After taking a three-day break the premier and Nova Scotia\u2019s chief medical officer presided over another COVID-19 media update on Tuesday. Since the last such briefing on April 24 the number of deaths in the province from the disease had increased by 70 per cent, going from 16 to 27. Ten of those deaths were at Northwood\u2019s Halifax long-term care home where, over the same period, the number of confirmed cases among residents went up 42 per cent and the number of infected staff grew from 57 to 71.<\/p>\n
Given those troubling numbers, I eavesdropped on the webcast<\/a> <\/strong>of the April 28 update, anticipating some heartfelt expressions of regret from our leaders, some tough questioning from reporters or an effort to reassure residents of long term-care and their families that, as the Prime Minister is wont to say, \u201cwe have your back.\u201d<\/p>\n I heard none of the above. Premier McNeil opened the briefing with a perfunctory acknowledgement of two new deaths announced on Tuesday (there were actually three) and \u201cthe ones reported over the weekend.\u201d He seemed less concerned with the eleven deaths in three days than with that fact that the distancing rules in place for COVID-19 kept grieving relatives from visiting the dying.<\/p>\n Reporters, given 25 minutes to ask questions, lobbed only three softball inquiries about deaths in long-term care. Although McNeil has been politically vulnerable on the issue for years, the few questions about Northwood and long-term care were directed at the chief medical officer, Dr. Robert Strang. The questions gave Strang opportunity to answer with words of encouragement for residents, families and staff, but he gave that a pass.<\/p>\n Strang avoided speculation about the survival chances of the 200-plus residents of Northwood and the nine other homes who have already been diagnosed with the disease, but allowed as how \u201cwe are by no means out of the woods at Northwood.\u201d No one asked what that may mean in terms of mortality rates, or whether the Northwood tragedy has provided any lessons that are being applied to prevent further outbreaks in the other 131 long-term care homes across the province.<\/p>\n Ageist response<\/strong><\/p>\n While disappointing, the ho-hum post-mortem was not surprising. Deaths of seniors in long-term care seem to be taken for granted during this pandemic.\u00a0One exception is CBC Nova Scotia reporter Michael Gorman – not part of Tuesday\u2019s proceedings – who had an interesting piece last week that focused on the devastating impact of COVID-19 on people residing in long-term care homes.<\/p>\n Gorman interviewed Janice Keefe, a professor at Mount Saint Vincent University who was appointed by McNeil in 2018 to head a panel on long-term care. This came after digging by another exception to the journalistic rule, freelancer \u00a0Jennifer Henderson, revealed appalling conditions in some homes, the result of chronic understaffing following years of spending restraint.<\/p>\n Commenting last week as the death count in Nova Scotia\u2019s nursing homes hit 15 and the governments of Quebec and Ontario called on the military to bail out their care homes, Janice Keefe told Gorman that the effect of COVID-19 has been worsened by years of neglect of long-term care.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a sector that has been really under serviced, really viewed as the poor cousin of the rest of the health system, and this virus has really just exacerbated those cracks into full-blown chasms,\u201d she said. As to why long-term care gets short shrift, Keefe cited ageism. \u201cI think there\u2019s a fundamental underlying ageism that is underway here. I hate to say that, but I think it\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n If ageism has indeed been a factor in past failure to provide good long-term care it is also very much an element in the current political and media discourse, some of which downplays the severity of COVID-19 because it mostly affects older people.<\/p>\n A glaring example of the tendency is in Quebec, where despite more than 1,400 COVID-related deaths in nursing homes and a call for military help, the government\u2019s current focus is on re-opening the economy. Nearly 200 died in Quebec nursing homes last Wednesday and Thursday, but the Globe and Mail<\/em> headline from the Premier\u2019s Friday briefing was \u201cPlan to reopen province coming next week.\u201d<\/p>\n Local deaths downplayed<\/strong><\/p>\n That same sort of attitude was prevalent at Tuesday\u2019s briefing by McNeil and Strang, where there were twice as many questions from reporters about a loan program for municipalities than there were about deaths in long term care. But the much-diminished Chronicle-Herald<\/em>, where obits take up more space than news these days, gets the prize.<\/p>\n The Herald<\/em> distinguished itself back in 2018 by carrying Jennifer Henderson\u2019s investigative reports on long-term care, but the paper dropped the ball on the weekend deaths. The government newswire conveniently reported six of those deaths on Saturday and two on Sunday. There was no Sunday newspaper, but eight deaths on the weekend, seven of those at Northwood, should have been major headline news in Monday\u2019s paper.<\/p>\n But no. The Herald front page had just a one-column story, headlined \u201cTwo more deaths reported at Northwood.\u201d It\u2019s five paragraphs into the story before we learn that these deaths are in addition to six that were reported on Saturday.<\/p>\n This example of burying the news may be the result of journalistic incompetence, or even a conscious decision not to alarm with scary headlines long-term care residents or families who still read the paper for more than the obits. More likely it\u2019s a consequence of the notion in many quarters of the need to rally around our leaders during the pandemic. The Herald<\/em> has been like a broken record on this. \u00a0\u201cPoliticians shine in crisis\u201d was the headline on the April 29 editorial. Even more to the point was Saturday\u2019s editorial \u201cSteve and Bob show popular\u201d which gushed about the popularity of McNeil and Strang\u2019s daily briefings.<\/p>\n