- Bernd Debusmann Jr
- BBC News, Washington
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image source, Getty Images
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Demonstrations against vaccination requirements and other public health measures continue in Canada.
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Images of a paralyzed Canadian capital and protests against measures to control the pandemic have brought to the fore the response of that country against covid.
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What started as a movement led by the truckers’ union to demand an end to mandatory vaccination requirements has escalated to include all kinds of public health restrictions.
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However, since the beginning of the pandemic, Canada has done much better than the United Statesdespite sharing similarities in income inequality, geographic separation, and comorbidities such as obesity and hypertension with its neighbor to the south.
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There is a huge difference, for example, between how many Americans have died of covid compared to Canadians, both in absolute numbers and in the death rate per million population.
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So what is going on, and why is Canada’s experience so far so different from the US? Furthermore, amid mounting public pressure to relax restrictions, will Canada be able to maintain control of the pandemic going forward?
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What do the figures show?
The proportion of daily new confirmed covid cases it has been lower in Canada than in the US. throughout most of the pandemic.
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Until February 12 – and even with infection rates falling across the country – new cases in the US circled the 543 per million of people, compared to 258 in Canada, according Our World in Dataa scientific publication in collaboration with the University of Oxford and a charitable educational institution.
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The trajectory of the pandemic has been similar in both countries, with cases rising and falling at about the same time, with the notable exception of the second spike in the US in the summer of 2021.
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“In fact, the rate of reproduction of the virus has been exactly the same,” said Canadian Dr. Mark Cameron, an associate professor in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at Case Western University in Ohio. “(But) Canada’s case rate per capita has generally been less than half that of the US.”
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The total death toll from the pandemic in the US is about 919,000compared to 35,500 in Canada, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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It should be remembered that the population of the US -above 332.4 million- is eight times that of Canada -38.2 million-, but in any case its death rate per million inhabitants exceeds that of its neighbor from North.
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Another set of statistics compiled by Johns Hopkins shows that as of February 11, 279 out of 100,000 US residents have died of Covid, compared to about 94 in Canada.
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Vaccination rates and differences in health care
Until February 9, the 80% of the Canadian population was fully immunized against the covid-19with another 5% partially vaccinated, meaning they had received at least one of multiple doses of the vaccine.
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In the United States, on the same dates 64% of the population was fully vaccinated and 12% partially vaccinated.
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Canada got off to a slow start, but by mid-July 2021 it had caught up with the US, when exactly half of each country’s population was fully vaccinated. It was then that the administration of the vaccine in Canada quickly took the lead.
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The data indicates that helped save lives. While a third (34%) of the total death toll in the US resulted in the ensuing seven months, in Canada it was only a quarter (26%) of deaths.
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Contrary to the US, Canada enjoys a universal, decentralized and publicly funded health system which is administered by its 13 provinces and territories.
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“That means that the population, regardless of their socioeconomic status, has access to health care,” says Dr. Donald Vinh, an infectious disease specialist at the Center for Health at Montreal’s McGill University.
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“Which makes that an important factor: Regardless of what stage of the disease you’re in, you can always receive healthcare“.
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Additionally, many more Americans end up in intensive care. Last month, during the omicron wave, the number reached 79 per million, while in Canada it was 32 per million.
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“That has to be because of the role of health care systems. Canada is intervening much faster, and in different ways, than the US,” Cameron said.
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“That’s where severe cases go when other strategies and interventions have failed.”
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The availability of universal health insurance is the “simplest” explanation for Canada’s lower infections and deathssaid Ross Upshur, a professor of public health at the University of Toronto.
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“Most Canadians would not trade their healthcare system, with all its flaws, for the US system,” he said.
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court orders
In Canada – like in the US – provinces and territories can individually implement or lift court orders that govern conduct – such as going to restaurants, gyms and other public places – as they see fit.
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But the federal government still has jurisdiction over things like vaccination passports for internal travel, vaccination requirements for federal employees or truck drivers crossing the border. The latter was what initially motivated the protests.
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In the US, some cities have introduced vaccination passes to enter restaurants and bars, but orders in Canada have been stricter and they lasted longer.
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Canada’s public health experts and many public officials believe that the more gradual relaxation of these rules – dependent on better public health data – has allowed them to avoid the same high levels of infection and deaths that have been experienced in the US, where numbers have skyrocketed in a number of places that have been quick to relax regulations.
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These measures have been “quite protective” for Canadians and they have been placed “in a better place” than Americansaccording to Dr. Vihn.
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“Adherence to public policies is an important factor that differentiates the impact in the two countries,” he said. “But that’s not to say that the Canadian public isn’t fed up with Covid or some of the public health measures.”
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Now, provincial governments across Canada they are beginning to relax restrictions. Last week, Alberta eliminated its vaccine testing system and plans to end the mask requirement for school students soon. Children under the age of 12 will not need to wear masks anywhere.
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in Ontario. the authorities will begin to gradually eliminate measures such as capacity limits in restaurants and gyms. Vaccine proof requirements will be lifted starting March 1. Ontario Chief Minister Doug Ford said effective handling of the omicron variant has allowed him to “accelerate” reopening plans.
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But the easing of restrictions comes as Canada grapples with the economic impact of the pandemic. Unemployment in Canada rose half a percentage point to 6.5% in January 2022, according to data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In the United States, the unemployment rate is at 4%.
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image source, Getty Images
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Canadians have endured strict rules on wearing masks.
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The need to balance public health concerns with these economic and social issues is difficult enough, Dr. Vinh added, and has put the provincial and federal governments in an “unenviable” position.
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“We have many outspoken doctors and scientists in every province who are looking closely at these policies to make sure they are not outrageous or dangerous,” he said. “There is still a scientific and political separation.”
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Dr. Vinh added that the segment of the population of Canada that is against these public health measures does not necessarily represent the entire country -and that in general, the debate is much less political than in the US.
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“I think the US is similarly disjointed, but on a much larger scale,” he said. “Science is the signal, and politics is the noise. “An (inability) to tell the signal from the noise could be contributing heavily to the unfortunate situation they find themselves in.”
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What does the future hold?
Public health officials warn that while most Canadian provinces are seeing a reduction in cases and deaths, it might still be too early to relax all public health measures of the country against covid.
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“We are not out of the woods yet, but we are getting better,” Dr. Vinh said. “The problem with getting better is that if you do too much too fast, you could exacerbate the condition.”
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“It’s like recovering from a broken leg. You need to learn how to sit, stand and walk before you start running.”
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Vinh said a “phased, strategic process with constant metric vigilance” might be needed to give provincial and federal orders the flexibility to respond to changes in the pandemic.
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“People get fed up and want to make it go away,” said Professor Upshur. “But you can’t make it go away by wishing it, or by honking your horn.”
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