I want to be careful about discussing this subject because clearly, COVID was a horrendous occurrence. The pandemic has claimed the lives of almost 50,000 Canadians and 6.5 million people worldwide to date. And we know, COVID is not over. In Canada, the seven-day average death rate is currently 40 people. While certainly down significantly from the height of the crisis, clearly the disease is not going away. Forty people dying every week sounds awful to me. In fact, 2022 was the worst year for COVID deaths in Canada. I was surprised to read this, but it is true and certainly an indicator that COVID is not gone. In addition, 93% of COVID deaths in Canada were individuals aged 60 and older. I find this particularly disturbing given I am personally in that demographic.
Of course, in addition to the record-high death rate, the economy collapsed, people lost their jobs, businesses failed, and governments at all levels ran up huge deficits as they struggled to deal with the declining economy as well as support individuals who were suffering physically, mentally or financially.
The pandemic exposed huge inequalities at the local, national and global levels. Locally we saw people of colour have less access to health services which included less access to vaccines as they rolled out. Low-wage workers were forced into dangerous work environments with little or no protection, no sick days and often no choice but to keep working due to financial insecurity. On the other hand, high-paid professionals were able to work from home, significantly reducing their risk of exposure to the disease. Nationally, we saw society's disrespect of the elderly and years of government neglect of senior care cause rampant death in old age homes. Globally, we saw rich nations provide better financial support and health care to their citizens (although there were lots of issues) while poor nations could not protect their populations from the spreading of disease. In addition, rich nations hoarded vaccines letting the suffering and death in poorer nations continue much longer than needed.
Even when the disease was not killing people it still seemed to rip things apart. Social distancing, masking, vaccines and even common courtesy were all politicized. The fissures in families, communities and nations seemed to expose differences that might never have occurred if not for the pandemic. Now, these may never be reconciled.
The impact of COVID lingers on. In many places, certainly in Canada and particularly in Ontario, the healthcare system is collapsing. The stress that COVID put on the system and the individuals who work in it has uncovered numerous weaknesses that in many cases, preexisted. Individuals, businesses and governments have taken on debt that they will be repaying for years, maybe decades. Long COVID and other side effects of the disease will potentially impact people for the rest of their lives. Although it is not fair to blame all the strife in families and nations on COVID - individuals and politicians have to take responsibility for that - the pandemic certainly seemed to have accentuated the differences.
So with all of that, is it possible that anything good came out of the pandemic? Let's take a closer look.
Hand Sanitizer (and the benefits of frequent handwashing) - Ok let's start with something light and not too serious. When our children were young we usually carried a bulk quantity of hand wipes. For those of you that have or had young children you know, they are always getting their hands dirty and then putting them in their mouths. Even now, Teresa and I usually have hand wipes. It is nice to be able to clean your hands while travelling, especially in places like China where you may not want to use the water or the restrooms don't provide soap and paper towels. COVID certainly puts a focus on washing your hands and hand sanitizer is the logical extension to hand wipes. I now have hand sanitizer in my car, on my knapsack and on my golf bag. Hand sanitizer and good hand hygiene are two of the positives that came out of the pandemic. Not only does this help with COVID but also the flu, colds etc.
The acceptance of wearing a mask - Unfortunately mask-wearing, social distancing and vaccines (more on vaccines later) became highly polarized. The President of the United States wouldn't wear a mask because he felt it made him look weak - how about not wearing a mask made him look stupid? We had the convoy occupiers in Ottawa yelling obscenities at the mask-wearing citizens of Ottawa who were just trying to carry on their everyday lives. When you travel to Japan, particularly Tokyo, it is common to see the majority of people wearing face coverings. This was the case long before COVID. Health is only one reason Japanese people wear masks. Certainly, masks are worn to protect against airborne diseases, colds, flu etc. If you have ever been on a crowded subway in Tokyo you would understand that this intuitively makes sense. People also wear masks to protect against dust, pollen and air pollution. There are also some cultural reasons why the Japanese cover their face including modesty and a general desire to be "unseen". COVID was a forced introduction to mask-wearing in Canada. Although the number of people wearing masks has dropped significantly as government mandates have been removed and the number of COVID cases has declined, you still see more people wearing a mask today than before COVID. It is my hope that masking will become acceptable in Canada on an "as you want to basis". Meaning if someone wants to wear a mask to protect themselves or others, they should be able to do so without recrimination.
