-19 vaccines to ensure the most current vaccine will be used during this fall’s respiratory virus season.
Health Canada is also reviewing two other updated COVID-19 vaccines but has not yet authorized them.
They are Pfizer’s Comirnaty, which is also an mRNA vaccine, as well as Novavax’s protein-based vaccine.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
VANCOUVER – Mayors and other leaders from several British Columbia communities say the provincial and federal governments need to take “immediate action” to tackle mental health and public safety issues that have reached crisis levels.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says it’s become “abundantly clear” that mental health and addiction issues and public safety have caused crises that are “gripping” Vancouver, and he and other politicians, First Nations leaders and law enforcement officials are pleading for federal and provincial help.
In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby, mayors say there are “three critical fronts” that require action including “mandatory care” for people with severe mental health and addiction issues.
The letter says senior governments also need to bring in “meaningful bail reform” for repeat offenders, and the federal government must improve policing at Metro Vancouver ports to stop illicit drugs from coming in and stolen vehicles from being exported.
Sim says the “current system” has failed British Columbians, and the number of people dealing with severe mental health and addiction issues due to lack of proper care has “reached a critical point.”
Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer says repeat violent offenders are too often released on bail due to a “revolving door of justice,” and a new approach is needed to deal with mentally ill people who “pose a serious and immediate danger to themselves and others.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
