Quebec government relied on expert guidance in pandemic’s first wave, but inquest testimony underscores many strategies devised in those early days turned out to be ineffective
After the tearful testimonies about suffering and mass deaths at specific nursing homes, the coroner’s inquest into the impact of COVID-19 on Quebec’s long-term care sector is entering its final phase by widening its scope to look at how provincial policies played a role in the health crisis.
But evidence heard since March by coroner Géhane Kamel during 11 weeks of testimony about deadly events at seven eldercare facilities underscored that many strategies devised in those early days turned out to be ineffective or wrongheaded. Pascale Dunlop, a nurse at the Yvon-Brunet care home in Montreal, testified that managers wouldn’t even let workers use their own masks because “everyone would then want to wear masks.”Samir Sinha, director of health policy research at the National Institute on aging, said in an interview that the initial response to COVID-19 didn’t follow the precautionary principle of applying maximum precautions then easing off as the disease became better understood.
“I wore a mask at the grocery store before I wore one at the [nursing home],” physician Isabelle Julien said. In the pandemic’s early days, Quebec also discharged patients to care homes to free up hospital beds. Officials kept personal protective equipment under lock and key. Dr. Arruda spoke against widespread use of masks, saying it fostered a false sense of security.
Instead, local managers followed the province’s directives to the letter, even yanking masks from staffers’ faces, said Alain Croteau, president of a union local of health care workers in Montreal. Mr. Croteau said workers who didn’t conform to the mask restrictions faced disciplinary measures for insubordination. At several nursing homes, employees filed complaints with the province’s workplace occupational safety board, seeking to be issued N95 respirators, which offer more protection than ordinary masks.
A failure to follow the precautionary principle had also been a factor in previous public-health disasters.
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