LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Cornwall should know COVID-19 results

Image of Nick Seebruch
By Nick Seebruch
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Cornwall should know COVID-19 results
The Coronavirus. Stock image. (Photo : The Coronavirus. Stock image.)

Premier Ford correctly expressed his frustration with Ontario public health officials about the very slow pace of Covid-19 testing in our province, even though we have a great capacity for testing.

If our Premier has good reason to be frustrated, so do we as citizens of Cornwall.

Dr. Roumeliotis may mean well with his approach to testing and disclosing test results but these hide and go seek methods cannot continue for the sake of our community.

To begin with, setting up appropriate testing facilities in Cornwall took far too long, much longer than for other communities. Since then, it would appear from the Premier’s comments that we have been far too choosy in allowing people to be tested, even though testing capability had been ramped up.

The refusal to disclose test results for Cornwall goes against every established principle of crisis management. There is no room for peek a boo at a time like this. Trust in our officials is key, but it must be earned. A key way to nourish that trust is to tell us the truth, and especially the whole truth.

We can take it. Such truth about the real numbers in Cornwall would go a long way towards getting all of us to follow the rules and to end this crisis sooner.

Public health – please Doctor, remember that “public” part.

 

Etienne Saint-Aubin

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