The expectations of the opposition parties are high on the eve of the testimony of Dr. Horacio Arruda before the coroner Géhane Kamel at the courthouse in Quebec.
The latter will continue, on Thursday, its investigation into the deaths that occurred in accommodation settings during the first wave of the pandemic. From March to August 2020, no less than 5,157 seniors living in nursing homes died, which accounted for 90% of the total deaths related to COVID-19.
The testimony of the national director of public health in this context is “extremely important”, considers the head of the official opposition, Dominique Anglade.
“I expect Dr. Arruda to be […] totally transparent about what happened and without any political influence in the answers he will provide, ”she said in an interview.
“There was a lack of masks and equipment, there were instructions that were not clear, there were a lot of mistakes. […] Now we must have more details on the sequence of events.
She said she understood that the coroner’s goal is not to identify a culprit, but to make recommendations to avoid future tragedies.
Staff mobility and aerosols
However, Dr. Arruda must explain two things: the “comings and goings” of nursing staff between establishments and aerosol transmission, affirms Quebec solidaire (QS).
“How come we didn’t seem to buy into the fact that COVID-19 is [transmissible par] aerosols, […] which means that we skimped on the [masques] N95? Asks the spokesperson for QS en santé, Vincent Marissal.
He deplores that Quebeckers have only had the right to “jerk” and “telescopic” answers. “I think Mr. Arruda will certainly have a few pieces to put back on the puzzle,” he said.
The parliamentary leader of QS, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, goes in the same direction. “How is it that Quebec public health has had a different discourse on the specific issue of airborne transmission from other public health in the world? ” he asks.
“When you see the total fiasco of the issue of ventilation in schools, I think it underlines the relevance of this issue,” he added.
Opacity of the decision-making process
The Parti Québécois (PQ) wants to understand why Quebec has chosen to favor hospitals “by completely abandoning CHSLDs to their fate, even by transferring patients to CHSLDs”.
A strategy that turned out to be “disastrous”, deplores in an interview the parliamentary leader of the PQ, Joël Arseneau.
“What we already had as information at the time, especially from British Columbia, is that the elderly were the most vulnerable,” he said. “In British Columbia, we had taken measures to protect seniors’ residences, […] in particular by completely prohibiting transfers of personnel. “
According to him, Dr. Arruda will have to decide why Quebec was at odds with good practices on labor mobility.
In addition, the PQ wants the national director of public health to decide before the coroner political decisions from those of public health.
“It’s always nebulous,” says Arseneau. It has always been difficult to get clear answers as to whether decisions were systematically, or sometimes, or largely based on science. “
“This has always been the great flaw of the pandemic, that is to say this lack of complete transparency on the process which led to the adoption of measures. “
He also said to remain “absolutely perplexed” in front of the absence of minutes.
Also hear Legault and Blais
After Dr. Arruda, the coroner will hear next week the former Minister of Health, Danielle McCann, as well as the former Deputy Minister of Health, Yvan Gendron.
Prime Minister François Legault was not subpoenaed to testify, but should have been, according to the PQ.
“Can we come back to the most tragic element of the crisis without hearing who was the commander-in-chief?” It seems incomplete to me as an exercise, ”said Mr. Arseneau.
The three opposition parties also have the same wish: that the Minister responsible for Seniors, Marguerite Blais, who is currently on sick leave, could possibly come and explain herself. For now, his assignment is canceled.