NDP’s Kernaghan: London needs more vaccines

LONDON – NDP MPP Terence Kernaghan says the Ford government’s sluggish vaccine rollout is forcing London to cancel vaccination appointments for frontline workers.

“London’s frontline health care workers and long-term care residents all need the vaccine as soon as possible,” said Kernaghan. “But while administrative and home-based workers in some regions are getting vaccinated, London is being forced to choose between giving doses to frontline health care workers and vulnerable long-term care residents. It’s a horrible position our community is being put in. Ford is sitting on 12 billion dollars but refuses to spend it to help Ontario. We could have shots in arms 24/7, if Ford actually did his job.

“London’s health care workers have made tremendous sacrifices for the rest of us. They are working around the clock at their own risk to save lives. They do not deserve to have their vaccination appointments cancelled because the Ford government is failing to get London the vaccine doses we need for our most vulnerable,” said Kernaghan.

The Ford government has been hotly criticized for its sluggish vaccine rollout as well as their lack of transparency. Ford will not reveal where doses go once they arrive in the province, and under what rationale, leaving Londoners waiting anxiously, not knowing when help might come.

“Ford didn’t want to invest in advance preparation and organization for the massive vaccination effort that we now need, and we’re all paying the price for that. Ford has allowed vaccines to be left in freezers, instead of getting it out to the very people we were told were a top priority,” said Kernaghan.

“The Ford government needs to accelerate the vaccine rollout, and get the shots to every long-term care home, every health care worker and every essential caregiver, to avoid more preventable deaths in our community.”