Allowing people to work from home and the potential environmental benefits - Working from home has been a trend for over a decade. While employed at IBM from 2006 to 2011, I worked from home or whatever hotel I was in. I did not have an office at an IBM building. However, the pandemic put this trend into overdrive. As governments and businesses looked for ways to protect workers and reduce cases, they mandated that their employees should work from home. Consequently, there was a dramatic reduction in traffic during the pandemic. This was not all because people were working from home. Shutting down non-essential stores, businesses, and sporting and cultural events also contributed to the drop in traffic. I think some employees will start looking for job opportunities that will allow work from home. The reduction or elimination of commuting definitely helps work-life balance and significantly reduces costs (gas and car repairs). Unfortunately, my prediction, and we are already starting to see this, is that many businesses will require employees to come back to the office at least part-time and in many cases full-time. I think numerous businesses feel they cannot monitor performance when their employees work remotely. Hopefully, even if not a wholesale change there will be increased work from home and a decrease in commuting that will help our environment.
A significant reduction in the number of cases of the flu - The tracking of deaths in Canada caused by the flu is viewed by most experts as very unreliable (deaths are both incorrectly recorded as caused by the flu and not caused by the flu). However, the number of deaths from the flu in Canada is generally accepted to be between 4,000 to 8,000 (most experts would say 7,000-8,000). I am always appalled when I hear this number. I understand that many individuals who die from the flu are either very young, very old or people with underlying health conditions, however, it seems like a very high death rate for something that can be controllable. Clearly wearing masks, social distancing, staying home when ill and frequent hand washing led to a significant decrease in flu deaths, up to 50% by some estimates. I understand we cannot shut down the economy as happened during the pandemic, but it seems reasonable that the precautions taken had a positive impact on flu deaths and should be continued. Sadly, my prediction is that we will ignore what we have learned and death rates will quickly go back to pre-pandemic levels. In fact, as I write this blog hospitals in Ontario are already being overrun with patients experiencing various respiratory diseases.
The amazing science that delivered a vaccine in such a short time frame - Unfortunately, vaccines were subject to politicization and massive misinformation. I don't know if this was a result of the deepening divides we are seeing in society, social media and fringe websites or the fact that the development of the vaccines was closely followed and every step made public. Clearly, no other medicine has been scrutinized or subjected to as much misinformation as the COVID vaccines. This was very unfortunate. However, the incredible scientific discovery, the collaboration and the support from private and public entities that produced the vaccines in months versus decades are truly remarkable. We should be celebrating this breakthrough and achievement.
We got to see how knowledgeable and professional most of the chief medical officers are - I am guessing that prior to the pandemic few of us could have named the chief medical officers for Canada or the provinces. It turns out they have very (read very very) important jobs even when the country is not in a pandemic. I am sure that when Teresa Tam accepted the role as the nation's chief medical officer she never dreamed of being on national television daily for over a year (by the way she was great). Largely, I thought the medical officers Teresa Tam, Howard Njoo, Bonnie Henry, and Deena Hinshaw brought credibility, detailed knowledge and empathy to the daily reporting of what was a devasting and worsening situation. Unfortunately, here in Ontario, we got stuck with David Williams. In my view, he was at the bottom of the list of medical officers. Replacing him was Dr. Kieran Moore, who looked like a rock star in his role in Kingston, but has floundered in this top job. Did they get it right all the time? No. Masking, not required early on, but critical later, was a big miss. I think many of us were misled into believing that the vaccine was a silver bullet. We thought we would be invincible after taking the first two doses. Wrong! On the whole, the medical officers provided stability, knowledge and calm during a very turbulent time. On the whole, politicians of all parties supported the medical officers. Even provincial premiers, Jason Kenney and Scott Moe who did not always take the actions required to prevent COVID supported their provincial chief medical officers. Pierre Poilievre and Maxine Bernier said some stupid things about medical officers (they can't help themselves from saying stupid stuff) but I would imagine Anthony Fauci was dreaming about the support Canadian medical officers were getting as he was taking absurd abuse from Donald Trump. Let us remember how important these people are and not let politicians downplay their importance by cutting their budgets.
The healthcare system adapted - Our healthcare system was under tremendous pressure during the pandemic and healthcare workers were one of the main groups of heroes. The system bent and in some cases broke but kept going. There is one innovation that I hope continues - doctors' appointments by video or phone. I can speak from personal experience that this method of "seeing" my family doctor worked perfectly. It was definitely safer for me, my doctor, the nurses and the staff at the clinic. I was able to have a phone call with my doctor and in most cases address the issue without an in-person appointment. When I did need an in-person visit, the appointment times were much more efficient (meaning on time) and the waiting room was much less crowded (almost empty) because screenings were handled over the phone. My understanding is that in cases where you have a family doctor and need an in-person follow-up, the provincial health care plan will continue to pay doctors fully for the video and phone calls. The reasoning behind this is apparently the province wants to encourage individuals to have a family doctor and to reduce potential confusion and issues by having patients visit ad hoc clinics. There seems to be some logic to this and selfishly this means I can continue this more efficient method of seeing my doctor. Unfortunately, it means people without a family doctor will not be able to utilize video or phone calls. This is because the provincial government has significantly reduced the fees for video/phone appointments in cases where the service is not being provided by a family doctor. Clinics no longer provide this service because it is not financially feasible. Again, I understand the logic, but maybe the government could delay this change until the majority of Ontarians have a family doctor, certainly not the case at the moment.
