Local family devastated as elderly parent got COVID-19 while waiting for vaccine
Hospital execs have received the vaccine before many seniors
Joanne Lebert's 89-year-old father tested positive for COVID-19 on the same day he was scheduled to receive the vaccine — forcing him to wait and weather the illness.
Lebert says the situation is "devastating," as she was pushing to have her father and the other negative residents of his long-term care home, which had an active outbreak, to get the vaccine. But at the time, public health said any homes in outbreak were not able to get vaccinated.
Just this week, public health approved all homes, in outbreak or not, to receive the shot — but for Donat Lebert, it was too late.
"We were counting ourselves really lucky that he hadn't had it yet and we were just holding our breath that he could be another day, another two days, before the inevitable happened and we missed it by a hair and now he has COVID and now he can't get the shot," she said. "It's devastating, really devastating."
It's especially upsetting, Lebert said, when local hospital executives are receiving the shot before the community's most vulnerable.
Earlier this week, an Erie Shores Healthcare's public relations executive posted on social media that he had received the first dose of the vaccine. In response to this, president of the union representing workers in long-term care homes Tullio DiPonti told CBC News that members were upset as many on the front-line in those homes are still waiting to get their vaccine.
The hospital defended its decision, saying the executive was part of vaccine rollout to all its leadership team. It said that many enter the hospital on a regular basis and interact with front-line workers as well as patients.
While Lebert said she understood this, she emphasized that "timing is everything" in a crisis and that the priority placed on any one person to get the vaccine should be "relative to exposure and relative to vulnerability."
"What COVID and this whole crisis is revealing is real fissures in society whereas some people are clearly more disposable than others," she said. "It's a bit infuriating and I think it's showing some deep inequalities in society."
She says senior officials shouldn't be getting the shot while others, who might be more vulnerable are still waiting.
On Thursday, the health unit said that 13 of the region's 19 long-term care homes will be vaccinated.
Hospitals creating own priority list
Meanwhile, Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj says the hospital is prioritizing its vaccines on staff that play a critical role and that each local hospital is creating their own priority list.
"I didn't get it and people might argue I'm critical to the operations of the organization, so be it," he said. "I was strongly advocated to get it and I decided not to but that's my personal choice."
Erie Shores says all front line workers who wanted a shot have gotten one, that's why they are now moving on to senior staff. At Hotel Dieu Grace Healthcare, the vaccine is available to all, including management. Finally for Windsor Regional, Musyj said frontline staff, nursing leaders and medical leaders are a priority.
Musyj said that hospital leaders should be vaccinated, yet said he doesn't plan on getting the vaccine until an abundance of it is made available.
CEO of Hotel Dieu Janice Kaffer has also opted to not get the shot.
When the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit was asked about all of this, it said there are provincial guidelines and an ethical framework, adding that individual choices also need to be made.
It emphasized that seniors are the highest priority.
Medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed and CEO Theresa Marentette said neither have them have received the vaccine, nor has their leadership staff.
At this time, it is working to vaccinate its vaccinators.
WATCH: Joanne Lebert talks about the inequalities she feels exist in the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine
At this time, Musyj said if the hospital don't receive their next shipment of the vaccine by the 13th, it will be out of Pfizer-BioNTech.
He said he knows that a plan is being developed and believes that needs to happen in order to be ready to vaccinate the large majority of Windsor-Essex residents come March and April.
"We better have a plan in place," he said. "The only way you do that is today ... that work needs to be done now."
For now, he said staff are moving as fast as they can with vaccinations, but that a plan needs to be developed so they can operate quicker when more shots are available.
Ahmed said that plan is in the works and will likely be made available before the end of January.
Waiting it out
And while Musyj is already thinking months ahead, Lebert is just trying to get through the next few days and ensure her father recovers from COVID-19.
"I feel really vulnerable, I feel powerless, quite frankly, it's just waiting and seeing," she said.
For now, she said he's doing okay and remains in high spirits, despite a dry cough.
But she wants these moments of the pandemic and all others, to be the ones that stick.
"When all this passes and we're counting those that have passed away and it's with regret that we see that has happened and we talk about how this should have been done better, I really hope we don't forget to take a hard look at our healthcare system and long term care for the elderly — that this isn't just a snapshot in time and we move on, it needs a serious rethink," she said.