By Scott Taylor
As this COVID-19 has now affected the entire globe it is interesting to observe just how it has impacted different cultures, aside from actual mortality rates or those measures governments have taken to contain the spread of the virus.
In Italy for instance, one of those countries that has been exceptionally hard hit by COVID-19, locked down residents of apartment buildings, have organized collective concerts. In Spain, another European hot spot policemen have entertained in the empty streets to the amusement of the citizens they are forcibly containing in their homes.
In Canada we have thus far met the challenge of social distancing and a locked down economy with a quiet resolve. The new normal is something akin to the ‘walk of the penguins’ with everyone shuffling forward in store line-ups at evenly spaced two metre intervals.
We have taken our cues from national and provincial leaders whose press briefings have become part of our daily routine. When historians of the future review the video footage of this crisis they will be able to witness the time-lapse transformation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s finely quaffed hair morphing into a caveman mop top. Aside from xenophobic allegations from MP and Conservative Party leadership candidate Derek Sloan accusing Federal Health Officer Theresa Tam of at best, not having Canada’s interests at heart and at worst being an agent of China – this has not been a particularly divisive crisis in terms of Canadian politics.
All in all, it appears that the measures put in place in Canada have effectively flattened the curve and our mortality rate has been mercifully low in relation to those individuals who have tested positive for the virus.
This stands in strong contrast to the crap show that we have seen unfolding just south of our now restricted border. The USA is now truly number one in all categories of the COVID-19 statistics; it has tested the most citizens, it has recorded the most positive cases, suffered the most deaths and has the most unemployed workforce on the planet.
Despite these statistics there are a large number of Americans who still think this whole pandemic is some sort of hoax, fake news or a conspiracy.
Last week some U.S. ‘patriots’ brandished their assault rifles to exercise their second amendment freedom to bear arms while demanding that the authorities end the lockdown. When frontline healthcare workers counter-protested the would be ‘patriots’ denounced the nurses as ‘traitors’.
The medical face of the U.S. COVID-19 crisis is that of National Health Officer Dr. Anthony Fauci. Even as his projections of the virus spread and death tolls are being proven correct the conspiracy theorists demand he be silenced. Things are so serious that this heretofore-unknown medical official now requires a round-the-clock security detail for his personal protection.
Then we have U.S. President Donald Trump whose combative and divisive rhetoric has only been amplified throughout this crisis.
When the COVID-19 virus was initially a regional outbreak in China and Southeast Asia, Trump publicly downplayed the threat of the disease. Even when the first COVID-19 cases appeared in the U.S., Trump and his regime were warning that the cure of a lockdown would be worse than the spread of the virus because it would kill the American economy.
Last week Trump blamed the World Health Organization (WHO) for failing to sound the alarm early enough to allow America to prepare. As a result of WHO being allegedly ‘China centric’ Trump has ceased funding this international agency.
For the record, the first announcement of ‘pneumonia cases’ was reported in Wuhan China on 31 December 2019. On 5 January 2020 the WHO published a first Disease Outbreak News on the new virus.
Several other warnings were issued by WHO and on 11 March 2020, due to the severity and levels of spread – “and by the alarming levels of international inaction”, the WHO officially declared a pandemic.
Now Trump has stopped funding the agency, which sounded the alarm which he and others ignored.
That does not seem like a smart move for dealing with any future global pandemic.
