Jannine Duffy
Day 2 · September 9, 2026 · 0:28:28
Key points Jannine Duffy, 66, a grocery-store cashier who walked two kilometres to work daily, testifies alongside her daughter Jennifer Britton, who became her caregiver. She says she received a Moderna shot on May 29, 2021, and during her shift afterward her thumb went numb, a numbness that remains to this day. She describes fingers and toes turning blue and developing painful purple lesions and crystals that emerged through her nails, with a doctor warning she could lose her fingers and toes. She says an emergency room doctor first suggested the reaction was linked to the vaccine, something she and Jennifer had never considered. She says doctors advised her to get the second Moderna shot anyway, after which she could only shuffle backwards, shook uncontrollably, and became largely immobile. She says her hips were later found destroyed from lack of circulation, she used a wheelchair for six months, and now relies on a walker. She and Jennifer describe financial ruin, a stalled vaccine-injury claim, and the sudden death of her son Robert, who feared seeing her ill.
Speaker 4
0:02 So our next witnesses are Janine Duffy and her daughter, Jennifer Britton. 0:12 And so Janine, we'll start with you if you want to take the Bible in your right hand. 0:17 So Janine Duffy, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth to help you God? Speaker 4
0:26 And then Jennifer, if you want to take the Bible. 0:29 Jennifer Britton, do you swear to tell the truth 0:32 the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God. Speaker 4
0:39 Now, Janine, I'm going to have you share most of the story, but as I understand it, there's some memory issues and it would help to have... Speaker 7
0:49 I think about my pain and what I've gone through, but as for what happened with any doctor, any medical thing, I zone out. 0:57 It's like I walk out of that doctor's office and I know nothing. 1:01 I know I'm still in pain. 1:03 She is the one that listens and tells me afterwards. Speaker 4
1:07 Right. 1:07 Okay. 1:07 So together we'll get a complete story. 1:10 I appreciate, Jennifer, your willingness to be here. 1:14 Now, Janine, my understanding is you did not have COVID. 1:20 There were antibody tests. Speaker 7
1:22 I had an antibody test that proved I never had COVID. Speaker 4
1:26 Okay. 1:27 And you're 66? 1:27 Yeah. 1:30 You've had two kids, Jennifer and Robert. Speaker 4
1:33 And you've got some grandchildren. 1:35 And now five to six years before the vaccination, you started working. 1:39 You were working as a cashier at a grocery store. Speaker 4
1:43 And prior to the vaccination, my understanding is you literally would walk two kilometers to work. Speaker 4
1:49 You'd be on your feet at work all day. 1:51 Yep. 1:51 And then you'd walk two kilometers home. Speaker 7
1:53 Yeah, rain or snow. Speaker 4
1:55 Right. 1:55 Okay. 1:56 So this is what's happening daily now. 2:00 just before this story, just so everyone can understand that. Speaker 7
2:04 Oh, and I can go home and cook dinner. 2:06 I could garden afterwards. 2:07 It's like physical to me was energizing. 2:11 So it, the more I did, the more energized I felt. Speaker 4
2:17 Okay. 2:18 And then I'll just quickly, Jennifer, introduce you to the inquiry. 2:22 So you're 43, um, you, you're a mother of three kids and, um, 2:27 you're basically here to help support your mother and, and by, you know, profession, you are a real estate conveyancer. Speaker 6
2:34 Yeah. 2:34 Yeah. 2:35 And I'm here to support her because as soon as that happened, I became her caregiver immediately and kind of rode this whole storm with her, went to every doctor's appointment, have spent hundreds of hours in the emergency room with her. 2:46 And I think honestly, that's what kind of got us as far as it did is I was not scared of the emergency room and we went a lot. Speaker 4
2:55 Okay. 2:56 So let's, um, 2:57 Back to you, Janine, is you get a Moderna shot on May 29, 2021. 3:07 Can you share with us what happened? Speaker 7
3:10 Okay, well, I went and got the Moderna shot, and I had a shift at work right afterwards, which to me, no big deal. 3:18 But during that shift, we had to call people over to the grocery lines because of the COVID thing. 3:26 But I raised my hand like this, and I was pointing to someone to come over, and I got a pain through my arm, not much of a big deal, but my thumb went numb. 3:39 And to this day, it is still numb, and I can feel that every moment of the day. Speaker 4
3:45 So you can feel that it's numb? 3:47 What's that? 3:49 It feels numb every day. Speaker 7
