Didn't they ban Americans and pretty much just get drunk while staying home? And watching old hockey reruns?
Worse!!
CURLING!!!
1. First and foremost, Trudeau and the Premiers took the warnings seriously. Ontario had a clear Pandemic Response Plan which they put in place after the Toronto SARS outbreak in 2002/03. This was enhanced during H1N1, and we have a national pandemic response unit.
2. The provinces gave full cooperation to the federal Liberal government, even though only 3 of Canada's 10 provinces and 3 territories have Liberal provincial governments. There was no partisanship in the response at all.
3. Universal health care - no copays, no extra-billing. No question this played a huge part in the willingness of Canadians to go for testing early and often. I hand them my photo ID OHIP card, the swipe it, and get a confirmation of my status on screen. They check my address, phone number and next of kin are correct, and we're done. I have never know a medical bill in my adult life. I complete no paperwork. This means that when we get sick, we get treated, right away.
4. We got the WHO tests and tested everyone coming into the country from overseas, and traced as long as possible. We didn't close any borders until we closed our border with you. Testing at ports of entry was relatively easy for all countries except the USA. We managed to retrieve our passengers from the Japanese cruise ship without creating an outbreak when they landed.
Closing the Canada/US border spiked our cases for the same reason that Trump's travel restrictions from China spiked yours. Trudeau told the Snowbirds to come home while they could and come home they did. They were told to self isolate for 14 days after they got home, and while many did, enough didn't that in no time, 20% of our cases tracked back to people who had recently travelled to the USA. That's when the tracking system got overwhelmed, and the virus got loose.
5. We ordered PPE's early and we ordered often. Trudeau signed a contract with Amazon to distribute our orders of PPE's to hospitals throughout Canada, so that for Canadian hospitals it was as simple as ordering off Amazon to get face shields, masks and gowns.
The shipment of masks from 3M that Trump tried to stop, was part of our third restocking. We bought PPE's to fully stock all hospitals in early January, and distributed tests to all airports and ports of entry, as soon as they became available. A second shipment to overstock hospitals came in February, to prepare for the onslaught, and the 3M masks were part of the restock. When Trump blocked the shipment, Trudeau said that talks were ongoing and he was confident it would be sorted soon. It took the weekend to sort it, and the shipment was released on Monday. Face shields came from Eddie Bauer, who make hockey masks.
4. When Trudeau announced stay at home, he announced EI plans to get workers paid, and promised employers who keep employees on the payroll with financial help in doing so, but said details would have to wait until the public health issue was under control, and we could better asses the situation for businesses. All laid off workers can get up to $2300 per month (55% of insurable earnings) from Employment Insurance. All businesses with more than 10 employees, can get assistance.
My neighbour only worked 2 days a week, but has been paid for a 40 hour week. They're up to 3 days a week starting this week.
5. I lived in Toronto when SARS hit. That was some scary shit, but we learned a lot from it and every lesson learned was applied this time.
I post a lot of shit about the Ford Brothers. Mayor Rob Ford, the worst joke of a politician in the free world until Donald Trump said "Hold my alcohol-free beer!!!" Doug Ford, Rob's dumber younger brother is currently our Premier. Dougie has managed to **** up everything he has touched since he was elected, and his approval rating was hovering around 18% before this hit.
But Dougie has done an amazing job as Premier, in this pandemic. Not perfect, true, but that's an impossible standard. Canada's rate of death to closed cases is 13%. Ontario's rate of death to closed cases is below 10%. Ford even quietly settled the very unpopular teacher's strike during the March break so he could focus on the pandemic. And he lowered our electrical rates during peak hours so that everyone use power during the quarantine period at lower rates.
www.vox.com
