Via The Guardian: 'It's like night and day': Trudeau's and Trump's Covid-19 responses fuel wildly different outcomes. Canada still comes off poorly compared to no-nonsense responses like those in Vietnam and New Zealand, but compared to the US we do look pretty good. Excerpt:
Donald Trump marked the Fourth of July with an apocalyptic speech at Mount Rushmore in which he stoked partisan grievance and deployed racist dog whistles, ignoring calls for unity as coronavirus cases surge.
Three days earlier, Justin Trudeau chose a more low-key location to celebrate Canada’s own national holiday. The prime minister and his family were photographed harvesting vegetables at an Ottawa food bank farm.
Unlike Trump and most of his supporters, they all wore face-masks as they sorted through bundles of broccoli.
The appearances by the two image-conscious leaders were emblematic of two wildly different leadership styles during the pandemic, which have helped one country slow the virus – and plunged the other into its worst health crisis in recent history.
As the US blew past 3 million infections on Wednesday, Trudeau expressed cautious optimism that Canada had stabilized the outbreak, and took a rare public jab at the Trump administration’s efforts during the pandemic.
“We were able to control the virus better than many of our allies, particularly including our neighbour,” Trudeau said.
Trump has declared that a “tremendous victory” over the virus is imminent, despite a record rise in cases, a boiling culture war over face masks and faltering efforts to re-launch the economy.
In contrast, new coronavirus cases in Canada have continued to decline this week amid cautious optimism from public health officials that a gradual re-opening of the country is possible.
“It’s like night and day,” said Dr Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto, of the stark differences between the two countries. “From coast to coast, we have the epidemic in Canada under excellent control. We’ve been able to suppress cases at the community level. Of course we’re still seeing some small outbreaks, but we’ve been able to suppress the vast majority of the infection and rapidly identify small outbreaks.”
With a population of nearly 38 million people, Canada is recording roughly 300 new infections each day, with a total nearly 28,000 active cases.
The US has a population nearly nine times larger, but its caseload – 1.6 million – is sixty times higher, and growing.
“I feel awful for them. They’re our friends and our neighbours. And obviously, the epidemic is getting worse, not better,” said Bogoch. “It’s really upsetting watching this unfold, knowing that most of this was largely preventable.”
This concern, however, is tempered by fear: more than 80% of Canadians support the idea of keeping the border between the two countries closed until the situation in the United States improves.
“Canadians have spent the past three months in isolation, away from businesses, friends, families and schools,” said Lori Turnbull, a professor of political science at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.
“They’ve done all this to make sure that they survive the public health crisis. They don’t want the border to open and have Americans bring it up here.”
The contrasting pandemic experiences of the two countries aren’t just a result of luck or geography: experts point to widespread access to healthcare in Canada, as well as high levels of trust in government and public health officials.
The early months of the pandemic provide clues to the current realities in each country. Trump’s erratic leadership and determination to downplay the threat derailed efforts to swiftly contain the virus in the US. In Canada, consistent messaging from public health officials – and an emphasis on kindness – underscored a shared sense of duty.
“We locked down and we suppressed this virus. We stayed locked down because they told us to stay locked down. And we only opened up when they said it was okay to open up,” said Bogoch. “It hurt, but we did it.”