3:50 It's numb. 3:52 It's like it's all alive. 3:54 All of the nerve endings feel like they're alive. 3:57 I can touch it. 3:58 If she touched it, I'd be jumping through the roof. 4:01 So, yeah, it's like, and I'm so used to it now. 4:05 And I just know that I do this all the time to keep it so I don't lose it. 4:11 Because I'm scared that it's going to go completely numb. Speaker 4
4:16 So what happens after that? 4:17 So numb is the first thing. Speaker 7
4:19 Okay, the thumb I remember... 4:21 I just remember the next couple of weeks, I got so weak. 4:27 Walking to work, the calves of my legs started to burn. Speaker 4
4:32 I just want to slow you down. 4:34 We'll get there. 4:35 I want to talk about fingers and toes first. Speaker 7
4:38 Oh, fingers and toes. 4:39 Yeah. 4:40 My fingers started to go blue. 4:42 Yeah. 4:45 And I went to the doctor about that, and then he asked me to look at my feet as well. 4:50 So now I have blue fingers and blue toes. 4:55 And he got me into neurology as soon as he possibly could, told me that if it gets any worse, I'm probably going to lose my fingers and my toes. Speaker 4
5:07 Did they share with you, and this is more probably for you, Jennifer, what is causing this? Speaker 6
5:14 Not initially. 5:15 And then in one of our first emergency room visits, it wasn't our family doctor, it was an emergency room visit. 5:21 And the doctor there is the one who brought it up. 5:23 And when she mentioned it could be because of the vaccine, we both looked at each other like, what? 5:28 Like it was never a thought. 5:30 Even the day that she had her thumb go numb, we didn't correlate it because it was safe and effective, right? 5:34 There was nothing that would have made us think that it would have been a reaction. 5:39 And when we went to get it, it's not like, 5:43 we had the fear then, you know, there was always that little bit of, oh, this is strange, but there was no fear. 5:48 So we weren't looking for any sort of reaction. 5:51 It was a doctor, an emergency room doctor who presented it to us and then put it in a file. 5:56 And then from there, the discussion opened, but it did not start from us. Speaker 4
6:02 So I want you guys to talk about the purple dots and 6:10 On the fingers and toes, because this, I just have to tell you, I've never heard this before. 6:15 So can you describe the purple dots and what they did and then what happened? Speaker 7
6:21 Okay, so a purple dot, it's like just a tiny little lesion, like a little tiny blood blister. 6:27 Now, for days, my daughter and I kind of watched it move up my finger, go towards my fingernail, and once it got under that fingernail, it moved up. 6:39 and the pain was excruciating. 6:42 I said it was a telephone pole coming out of my fingernail, not a sliver. 6:46 And when it actually came to the edge of the nail, there was crystals. 6:53 It was like coarse salt. 6:55 And it happened to my toes as well. 6:58 So during the, I don't know when, but my fingernails and my toenails completely changed. 7:06 But the pain that I felt 7:09 When these things were coming up through my fingernails, yeah, I just wanted to die. 7:18 It was painful. Speaker 6
7:18 And sometimes they would look like an under the skin bruise and you would watch that move. 7:23 And sometimes they would come to the surface and be a wound on the outside. 7:27 And then that wound would move to the outer surfaces. 7:31 And they always started somewhere and went to the farthest extremity. 7:35 So she got them on the tips of her ear. 7:37 her fingers and her toes and they came out the fingernail beds. Speaker 4
7:41 Right. 7:42 Crystals. Speaker 4
7:43 So, so yeah. 7:45 So David, you're anticipating what I want. 7:48 So. Speaker 6
7:48 And it's very hard to see blue in a photo. 7:50 So I tried many times to get some of these photos and as we all know. Speaker 4
7:54 Is this photo up? Speaker 4
7:56 Okay. 7:57 So, so this is a photo of Janine's hands and the, the longest finger you can see that it's blue in the photograph. 8:06 Um, 8:06 But what you're saying is the photograph really does not do much justice here. Speaker 7
8:13 No, because when I first went to the doctor and it was purple and he was very nervous and he told me if it gets any worse to go to emergency right away. 8:24 Because he said if it gets any worse, he said you actually could lose your fingers and your toes because it looks like maybe gangrene. Speaker 4
8:32 Okay, let's go to the next photo. 8:35 So this is kind of the blue dots now move to the end of the finger, right? 8:40 Yeah. 8:41 But it would start in the hand or on the finger. Speaker 7
8:44 Like on the knuckles, and then it would kind of move on up. 8:49 And as it moved up, it seemed to get a little bigger. 8:53 And then by the time it got to my fingernail. Speaker 4
8:57 And that looks sore to me. Speaker 4
8:59 David, do you want to go to the next one? 9:02 So this is where a crystal would come out, right? 9:05 This has happened on the toe? Speaker 7
