Photo by Yader Guzman

In this issue

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Perspective by Tai Huynh

Different Schools, Different Risks

A one-size-fits-all-approach hasn’t worked at any stage of the pandemic. Why do we think it will work in schools this year?

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Short Feature by Tayo Bero

What Convinces A Person to Get Their First Shot?

A new survey from The Local and Humber River Hospital reveals a multitude of reasons people delayed their vaccine and one big reason they finally got it.

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Perspective by Tai Huynh

The Missing Middle

Middle-class neighbourhoods haven’t been the focus of accelerated vaccination. Now they’re home to more than half a million under-vaccinated Torontonians.

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Feature by Nicholas Hune-Brown and Tai Huynh

Second Doses Missing Those Who Really Need Them

With the Delta variant making second dose distribution urgent, new data reveals Toronto’s highest-risk neighbourhoods are being left behind.

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Feature by Danielle Groen

The Last 25 Percent

Almost three-quarters of Toronto adults have received their first vaccine. Next comes the hard part.

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Data Blog by Tai Huynh

Hot Spot Tracker

Weekly progress updates on vaccination efforts in the GTA's highest-risk neighbourhoods.

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Feature by Brannavy Jeyasundaram

Community Ambassadors Are the Link to Toronto’s Unvaccinated Populations

As vaccination rates plateau, a new army of outreach workers is canvassing pockets of the city missed by the initial rollout.

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Feature by Fatima Syed

“We Had to Save Ourselves”

When the pandemic hit Peel, it wasn’t the government that stepped in, but an army of citizens that mobilized to feed their neighbours, set up pop-up clinics, and demand better for their community.

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Feature by Alison Motluk

Why Haven’t Primary Care Doctors Been Part of the Vaccine Rollout?

Sometime soon, responsibility for vaccinations in Toronto will need to shift to primary care doctors. Is there a plan?

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Perspective by Furqan Mohamed

Getting Vaccinated in the Holy Month

This year, we thought we’d figured out how to do Ramadan in a pandemic. Then the vaccine rollout began.

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Feature by Tayo Bero

Vaccinating Black Toronto

The city’s Black communities has been disproportionately affected by COVID. Now these physicians and community leaders are working to make sure they don’t also go unvaccinated.

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Feature by Fatima Syed

The Chaotic Race to Vaccinate Peel

Overwhelmed phone lines, frantic group texts, frustration and relief—inside the first week of pop-up clinics in a region desperate for vaccines.

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Feature by Tai Huynh

Behind the Sudden Drop at Toronto’s Mass Immunization Clinics

The City of Toronto clinics are well-funded operations that were supposed to be the engines of the city’s vaccination drive. Why are pop ups in parking lots delivering four times as many doses a day?

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Feature by Fatima Syed

“You Can’t Stop the Spread of the Virus if You Don’t Stop it in Peel”

Not enough support, not enough testing, not enough vaccines—Peel has been neglected at every step of the pandemic, and the results have been devastating.

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Perspective by Radiyah Chowdhury

The Toronto Hot Spot Nobody’s Talking About

Malvern has one of the highest COVID positivity rates in the city and only got its first pop-up clinic today. People here are used to feeling left behind.

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Photo essay by Yader Guzman with introduction by Nicholas Hune-Brown

Bringing the Vaccine to Where it’s Needed

Relief, joy, and no hesitancy at a pop-up clinic at Jane and Finch, the postal code with the lowest vaccination rates in the city.

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Investigation by Nicholas Hune-Brown

The Vaccine Rollout is Leaving Toronto’s Hardest-Hit Postal Codes Behind

New data reveals that Ontario’s vaccine strategy is missing the most vulnerable areas of Toronto.

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Investigation by Inori Roy

Plenty of Pharmacies, but No Vaccines in Toronto’s Northwest

There are 25 pharmacies in the five Toronto neighbourhoods worst-hit by COVID. Why weren’t any of them chosen to administer vaccines?