We got to see Canadian politicians show leadership - I am not a big Doug Ford fan but I admired him being out there every day at his COVID update news conference. Did he always get it right? No. No one did. But he was answering questions, trying to reassure the public that their government was doing their best to protect its citizens' health and financial well-being. The same can be said about Justin Trudeau (not a fan), most provincial premiers, along with many cabinet ministers at both the federal and provincial levels. They didn't hide and in a situation where no one knew exactly what was happening, they did their best. As time went on and as the pandemic, vaccines, masking and mandates got politicized, our leaders didn't do as well, slipping back into partisan politics. However, if we compare ourselves to how Trump and the clowns that he called advisors handled COVID, we should consider ourselves lucky to have the leaders we did.
Canadians largely pulled together for the benefit of the community - Certainly, in the beginning, Canadians largely accepted and supported non-essential business closures, social distancing, hand washing, face masking and eventually vaccines. Although no one totally understood the disease at first, I think we understood it was serious and extreme actions were required. I know for me personally, I was disappointed at the family events we missed during the pandemic as well as the travel plans we had. I really don't like wearing a mask, particularly for any length of time, but I was fine to follow all these guidelines if it was going to keep me, my family and our community safer. Again, as time went on and politicians politicized the guidelines, public support declined. But overall, Canada was one of the best at pulling together to try and minimize the impact of the disease.
The pandemic distracted Doug Ford - As I have already made clear I am not a Doug Ford fan. So this is just an excuse to rant about Doug Ford and the stupid things he does. He did seem to do slightly less stupid things during the pandemic so that is why it is included on the list. He has this amazing tendency to take incredibly stupid actions that clearly he does not think through. Soon after he became premier he imposed a dramatic reduction/change on the Toronto city council. I am not an expert in civic politics but the manner in which Ford announced the changes, after never raising the idea during the provincial election was sleazy and caused unnecessary disruption and confusion. Ford immediately after getting elected eliminated all green energy programs and subsidies. Now guess what? We have an impending electricity shortage in Ontario and will have to build coal plants to produce electricity. Can we all yell together "going backwards" and we are going to miss all greenhouse emission targets! Ford also eliminated rebates for purchasing electric cars leading to Ontario being one of the lowest provinces in the acceptance of electric cars. This is despite the fact that Ford wants to promote the province as a leader in electric car and battery technology. Ford's government continues to allow the private outsourcing of foster care which has led to devasting and sometimes fatal results. Even during the pandemic, Ford could not help himself. Who can forget the idea that he and his solicitor general at the time Sylvia Jones announced where the police were going to stop anyone a certain number of kilometres from their home? Racialised Ontarians saw a huge target on their back with this announcement. Even the police thought this was stupid and largely refused to enforce the direction. This caused Ford to quickly reverse his position but with even a little thought was not it obvious this was dumb? At the same time, Ford announced the closure of outside playgrounds (also reversed). And finally, Ontario was the only jurisdiction that kept (outside) golf courses closed (I will acknowledge even as an avid golfer this was a relatively minor issue in the overall scale of COVID). To support my contention that Ford needs to be distracted or needs to get a hobby just look at what he is doing since he is no longer focused on COVID. He is going to allow his developer friends to make millions from developing the greenbelt which will cause untold environmental damage. This is a complete reversal of his commitment not to allow the development of the greenbelt (to be clear, in fact, he originally got caught saying he was going to allow his friends to develop the greenbelt, reversed that and committed no development and is now allowing development so I don't even know how to describe that on the reversal track). He announced he would use the notwithstanding clause in the constitution to remove education support workers' right to strike. Oops, let's reverse that also. Doug, get a hobby, get someone to be your sounding board before opening your mouth or start subscribing to one of Barack Obama's principles of governing. "Don't do stupid stuff!" (ok my Doug Ford rant is over)
If the above represents some of what could be the more positive results of the pandemic let's go a little further. I have always been a believer that it is important to understand where your weaknesses are. During my business career, although I was always happy to celebrate success, particularly team successes, I thought it was important to understand in detail why you were being successful. If you didn't understand why then you were unlikely to continue the success. Likewise, it is critical to discover your shortcomings as soon as possible. In the best case, this early detection will allow you to course correct and avoid serious problems. If the problem(s) can't be avoided hopefully it can be mitigated and resolved quickly.