9:06 Yeah, in the toenails, you can sort of see things. 9:09 But the bottom of my toe, where that round thing is, that started off as just the tiniest little mark. 9:17 And then it grew and grew and grew, and you could see my bone through the hole. Speaker 6
9:23 It became a gaping hole, and it looked like this for about nine months. 9:28 Yeah. 9:29 And it would not go away. 9:30 Yeah. 9:30 Yeah. 9:31 And you can still see it today, but it's not open any longer. 9:36 But you can see on the second toe that the nail doesn't, I used to call it like ogre toes. 9:42 I'm like, you now have these like big, ugly man nails on your toes that you never had before. 9:49 And they came out of nowhere. 9:51 It was so fast. Speaker 4
9:54 So let's go. 9:54 You were starting to talk about muscle weakness. 9:56 I just I wanted us. Speaker 7
9:58 No, that's that's it. 9:59 Yeah, I just I felt like I was getting weaker now at work. 10:04 I also as a personal shopper. 10:06 So I would go and grab milk out of the cooler to put in my bag. 10:10 I could no longer pick up a bag of milk. 10:12 It was taking two arms to get a bag of milk. 10:15 I went to grab a thing of orange juice, dropped it. 10:20 And it's like, OK. 10:21 there's something definitely, definitely wrong. 10:24 But that was after I'd even gone to the doctor about my hands. 10:28 So I was just getting weaker. 10:30 I think within a couple of weeks, I was, I could no longer go to work. 10:35 I couldn't stay on my feet for more than five minutes. 10:39 If I touch something, I felt like I was going to break. 10:42 Like if I would touch this, my hand felt like it was going to break. 10:45 I felt like I was either like breaking like glass or 10:50 or a total infant and it's like i i have no idea what is going on so um you're clearly having a severe reaction do you take a second shot i did because we did not correlate this at all i did not think of this whatsoever it's like okay maybe i'm just getting old real real quick um Speaker 4
11:15 Now, Jennifer, you have a different story of the evidence here. 11:18 So can you share with us a conversation you had? Speaker 6
11:20 Yeah, of course. 11:23 So this was still around the time where we had seen our family doctor and he's the one who told me, if you see any changes, go to eMERGE, go to eMERGE. 11:31 And it's hard. 11:32 Nobody wants to go to eMERGE, especially at that time. 11:34 And it was really difficult. 11:35 We spent a lot of hours there waiting. 11:38 And she was in a lot of pain the one day. 11:41 And it just so happened to be the day prior to her second shot's 11:47 And we went to Emerge. 11:48 We spent all night there. 11:49 All night long, I think we left at 8 a.m. and her appointment was at 11 a.m. And I remember asking the emergency room doctors there who let us go if she should be going for that appointment. Speaker 4
11:59 Can I just ask you to talk a little slower? Speaker 4
12:02 Yes. 12:02 Because we've got transcriptionists. Speaker 6
12:04 Of course, I know. 12:05 And I'll go real quick, too. 12:06 I need to be slowed down. Speaker 4
12:08 So, yeah. 12:08 So please slow down or they won't have a chance. Speaker 6
12:11 No problem. 12:11 So they told us, yes, she should absolutely go and get that second one, that it was very important that she did that or she could get worse. 12:20 So sorry. 12:21 So she could get worse. 12:23 So we did go through with that appointment. 12:25 And when we got there, they do their regular questioning and they asked, we asked them if it was still a good idea for her to get this second shot because she had just been in the emergency room, that her fingers were blue, that she was in a lot of pain. 12:42 And it was actually a doctor who administered that second vaccine. 12:45 And she said, absolutely. 12:47 Yes. 12:47 You're best off to get this vaccine today so that you don't get worse. 12:51 So we were told the same thing by that doctor. 12:53 And I was really hesitant, but the appointment was booked. 12:57 So we did it. 12:58 And she did get that shot. Speaker 4
13:01 You know, the reasoning that we had, I think, Senator Ron Johnson here yesterday going and somebody else said it, too. 13:08 It's like, OK, so the vaccine is supposed to protect you from getting COVID. 13:13 So if it works and that's true, why do you care if somebody's unvaccinated? 13:17 Because you're protected. 13:18 Why do you care about them? 13:21 So you're injured from the vaccine. 13:23 So the solution is just to take more of the vaccine? Speaker 6
