A tragic situation at Roberta Place long-term care home was made worse on Sunday after a local physician says she was “misquoted" by a national news publication.
The NDP appears to have then used that news article as the basis for a social-media video calling for military assistance at the south-end Barrie facility where, so far, nine residents have died.
Dr. Kelley Wright is a medical director of several long-term care facilities and is currently assisting at Roberta Place after the long-term care home on Essa Road was placed in outbreak status on Jan. 8 by the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.
In a news article published Sunday, Wright is quoted as saying “109 of 122 residents had symptoms, and that those who had not yet tested positive were awaiting results. Nearly all staff members contracted the virus, including senior leadership."
However, in a statement provided to BarrieToday on Monday, she says she was misquoted and apologized.
“I was misquoted earlier and the numbers that the (Roberta Place) home is putting out are indeed accurate, as you have indicated. I apologize for the confusion,” Wright said via email.
Both Wright and local health unit officials have said Roberta Place is the best source for up-to-date case numbers.
As of Sunday afternoon, Roberta Place reported 62 positive cases of the virus among residents at the long-term care home, as well as 43 confirmed cases among team members. There were nine deaths confirmed as of yesterday among residents who had tested positive for COVID-19.
Also on Sunday, a statement from NDP Leader Andrea Horwath echoed claims made in the national newspaper article, "where physicians say nearly all of the 122 residents and staff have COVID-19."
“Physicians are calling for help at Roberta Place, and we hear the urgency," Horwath added. "We’re asking Doug Ford not to let these people continue to suffer without the province doing anything to ease their struggle and help save lives.”
Horwath called for the Canadian Armed Forces and Red Cross to be deployed to help at Roberta Place.
That demand was also reiterated by Pekka Reinio, a former NDP candidate in the Barrie-Innisfil riding, who said Roberta Place is "facing one of the worst outbreaks of COVID in Ontario."
In a video posted to social media on Sunday, Reinio asks Dr. Merrilee Fullerton, the province's minister of long-term care, "to please do her job" and “call in the military and the Red Cross and to bring in more nurses, PSWs (personal support workers) and rapid testing... Dr. Fullerton, where are you? What does it take to get your attention?"
In a BarrieToday story published on Saturday, Roberta Place community relations co-ordinator Stephanie Barber said members of the Canadian Red Cross were in the facility assisting and that vaccinations were underway.
When asked by BarrieToday if he felt differently after hearing that the numbers given in a statement by the NDP were inaccurate, and that the Red Cross was already assisting at Roberta Place, Reinio said accuracy was needed at the government level.
“I would say that transparency and accuracy is needed from all levels of government,” he said.
With BarrieToday contacted Horwath's office on Monday, Michelle Ervin, who works in media relations with the Ontario NDP, said Horwath stands by wanting the military called in to help with this “horribly, deadly outbreak.” The NDP office was not aware that the Red Cross had been called in as the “provincial government has not said anything," she added.
The inaccurate numbers and misinformation about help from the Red Cross led Karen DeBeer to respond to Reinio’s post on Facebook.
DeBeer’s mother, Jane, has been at Roberta Place's long-term care home for more than two years. DeBeer gets daily updates from the facility and doesn’t like that others are spreading misinformation through the media.
“What angers me is that the staff at Roberta Place are doing their best and they have to see on Facebook people making comments that question that,” DeBeer told BarrieToday.
“Pekka making a video with information that is just inaccurate is the kind of fear we don’t need at this time," she added. "Families are already concerned; we don’t need exaggerated numbers and wrong statements about the Red Cross.
“The Red Cross is in there, helping the workers who are doing the best they can. This rhetoric is not needed right now."
