Juno News - What can Canadians learn from the US about COVID-19？

00:00:00.000 the United States seems to be having a much more balanced approach to coronavirus restrictions and

00:00:10.680 I think Canadian provinces could listen and learn a lot from these different states and the whole

00:00:15.960 process that's unfolding down there here's some examples of restrictions that were eased just in

00:00:21.000 the past few days so in California they just ended their stay-at-home order early and they're

00:00:26.880 allowing things like outdoor patio dining that was banned to resume in Massachusetts they're easing a

00:00:33.100 whole bunch of restrictions letting businesses stay open later changing capacity limits and so

00:00:37.920 forth in Illinois right by Canada they are easing restrictions allowing indoor dining in places

00:00:43.940 like Chicago medical officers saying well we're looking at the situation and yes we believe that

00:00:49.200 we can allow these things to continue now there's a whole lot of different factors variables and

00:00:54.080 dynamics at play here but one thing that should be noted is that Canadian provinces by and large

00:00:59.560 actually are doing much better on cases per capita deaths per capita than any of these U.S. states it's

00:01:05.500 kind of interesting that we are the most locked down jurisdictions but also the ones that have the

00:01:11.080 lightest caseload now some folks would like to argue well there's the reason fury why we need to keep

00:01:15.680 Ontario and Alberta and Quebec and so forth heavily locked down because we don't want to see what they

00:01:20.220 have happening in their U.S. states well first of all it should be noted that if you look at all the

00:01:24.840 U.S. states and you compare the ones that have strict lockdowns compared to the ones that have

00:01:29.260 lighter restrictions or more voluntary restrictions well there's not that much of a rhyme or reason

00:01:33.760 there's very little proven causation that these lockdown restrictions are actually working for them

00:01:39.180 North Dakota and South Dakota for example are generally charting along the same trajectories and the

00:01:44.980 same curves but they have very different restrictions in place it's a really interesting thing to take a look at

00:01:50.200 and study so what it all suggests that we should not be so blunt with all of this we should look at

00:01:55.140 the situation and go okay what is the problem and I know in Ontario and in Canada and I think this is true

00:02:01.020 in some U.S. states as well the problem is that elderly folks who live in congregate care settings are

00:02:06.120 particularly hard hit by this and also some health care systems are at risk of being overwhelmed okay those

00:02:12.100 are very real problems we're facing then we must ask are restrictions like saying oh I don't know shut down

00:02:17.200 the ski hills which is something that's been introduced in Ontario I know it's bonkers it's the only jurisdiction

00:02:22.840 in North America that has it you go is shutting down the ski hills something that has really any serious

00:02:28.860 credible relationship to these sorts of things to dealing with with folks who are getting COVID-19 in long-term care

00:02:36.140 facilities and if they don't well then just don't bring these restrictions in ease them and I think that's what's

00:02:43.100 going on in the U.S. as different medical officers are running the numbers looking at different scenarios

00:02:47.800 and going what is the actual cause and effect here with these restrictions vis-a-vis the actual problems

00:02:53.880 and challenges that we face in our society Canada needs to demand that its public health officials and

00:03:00.060 politicians have solutions-based approaches that they actually look at the evidence they look at the data

00:03:05.500 and they get smart about it

Juno News - January 26, 2021