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Thread: On March 17 all @TorontoStar staff, like many of you, began working entirely from home. Homes, like many of yours, with young children, unable to be at school, that never envisioned a remote working partner, never mind 2, or being suddenly without work. Or being so alone+
This amid concerns for families, including the elderly or otherwise vulnerable, & a shifting work environment not only literally (ie home) but also in focus as many changed beats & supervisors to address the pandemic, & financial uncertainty as COVID-19 hit news ads/revenue hard+
They've been ferocious in doing enterprising reporting to help us understand what's happening from health & science research, to practical how to get financial & mental health help, to the forward-looking - what happens when this starts to be over? What does 'over' look like?+
Some have done this having lived through COVID-19 personally: @maywarren11 + https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/04/03/im-a-healthy-millennial-getting-covid-19-was-so-much-worse-than-i-expected.html
Others while doing what is possible to connect with a parent battling COVID-19:+ @_kevindonovan https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/04/12/reading-grandpa-murrays-remarkable-diary-to-my-quarantined-mom-fills-the-space-with-joy.html
They did what journalists do in a crisis. They rose to the challenge & set about examining & dissecting the pandemic to be sure we all have the information we need to make what could be life-saving decisions. There are so many examples, but please let me provide at least a few+
Story after tragic story exposed long term care homes as epicentres of the outbreak, where its effects are most likely to be fatal. You can't fix a problem you can't see. No government was tracking LTC cases & deaths. So we built this to do it for them+ https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/04/23/ontario-doesnt-have-a-one-stop-shop-for-information-about-covid-19-deaths-in-long-term-care-homes-and-hospitals-the-toronto-star-built-its-own.html
You've heard wide-spread testing is vital. But why? @jyangstar shows many can be infected without symptoms, silently spreading the virus to those more vulnerable to its deadliness. Advice to 'stay home when you have symptoms' can be too little too late+ https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/04/26/are-the-silent-spreaders-driving-covid-19-mounting-evidence-points-to-asymptomatic-cases.html
Some point to COVID-19 mortality rates as if dying is the only factor. Some of those folk shrug off the impact of the virus on those who survive it. You know who don't do that? The survivors. Like Linda Lam & her family in this @Megan_Ogilvie story:+ https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/04/25/after-seven-weeks-one-of-ontarios-first-covid-19-patients-to-be-intubated-leaves-the-icu-to-applause.html
And Richard in this @jyangstar story. His message to you: "It doesn’t matter who you are, what kind of health you’re in, what your social standing is. It doesn’t matter a damn. It will get you. It can get you. You are not safe.”+ https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/04/16/hes-63-got-covid-19-went-on-a-ventilator-and-lived-a-toronto-mans-terrifying-journey.html
Physical distancing works but it's hard to know how far is enough. So we made this incredible interactive that gives you real-life examples to choose from. Bonus - you don't actually get sick or spread if you choose wrong here: @lauraarmy & design team+ https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/202here0/04/26/testing-the-limits-how-torontos-common-areas-might-work-when-covid-19-restrictions-start-to-loosen.html
OK, so we know it's a vicious adversary and we have to physical distance - that's on us. But to relax restrictions, some things have to happen at more offical levels than our living rooms. So @KenyonWallace @_jennamoon wrote this:+ https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/04/24/ontario-could-learn-a-lot-about-data-collection-and-testing-from-four-countries-ahead-of-the-covid-19-curve.html
About that loosening up, how it is done is as vital as that it eventually be done. So Joseph Hall looked for answers on what that might look like:+ https://www.thestar.com/business/2020/04/23/as-ontario-gears-up-to-reopen-we-asked-experts-which-businesses-will-open-first-you-wont-like-the-answer.html
Tuesday marks 6 weeks since @TorontoStar team began a ridiculously complex high-wire act of making multi-platform news remotely. Like you, we miss much of how life was. We miss each other. We grapple with how this physically/emtionally/financially impacts us, families, friends+
We're committed to exposing & reflecting the Canadian experience, to helping us all find a way through it, & to examining what the other side of it looks like. We are profoundly grateful for those who support our work. Without subscription, we would not be able to afford do it
We know this is tough on everyone, but not everyone equally. We're doing our best to expose and help that. We have also dedicated a stream of our reporting to helping people find their way through financial & mental distress - Some of that is here:+ https://www.thestar.com/coronavirus/faq.html
This pandemic has illuminated many critical things that were clear before but easy to overlook ignore. We are examining many of them and will be for months and years to come. But one of those things is the critical role of journalism, and local journalism, to society+
Many news outlets have shut down in North America in recent years. More have downsized or furloughed or cut pay since COVID-19 struck. That means fewer reporters working for you. If you can afford it in these very tough times, please subscribe to a local outlet of our choice 
