“Early on in this wave, we had 1,000 staff members off work every day”: UHN’s head of critical care on how ICUs are coping with the hospital crisis
"Everybody’s exhausted. We’ve had people break down in tears in the middle of their shifts"
covid
“We’re already selling out of chicken”: This burnt-out nurse started a sandwich shop with his fiancée during Covid
"No one’s life is on the line, and we get the satisfaction of sharing our creations with the world"
“One person said they had booked appointments for 20 friends from my tweets”: How this woman became a vaccine hunter extraordinaire
"I wanted to do what I could to ease the burden on the health care system"
“I started having work-related stress dreams”: What it’s like to be a pharmacist during the Covid surge
"Because it's harder to see a physician, there are now serious gaps in health care, and a lot of patients are coming to us instead of their doctors"
“We’re seeing triple the number of Covid patients as we did in previous waves”: A Toronto General emergency doctor on what it’s like in the ER right now
"We're seeing younger and healthier patients who feel truly awful with Covid"
“Staff are calling in sick every day”: How this ER nurse is coping with the Omicron surge
"We're running, we're short-staffed, there are children screaming and crying. It's chaotic"
“In our house, we have five people and only four laptops”: How parents are coping with yet another round of virtual school
"When I first heard about the return to virtual school, my first thought was—pardon my language—F the Ontario government"
“All the marijuana charges we laid back then seem so ludicrous to me now”: Police chief James Ramer on the push to decriminalize drug possession
He was on the verge of retirement when he accepted the top job. Multiple pandemic waves later—plus his own case of Covid—and he's still standing, and advocating for change
“I’d break down in tears as soon as I got home”: Why this nurse left the profession for good
"I was skipping all of my lunches and breaks, and I still couldn't get everything done"
“A teenager left me a thank-you note after her second shot”: This psychiatrist is working as a Covid vaccinator at CAMH
"How often do 10 to 12 people thank you in a meaningful way every hour?"
“Covid just added to the divisiveness in America”: These lawyers packed up their lives in North Carolina and moved to Toronto
"Before we moved to Toronto, we'd only been here once, for 36 hours"
“We’ve done hundreds of Zoom funerals”: How Toronto’s bar mitzvah kings created a booming virtual events business
"We went from getting dozens of inquiries a day to nothing. We started thinking, 'What are we going to do? Is this the end of our business?'
“The crowd looked like thousands. It was a proper rock show”: What it was like for Tokyo Police Club’s Graham Wright to return to live performances
"Fans are sick of waiting, bands are sick of waiting, venues are on razor's edge to pay the rent every month"
My house burned down, I contracted Covid, and I moved to the country—all in the past six months
My neighbour left a voicemail: "Your house is on fire"
“People were yelling and calling me names”: What it’s like for health care workers to walk through hospital anti-vax protests
One ER doctor staged his own counter-protest
