Ontario Premier Doug Ford is defending his Chief Medical Officer of Health after videos of Dr. Kieran Moore attending a large indoor gathering while unmasked surfaced on social media.
Moore, who recently issued a recommendation to the public to mask while in public indoor settings, attended a party thrown by Toronto Life magazine celebrating the city’s most influential people and was seen in several videos unmasked amid a large crowd of people.
The videos, posted by Toronto Life to Instagram, triggered immediate backlash and questions about why Dr. Moore was refusing to follow his own recommendations.
“It certainly contradicts some of the advice he had given just a few days before,” said Liberal MPP Dr. Adil Shamji. “We have an obligation not just to talk the talk, but to walk the walk.”
Premier Ford quickly sprang to Dr. Moore’s defence, indicating that the province’s top doctor was simply following provincial rules that don’t mandate masking in any setting in Ontario.
“Here in Ontario, Masking is personal choice,” the premier said at an unrelated news conference. “If you’re around vulnerable people, around young people, that’s going to be your choice.”
The Ministry of Health issued a statement saying Dr. Moore, “like all Ontarians evaluates the risk of each situation including private events.”
“He follows many layers of protection including screening daily for symptoms of any respiratory infection, practising good hand hygiene, staying up to date on immunizations, masking when necessary and distancing when possible.”
In the two videos posted to social media, Moore is seen mingling among the crowd, which is also largely unmasked, and watching performances while holding a beverage in his hand.
The unmasked party videos came just four days after Moore warned Ontarians about a triple threat of respiratory viruses that have sent hundreds of children to intensive care units across the province forcing hospitals to ramp down scheduled procedures to make room for additional acute care patients.
The “difficult and complex fall that was predicted, has materialized,” Ontario’s top doctor said as he “strongly recommended” that residents start wearing masks indoors.
“I hope Ontarians will heed the call,” Moore said.
Ontario’s Progressive Conservative party was immediately taken to task when a majority of MPPs, including Premier Doug Ford, were seen not wearing masks in the legislature — a move that was defended by Health Minister Sylvia Jones.
On Friday, however, Premier Ford reinforced his stance that masks are an individual decision.
“It’s the people of Ontario, they’ve been through two-and-a-half years of this. They know if they need a mask, they know if they don’t need a mask.”