13:27 And it was a Moderna was the second shot as well. 13:30 And it was within, I believe it was 48 hours, maybe 36 hours. 13:35 And she texted me. 13:36 She lives alone in her own apartment. 13:38 And she's on a second floor with no elevator, just to put that in. 13:42 And she texted me at 5 a.m. to say, I can't move. 13:45 And I was like, well, what does that mean? 13:48 And I rushed over to her place. 13:49 I'm only 10 minutes away. 13:50 And when I got into her apartment, she was literally clung to the corner, to the wall. 13:55 She was holding on to the wall because she couldn't hold herself up and she couldn't walk to anywhere in her tiny little one bedroom apartment. 14:04 And to be honest, I wanted to call. Speaker 4
14:06 So Janine, that's when I started looking backwards. Speaker 7
14:10 That's the only way I just could shuffle my feet very, very slightly backwards. 14:14 I could not go forward. 14:16 I could not go sideways. 14:18 I could shuffle backwards. 14:19 And that's how I went down three flights of stairs is like backwards hanging on. Speaker 6
14:23 Because we were in this strange denial state where we're like, this can't be real. 14:27 And we had so many times that this can't be real. Speaker 4
14:29 Just hang on. 14:30 So Janine, so you've woken up and something's changed. 14:35 You actually can't walk forward. 14:37 The only way you can move is backwards. 14:41 What's going through your mind? 14:43 Like what's the experience? Speaker 7
14:47 I'm going to say total confusion and absolute terrified because I had no idea. 14:53 Is this going to be my life? 14:55 Am I just going to drop right here? 14:58 Is pain going to be the rest of my life because I'd been in pain for a couple of weeks already? 15:03 I was absolutely terrified. 15:06 It's like, 15:07 I didn't know. 15:08 I didn't have a flu. Speaker 4
15:10 And my understanding is that you also started to shake. 15:13 Can you talk about that? 15:14 What's that? 15:15 My understanding is your body was shaking too at that time. Speaker 4
15:19 Can you share about that? Speaker 7
15:22 My legs absolutely started to shake. 15:24 I had no control. 15:26 Like, I don't feel like it was a seizure at all, but everything was just not right. 15:30 It's like I was jerky. 15:32 I was not right. 15:35 It's very hard to describe when you're going through things. Speaker 4
15:39 Okay. 15:39 Now, today, you've gone from being able to walk two kilometers for being on your feet all day and then walking back. 15:50 You can maybe have 10 minutes on your feet. 15:53 Yeah. 15:54 And then that's it. Speaker 7
15:55 The burning. 15:56 The burning. 15:57 And it's like I can feel, it feels like the bottom of my feet almost get lumpy. 16:04 Or that I'm walking on like broken seashells. 16:09 So, and when I look at my feet, they look absolutely normal. 16:12 I thought I was having phantom pain for the longest time. 16:15 It's like, this is not real. 16:16 Maybe I'm just imagining it. 16:19 Because it's like none of it made any sense. 16:21 I've never even heard of half of this stuff. Speaker 4
16:24 Now, I've seen you today using a walker to get around. Speaker 4
16:28 But you were in a wheelchair for six months and then you had to graduate up to being able to use it. Speaker 7
16:33 Well, when I was going through a lot of testing and my legs were just not working properly and I finally went to my family doctor and it's like, OK, I know they've done all these tests. 16:44 Can I please get an X-ray on my hips? 16:49 And I got the X-ray. 16:51 They had me into hip surgery very, very quickly. 16:56 When I went, the doctor had told me, he says, oh my God, your hips are absolutely destroyed because of lack of circulation. Speaker 6
17:06 And what he said then as well is that this must have been going on for 10 years to get to this point. 17:12 And we laughed and we're like, no, she was walking beautifully six months ago and he didn't believe us because he says it's impossible. 17:20 There's no way that it could be this deteriorated that quickly. 17:24 And I was like, well, you should have seen her walk not long ago. Speaker 4
17:29 Right. 17:30 So, Jennifer, what's the effect been on you and the experience? 17:34 You've shared with us that you've basically become a caregiver to your mother because, Janine, you've had to stop cooking and you have trouble holding things. 17:45 You do need assistance now. 17:47 Jennifer, what's it been like on you? Speaker 6
