The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

The complaint came to Durham Region’s health department from a concerned resident, nervous about her risk of contracting COVID-19 from maskless colleagues working in an office.

The advice the health officials sent back was blunt: She was safe as long as they kept at least two metres apart from each other. “Current evidence does not support airborne transmission,” a Durham health official told her on April 8.

That advice contradicts mounting research and safety guidance from some of the world’s largest health bodies. The Public Health Agency of Canada began warning as early as November 2020 that SARS-CoV-2 can spread from an infected person to others through aerosols, tiny particles that can linger in the air.

A Torstar review of the websites of 10 public health departments in the GTA and surrounding area — including Durham — found seven of them made no mention of aerosol transmission in fact sheets about COVID-19’s spread. Four of the 10 agencies continued to disseminate outdated safety information that some experts say may actually be dangerous.

GUEST: Dr. Dasantila Golemi-Kotra, Microbiologist at York University

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A U.S. intelligence report found that several researchers at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill in November 2019 and had to be hospitalized, a new detail about the severity of their symptoms that could fuel further debate about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, according to two people briefed on the intelligence.

A State Department fact sheet released by the Trump administration in January said that the researchers had gotten sick in autumn 2019 but did not go as far as to say they had been hospitalized. China reported to the World Health Organization that the first patient with COVID-19-like symptoms was recorded in Wuhan on Dec. 8, 2019.

Importantly, the intelligence community still does not know what the researchers were actually sick with, said the people briefed, and continues to have low confidence in its assessments of the virus' precise origins beyond the fact that it came from China. "At the end of the day, there is still nothing definitive," said one of the people who has seen the intelligence.

The director of the Wuhan National Biosafety Lab, which is part of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, issued a strong denial of the report on Monday.

GUEST:  Elliot Tepper, Emeritus Professor of Political Science with Carleton University

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Unable to make any headway in the polls against the Liberals, Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole could use a little help from his friends Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

Basically, he needs Ford and Kenney to avoid doing anything that makes matters worse for him.

Trailing the Liberals by six percentage points nationwide in the CBC’s Poll Tracker — an aggregation of all publicly available polling data — the Conservatives are struggling in both Ontario and Alberta, among other places.

But Ontario is a key electoral battleground for the Conservatives, while Alberta is supposed to be their unassailable fortress. It might be no coincidence that O'Toole is having difficulty in these provinces as Kenney and Ford slide in the polls.

GUEST: Richard Brennan, Former Journalist with The Toronto Star covering Queen’s Park and Parliament Hill

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast with Guest Host Greg Brday:

The Ontario government has unveiled a three-phase COVID-19 reopening plan that will gradually guide the province as it emerges from a weeks-long stay-at-home order imposed on all regions.

We discuss what you can do and when you can do it under Ontario’s new 3 phase reopening plan.

ALSO: What outdoor amenities can reopen on Saturday?

GUEST: Robyn Urback, Journalist with the Globe and Mail

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GUEST: Ryan Imgrund, Biostatistician and Teacher

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Schools will remain closed and students will continue with remote learning, the Ontario government said while announcing its reopening plan on Thursday.

Schools across Ontario have been closed since the delayed March Break which took place in April. Toronto, Peel and Guelph, however, had closed earlier due to increasing COVID-19 numbers.

Ford said there are differing opinions on the matter, pointing to Williams being in favour of reopening schools. However, the premier said some doctors on the science table are not in favour.

Ford also referenced the teachers’ unions possibly putting an injunction in place if they made the decision to go ahead and reopen.

GUEST: Harvey Bischof, President of OSSTF (Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation)

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast with Guest Host Greg Brady:

Greg’s opening monologue on today's announcement for Ontario’s re-opening plan at 3pm and Ontario will offer the AZ vaccine as a 2nd dose - but timing has its questions. 

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Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives are expected to unveil a detailed blueprint today for the reopening of Ontario’s economy on a sector-by-sector basis instead of a regional approach.

With key pandemic indicators — such as new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations — trending in an encouraging direction, Ford’s government is to announce the timetable for opening businesses after the stay-at-home order expires June 2.

That does not mean that the doors to every sector can fling open on June 3. Rather, there will be a methodical and gradual approach that is approved by public health officials and phased in over many weeks.

But Health Minister Christine Elliott hinted Wednesday that golf, tennis, basketball and other outdoor activities could be permitted in time for the upcoming Victoria Day weekend.

ALSO: A look ahead to what the Liberals can accomplish before the next provincial election.

GUEST: Steven Del Duca, Leader of the Ontario Liberal Party

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The Ontario health care system can resume non-urgent and non-emergent surgeries and procedures effective Wednesday due to decreasing COVID-19 case and hospital numbers, the province’s chief medical officer of health says.

Dr. David Williams issued the stoppage on April 20 due to increasing COVID case counts, hospitalizations and ICU admissions as the province grappled with the third wave of the virus.

However, a spokeswoman for Health Minister Christine Elliott said the resumption of non-urgent procedures won’t be uniform across the province since it’s dependent on a hospital’s capacity.

GUEST: Dr. Shady Ashamalla, Head of General Surgery at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre 

Welcome to the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs! The first round gets rolling on Saturday with Game 1 of the Washington Capitals-Boston Bruins series.

There's plenty of history in many of these matchups, as the NHL is using an intradivisional format for the first two rounds, before re-bracketing the final four for the semifinals. 

ESPN gathered its panel of NHL experts to hear their picks on each series in the first official round of the 2021 playoffs, along with how many games it will take to get to the result in each case.

GUEST: Greg Wyshynkski, Senior NHL Writer at ESPN, Co-host of the Puck Soup Podcast