If you subscribe to this principle - that it is better to understand your weaknesses clearly, early and completely - then I think some other "positives" have come out of COVID.
There can be no doubt that systemic racism exists in our society - I believe COVID exposed this fact in many areas but here is my best example. When vaccines were being rolled out in Ontario patterns began to develop. Weeks and months into the vaccine rollout it was discovered that certain communities in Toronto and Ontario had significantly lower rates of vaccination than others. There is no proof that people in these neighbourhoods were more or less accepting of vaccines than others. I refuse to believe that the government deliberately targeted these areas to ensure their vaccination rates were lower (governments aren't smart enough to do that even if they were stupid enough to try). What these communities had in common was that they were lower average-income families and higher racialized than average. Governments and healthcare workers didn't ignore these places intentionally. They were ignored because it was built into the system. There are fewer health services in these areas. Many workers have jobs with irregular hours and less flexibility in getting time off. The vaccine rollout did not accommodate that. English as a second language and lack of access to computers made it difficult to book vaccine appointments. English is my first language and we have multiple computers in the house. I still had a hard time initially navigating the vaccine booking system. The Forest Hill area at Avenue Road and St. Clair in Toronto had one of the highest initial vaccination rates. Guess what? It is a high-income, predominantly white neighbourhood. There can be no debate that systemic racism is an issue. The question is, are we going to do anything about it?
Long-term care is a disaster in Ontario, Quebec and most of Canada - Long-term care residents accounted for 3% of COVID cases in Canada and 43% of COVID-19 deaths. I understand that the health profile of the elderly led to more risk due to COVID-19, however, this in no way accounts for the number of deaths in long-term care homes. The following are just a few contributing factors: Understaffing, poor training and low-paying part-time work forced employees to work at multiple LTC homes to reach an acceptable income. Privatized LTC homes that focused on profit and not resident care. The complete lack of provincial government oversight and inspection of LTC homes despite the reporting of multiple issues. Years of both Liberal and Conservative governments ignoring LTC, cutting funding and outsourcing wherever possible. All of these things and more caused a disproportionate number of deaths in LTC. It is disgusting to see how our government and we as a society turned our back on these elderly people who were vulnerable and in many cases could not care for themselves. Many of them spent a lifetime honestly paying into the system through taxes and then were abandoned in their time of need. We don't want to admit it but very few people and no government cares about these elderly citizens. My proof is that no significant action has been taken in Ontario on LTC. None of the companies that neglected, in some cases criminally neglected have been charged or lost their licence. In fact, in many cases, the Ford government has increased their funding and license and continues on a track to privatize more LTC. I am embarrassed to say this, but we just don't care about this. We certainly don't care enough to hold the government to account and demand change. In this case, unfortunately, understanding the problem does not seem to be enough.
Our public health care system is falling apart - It might be reasonable to expect that our health care system would struggle to keep up during a pandemic. After all, it is a once-in-a-century (hopefully) occurrence. You might have thought governments would have kept medical supply stockpiles up to date (no), understood the supply chain for critical medical supplies (no) or keep medical, including vaccine technology, in Canada (no again). But I don't think it was just that our healthcare system was under strain during the pandemic, in fact, the pandemic exposed all the deficiencies and underlying issues with our system. As 2022 ends, the healthcare system in Canada is collapsing. Emergency wards are closing and rerouting patients, pediatric care units are overloaded, and patients are being shipped miles from their homes to find an open spot for care. Surgeries that have already been delayed and are backlogged due to COVID are being cancelled again. Cancer diagnoses have dropped 34% in Ontario during COVID - obviously, people are still getting cancer, but the system is no longer diagnosing it - and this issue continues. While our healthcare system is crumbling our federal and provincial leaders play dangerous and stupid games about what comes first the chicken or the egg (tracking outcomes or funding). I think this massive problem, which has been identified, will improve. There is too much healthcare history in Canada to allow politicians not to take action. How much improvement we get is yet to be determined.
Although some of the above has been positive and hopefully will lead to some permanent favourable outcomes, I feel much the same about COVID in Canada as my own personal experience with cancer. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer when I was 45. Fortunately, because of my family doctor, I had been taking the PSA test since I was 40. I caught the disease early, was able to treat it and have remained cancer free for 20+ years. I recognize I am very fortunate. However, given a choice, I would have preferred to forgo the whole experience. I think we can all say the same for COVID. Despite some things that will hopefully improve because of the pandemic, the pain and death caused are tragic. It would have been better to have avoided the whole thing.
Let me know your thoughts. Comments and questions are welcomed at thethirdperiod.ca@gmail.com .