17:51 Honestly, it changed everything. 17:53 Everything overnight, you know, after that first vaccine, there was a couple of doctor's appointments, things like that. 17:59 So we were just a little bit worried. 18:01 But after that second one, and she was basically immobile, I took over. 18:06 I took over. 18:07 And, you know, we didn't, listening to some of these other stories, you know, we didn't have a farm to sell. 18:12 We didn't have a business to sell. 18:13 It was financial ruin almost immediately. 18:16 She lives alone. 18:17 She's an independent woman who worked at a grocery store. 18:19 She was not in a position to lose her job overnight. 18:23 And that was another element to this story that was very difficult. 18:28 She never went back to work and still to this day hasn't. 18:31 We struggled to get her resources in every facet. 18:35 I work full time. 18:36 I'm a mom of three. 18:37 I was raising my three kids at home by myself on a single income, trying to help out my mom who's now disabled and without an income. 18:44 And for a lot of you, I'm sure you're aware, it's not easy to get yourself on disability or CPP disability now. 18:51 I needed to get her a PSW into the house. 18:54 I would stop by every day after work, pick up her laundry, do her laundry. 18:58 make sure she was, make sure she had things to eat and I would bring her meals, make sure she was okay just to have someone visit her. 19:08 Because when all of this happened, she gave up her entire social life for one, because she didn't feel well. 19:13 And two, you didn't talk about it. 19:16 We didn't talk about it to most people and they didn't, nobody wanted to hear it either. Speaker 4
19:20 Right. 19:21 That's the theme. 19:22 Now, Janine, my last question for you is I'd asked you during the interview, what, 19:28 what was the most dangerous part? 19:29 You listed a couple of things and one was losing your son, Robert, because he was scared of you. 19:35 Can you share with us what that's all about? Speaker 7
19:39 My son, when he found out what was going on, he would not be able to handle seeing me in pain. 19:48 So I talked to him often, but there was no way he was going to come and visit because he just couldn't handle it. 19:55 Yeah. 19:57 And then 19:57 He suddenly just passed away, and he was 42. Speaker 4
20:03 What do you mean he suddenly passed away? Speaker 7
20:06 Well, we got a phone call, and they said that, yeah, he had passed away. 20:13 Now, we had asked him not to get the COVID shot until we knew kind of thing, but he went and got the COVID shot, and then he went and got the flu shot, and he died, and I think it was... Speaker 6
20:28 It took quite a few months to get his autopsy report. 20:30 And his autopsy report came out saying that he had some heart issues, some lung and liver issues. 20:38 But the ultimate cause was bacterial pneumonia, which he wasn't sick when he died. 20:45 Like he, you know, he was we talked to him a few days before and, you know, he was OK. And then I got it wasn't a phone call. 20:52 Actually, it was a knock on my door from a police officer to say that my brother was gone. 20:57 which was really hard because I had been trying to get him to come down and visit my mom because I was taking care of her by myself. 21:03 And he struggled with that because he didn't, she was a tough woman and she always has been. 21:08 And he didn't want to see her weak. Speaker 5
21:12 So he never got to see her after she fell ill. 21:15 So I never got to see him either. 21:22 And to me, that's been the hardest part is I feel like I lost my little best friend and who she was because she's a different person now. 21:28 But I also lost my brother because he couldn't handle it. 21:33 And now he's gone. 21:41 And that's, you know, of course, it's a different story. 21:43 But listening to the others today, you know, it really hits it home for everyone who suffered through those losses as well. Speaker 6
21:50 And it's been really hard. 21:52 And I know that I feel like I'm sitting here today for all those other voices, you know, and I'll take Abigail and Dominic's story and everyone else who had their losses and take those with me today, too. 22:02 And that's why we're here to share, because we felt like we've lived in 22:08 isolation. 22:08 We get out and we still do things, but the conversations that we have feel padded and they shouldn't. 22:14 I've never looked at someone and judged them because they told me their family member had cancer or had diabetes or MS or some other ailment. 22:23 But this one, they look at me funny. 22:25 And even some of my personal close friends today, we've just chosen that we're just not going to talk about it anymore so we can remain friends. 22:34 And I'd rather do that than, you know, 22:38 have the disagreements and things like that. 22:39 I don't want the divide. Speaker 3
22:48 You had mentioned long-term disability and CPP. 22:53 Have you filed and got any of that, any of those programs? Speaker 7
22:57 I have filed for the vaccine injury and I did that in August of 2022. 23:03 I talked 23:07 to someone the beginning of July, because I called them, I don't remember why, but they told me that, no, my folder is still sitting there, and it has 111 pages sitting there, and that's where it's at. Speaker 3
23:24 They never gave you a timeline of how long? Speaker 7
