Today's coronavirus news

Hamiltonians will soon be told even less about the COVID deaths in their community due to a change in public health information-sharing practices.

And that will lead to a regrettable gap" in the public's understanding of COVID's impact locally, say experts.

On Wednesday, Hamilton public health sent an email to local media stating it will no longer share information about COVID deaths, including age, sex and if the person lived in a congregate setting. Previously, public health shared that information with media on request, though it was never posted on public health's website.

The impetus for the change, public health said, is due to the recent increase in COVID-19 transmission in Hamilton and the resulting increase in workload for Hamilton Public Health Services' epidemiologists conducting the daily reporting." Starting Thursday, public health will instead be adding a chart to its website showing deaths grouped by age decade.

In lieu of the death specifics a regrettable gap" will emerge regarding the full extent to which COVID is affecting congregate settings, said Colin Furness, infection control epidemiologist at the University of Toronto.

If it's possible for a badly run retirement home to create situations where needless death happens and (media are) not able to report on that ... yeah, that's a problem," Furness said.

Death tallies at long-term care homes will still be available via the province's website - nursing homes report that information directly to the province. But the number of deaths in retirement homes or those tied to other outbreaks, such as ones in a workplace, hospital or other outbreak setting, will not be shared by public health. Of note: the province also publishes aggregate death data - which includes age category and the region the death occurred - which it pulls from local public health unit data.

But provincial data has been wrong before.

Notably, on Nov. 24, provincial data showed a girl under the age of 20 in Hamilton had died. That information was wrong, public health and the province later confirmed. Public health spokesperson Jacqueline Durlov said at the time: We encourage you any time you are using data from the provincial site, please ensure you check on local numbers with us directly."

So should we trust provincial numbers over public health ones now?

Both provincial and Hamilton public health data is to be used and trusted," Durlov said Wednesday. It is important to note that the data is preliminary and subject to change pending ongoing public health investigation. Local public health data is considered the most timely and accurate."

Durlov did not answer a question about why public health can't share the same death information with media that it makes available to the province.

But on Wednesday, a harbinger of potential discrepancies to come emerged: The province said Grace Villa long-term care home had 20 deaths. Public health said 19. Asked which number was correct, Durlov said public health's count stands and that the discrepancy could be due to a reporting lag.

Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition, called the change in public health death reporting very concerning."

It is vital information," Mehra said. People are trying to understand what's happening with COVID-19 ... This is not the time to roll back public health information."

She said provincial data is often inconsistent or wrong. She worries families of seniors in care homes with outbreaks will now be less-informed, since homes don't always share death information.

I don't know what public interest is served by not doing it," she said.

In response, Durlov said public health will continue to report the location and size of outbreaks at seniors' homes.

She added: We are in no way being less transparent with the public."

An ethics expert disputes that.

The default position should be releasing all potentially relevant information to the public," said Arthur Schafer, founding director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba. Public trust is the most precious resource our health officials have."

Public health's suggestion that media - and the public - now trust provincial data, which has time and time again been proven to be wrong, shows a casual attitude" toward accuracy, Schafer said.

They seem to be blind to the fact that (accuracy) matters a great deal because if you want the public to trust your data, you have to have a high respect for truthfulness and accuracy," he said.

Furness said he empathizes with public health units, which are increasingly under strain as the second wave sweeps the province.

But when trustworthy information is our best defence against countercurrent" claims perpetuated by the likes of anti-maskers, scaling back information-sharing is a bad idea, he said.

All the people who are denying that COVID is a big deal, I think would be quite happy to have deaths swept under the rug," Furness said.

Katrina Clarke is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach her via email: katrinaclarke@thespec.com