Windsor-Essex top doc on the ongoing battle against COVID-19

For the last nine months, Windsor-Essex's top doctor has spent many long days curbing the spread of a deadly disease in a uniquely vulnerable region. 

In the months before COVID-19 became a global pandemic, medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed says he was tracking the illness and preparing the region's most vulnerable sectors, including seniors' homes and farms. 

Windsor-Essex has now seen more than 5,000 cases of the virus and surpassed 100 deaths. During the first wave in May, the disease was rapidly spreading through the local temporary foreign worker population in the region's agriculture sector.

It was an industry that Ahmed says he had been advocating for some time as he saw the public health challenges it was encountering. 

In the rare moments where Ahmed could step away from it all, he too tried to mentally escape -- playing video games, going on bike rides and enjoying time with his family. 

Now as Windsor-Essex battles a second wave of the virus at the same time a vaccine roll-out begins, Ahmed says he is optimistic that 2021 will look a lot different. 

CBC News spoke with Ahmed about what this year has been like and what he hopes for. 

What was it like trying to get a handle on COVID-19 in a region with so many unique characteristics - the border, large outbreaks in seniors' homes and temporary foreign workers? 

Well, we had some indications of where our pressure points would be.

We recognized that our long term care home and our temporary foreign workers will be a major crisis point. And without even knowing how bad it can be, we started communicating with our temporary foreign workers because we have had some challenges in the past with their infectious disease control.

We wanted to make sure that they have [the] most up to date information available. They get our guidance and they get they understand the risk. 

And we assigned our health inspectors with all the long term care homes. 

How have you advocated for changes in the agri-farm industry in the past? 

Well  we have been talking about the change in the living conditions for quite some time. 

Because recognizing that, yes, they are a vulnerable group of people coming into Canada with their unique challenges — health literacy is a big issue. 

Language barrier is a huge issue for them. More people living together in a congregate setting, which puts all of them at risk. But also, if you're looking from them from a cultural perspective, they are new here. They are alone. They like to hang out with people they can associate themselves with.

What we have advocated so far is we wanted to have better living conditions for them ... at least try to set up some kind of a minimum standards of what can they expect if they are living and working in an environment which puts them at a higher risk, the basic necessities ... their ability to isolate or to to access health care system. 

If the federal government, the provincial government, had listened to what you had advocated for before, would we have seen what we did this summer?

Well, it's hard to say, but I think what we know that the major cause of spread is their living condition, because when one or two people get infected, it pretty much infected the entire housing under the federal program.

The employers are responsible for housing these people. So we made it clear right from the beginning that you have to have a plan for how would you isolate these people if any of them get sick.

But obviously, the challenges ... they don't want to or they don't have the ability because it's a cost to them.

Emails showed heated exchanges that took place behind closed doors between yourself and other leaders to try and best serve the community. What has that been like for you when you build those relationships? 

Well, I think the one of the biggest challenges that we have seen throughout this pandemic is the appropriate timing and the appropriate leadership that is needed. There is definitely a political element for any type of response. And then there is the health side of the response, things that we need to address. 

As a clinician, a lot of the time we have information and then we try to fill those gaps of information but with our best judgment based on our training and expertise.

Some of the challenges that we had as a system is because the lack of coordination, the lack of a system preparedness, it often leads to people wondering, OK, 'what is my role or what is your role? What what are you doing? What am I supposed to do?'

I think what we have realized is that we need to work together. We need to respect everyone's expertise and their roles and responsibilities. 

What has this been like for you and your family? 

It's not easy. That's all I can say, because oftentimes people feel that, you know, I am just a person with no emotions or nothing that they say will impact me or my family, it does.

Every every decision that we make, everything that we say we are trying to find the best possible way to care about our community. That's that's the only goal we have.

If those decisions are making some people unhappy, I get that. I understand that. But I would expect them to be respectful of me as a person and my family. 

I think it's not OK if you cross that line and start to get personal, so it is impacting my family too. And throughout this pandemic I have felt that.

But my lovely wife and my kids are always there and they are a joy to my eyes whenever I go back home after work. I hope that over the time the kids learn from my experience and be a better person, even better than me. 

What does the summer of 2021 look like to you? 

I'm optimistic that summer 2021 would be the point when we will have a significant majority of our Canadians immunized. And the transmission that we are seeing right now will go down significantly. And that will be the time that we can all enjoy the things that we couldn't enjoy in 2020. 

[But] I think that even when when people are vaccinated, there may be some public health measure that will continue to be in place. 

When you were going through this pandemic, if there was a moment when you were able to take a break, what did you do? 

I usually take a break to play video games with my son ... then also watch movies because in the pandemic you can't go outside. So you have to figure out a way to still have fun and laugh inside home. And my older son, he likes biking, so he forced me to go to bike with him. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity