COVID-19 and the Labour of Care

The Covid-19 pandemic has certainly connected everyone to the history of disease. There have been many comparisons made with the "great influenza" of 1918 as well as other 20th-century pandemics. Early edited collections documented the impact of the pandemic in Manitoba and in Prince Edward Island, research projects were funded, and discussion groups created--notably Mon recit covid, which is administered by a leading scholar of nursing history at the University of Ottawa Marie-Claude Thifault. Esyllt Jones has written exemplary, historically informed work to reach physicians, editorials for the general public, and two short reports for the Royal Society of Canada in the past year. COVID-19 laid bare some of the challenges facing Canada's health care system and especially staffing issues in long-term care. In Nova Scotia COVID-19 settled into Northwood, the largest long-term care (LTC) facility in the Atlantic region, which experienced the full brunt of COVID-19 during the early days of the pandemic.