23:26 I asked him, and he said, no, we have no idea. 23:28 We're still going through paperwork. 23:31 But my file is sitting there with 1,100 pages. 23:34 1100 pages? 23:35 111. 23:35 Yeah, 111. 23:38 And that's all I heard from them. 23:39 I was on disability for a while. 23:43 And I'm on CPP. 23:48 But when I went to see if I could get on disability CPP, I don't know how to do that stuff. 23:56 And it said something like, you have to be under 65. 23:59 So once I turned 65, it's like, okay, I got nothing now. 24:02 When I was on disability, I was able to get transportation for free so I could get to hospital appointments without having to call my daughter. 24:11 Now I got nothing. 24:13 So I don't know. 24:14 And yeah, there was eight months where I had to go through. 24:18 I don't remember the name. Speaker 6
24:21 It's called iloprost infusions was one of the only treatments that she's had over the last few years that gave her some resolve with the circulation issues. 24:31 They actually started her on Viagra. 24:34 And that was helpful, but again, is very expensive. 24:37 And she didn't have insurance at the time. 24:39 So we were fortunate to have a rheumatologist who booked her for iloprost infusions. 24:44 It took about six months for them to approve this. 24:49 And she went for eight months worth of treatments for that. 24:53 They were three-day-in-a-row treatments, and, you know, I worked full-time, and I had to go to work as well. 24:58 So we were able to find some sort of ride program that was available to her, but as soon as she turned 65, for some reason, that got cut off. Speaker 3
25:07 Just to reach out to one of your remarkable MPs. 25:11 for help because none of our offices deal with this. Speaker 7
25:13 There was a community worker that came and she said, I've helped you fill out all the paperwork and I'm going to get a hold of people and there's community things that will get in touch with you. 25:23 And I heard from nothing. 25:25 And I'm not very good at reaching out because I don't know what to do. Speaker 3
25:29 I got one last question. 25:30 It's a short one. 25:32 The crystals that come out through the fingers and toes, did they ever test that to see what it was? 25:39 Anybody ever? Speaker 7
25:40 No, and I did have a little bit saved and I could not find it afterwards. 25:46 I could not find it, but I told the doctor about it and she actually saw a little bit that was under my toenail. 25:52 And she said, oh my God, like I've never seen that before. 25:55 And that was really basically the end of that. 25:58 I also want to say that, okay, inflammation, I get that a lot, especially with the rain. 26:04 And there is absolutely no medication that I can take without making me sick. 26:10 So I am stone cold, cannot take medication. 26:15 The only one that helped was hydromorphone, which is an opioid. 26:20 And that one, as soon as I could get off of that, I was off of that. 26:24 That was dark moments. Speaker 3
26:26 Thank you for telling your story. 26:28 Thank you, Mr. Ross. 26:29 Mr. Mahal. Speaker 1
26:30 Yes. 26:32 The question that bothers me is you get a vaccine and you get injury for that. 26:39 And there are two different things, not getting vaccine and getting vaccine and getting injured after that. 26:46 So when you talk to people and they are not able to say or relate to that, that there is a difference. 26:52 What do you think is that needs to be done as a society as what's missing there? Speaker 7
26:59 Information. 27:00 If I'd have had more information on what was going, like what was happening, 27:07 I probably would not have gotten the vaccine, but I was essential worker. 27:11 Yeah, I don't know. 27:15 I just I I feel like we were lied to. 27:20 And the information that just wasn't out there and being this dirty little secret. Speaker 6
27:26 I believe advocacy is another one as well. 27:29 And being the, you know, lucid person who was healthy, who spent this much time in the hospital with someone who was unwell and watching and hearing other people try and navigate the system and how quickly they were turned away and denied and spent hours and hours in the hospital. 27:45 And it's really hard to advocate for yourself. 27:47 And I know my mom would be in a very different position if I hadn't been there fighting for her beside her as well. 27:53 So I think, 27:55 That's a piece we're lacking, and I thought this many times as we were driving to the emergency room saying, man, I wish everybody had someone like me beside them because they deserve it. Speaker 2
28:07 Thank you. 28:09 Ladies, thank you very much, Jean, and for being such a strong advocate for your mother. Speaker 2
28:14 Not everyone has a chance to have a strong advocate, and I think that makes a big difference as well. Speaker 7
28:20 Thank you guys very much for doing this. 28:23 We appreciate it.