Ford is wrong. It’s not ‘very, very simple’ to book a shot in Ontario

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/04/2021 (1950 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Doug Ford should not dictate Ontario’s vaccine policies or run the provincial rollout himself. But it shouldn’t be too much to expect that he understands what’s happening.

That he does not was made clear (again) this week.

When asked about the extreme confusion, including how adults 18 to 49 in the hardest-hit areas — who Ford himself announced were eligible for COVID vaccines a week ago — can actually get a vaccine, he denied the very premise of the question.

“Folks, it’s very, very simple. I’m gonna wing this phone number — and please correct me if I’m wrong — it’s 888 999 6944,” he said. “Or you can go on the Ontario COVID vaccine site and book it. It’s as simple as that.”

Even if Ford had got the provincial booking number right, which he did not, it’s no help at all. Nor is the online booking system.

That’s because the province has not opened its central booking system to that younger age group in the designated postal codes, starting in Toronto and Peel.

That new piece of the rollout has been left up to local health organizations, community centres and faith-based groups. They’re the ones who have to decide to run a temporary vaccine clinic, assuming they can find the doses for it, and reach out to those living in the area.

This hyperlocal strategy (if such a term can be used for this muddled announcement) has the potential advantage of reaching deep into at-risk neighbourhoods and limiting the problems we’ve seen with the broader rollout: those with the most means within a group, not necessarily those most at risk, find it easiest to book and get a vaccine.

But it also means most people aged 18 to 49 in the designated areas are still a long way from getting a vaccine. Indeed, there’s no way even to tell most of them where they can get a shot, or when.

Perhaps that will tamp down the vaccine envy of those in areas not deemed a priority. Overall this episode has just added to the confusion and frustration that has been a near-constant companion to Ontario’s vaccine rollout.

Most recently, for example, why did the Ford government move teachers, who are now working from home, up the vaccine priority list but not child-care workers, who are working in centres? Is it really wise to leave the vaccination of essential workers — key drivers in the rising third wave — to their employers willingness to operate and pay for a vaccine clinic for workers and the surrounding community?

The pledge to start vaccinating people 18 and older in hot spots was not included in the detailed vaccine plan briefing that preceded the premier’s announcement, so where did it come from?

We’re more than a year into the pandemic and it’s clear that getting Canadians vaccinated is the only way we’re getting back to any kind of normal life.

Provincial vaccine plans have been hampered by lack of supply from Ottawa and repeated delays from vaccine manufacturers. But Ontario has also made questionable choices in how it uses the millions of doses it has already received and those that continue to arrive.

The province has been distributing the bulk of its doses on a per-capita basis, rather than flooding high-risk areas with supply, and that has contributed to the severity of the third wave.

So when a new age group of people living in the highest-risk areas of Toronto and Peel hear the premier say they’re eligible for a vaccine and then find out they can get it only if a temporary clinic happens to pop-up in their neighbourhood and they manage to find out about it in time, they have a right to feel misled.

Ford is unwilling to see that. “I never mislead anyone,” he said.

Perhaps he doesn’t mean to. Perhaps the premier genuinely believes “it’s very, very simple” for this new group to book a shot. But that’s even worse.