The results of a recent survey by the Association of Canadian Studies (ACS) give new meaning to the phrase “how soon they forget.” Five years after the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, fully 36% of Canadians apparently believe governments overreacted. In their view the various government-mandated policies designed to contain the virus and protect citizens “went too far” and/or “were unnecessary.” Moreover gender, age and region reveal even more worrisome trends. Some 41% of men, as well as 42% of those between the ages of 35 and 54, and 47% of Albertans, believe governments actually “overplayed the threat” of COVID.[i]
Although the poll focused on vaccine mandates, ACS president Jack Jedwab believes the results suggest that in any future pandemic “people will respond much more grudgingly to lockdowns, quarantines, school closings, shelter-in-place orders, caps on mass gatherings, and limits on social interactions outside one’s ‘bubble’.”[ii] In short, they may reject literally all of the policies that kept them and their loved ones safe.
What can they be thinking? If they believe this wishful thinking after only five years, then clearly the outcome of the next pandemic, which according to scientists is absolutely certain to come within the lifetimes of that particular age group indicated above, will be catastrophic. We only need to look back at the Spanish flu to see that future.
In 1918 the so-called Spanish Flu, the worst global pandemic in history, swept the world. Its progress, of course, was greatly aided by the reality of modern transportation, which allowed people in all continents to be affected, something that could not happen, for example, during the Black Death of the Middle Ages. At the same time, scientific knowledge in the early twentieth century had not advanced to anywhere near the level attained by 2020. How viruses spread was unclear. Certainly no vaccines were available to counteract them. And there were no national (for example, science panels and public health officers) or international (WHO) organizations or structures in place to analyze and/or coordinate a response even if one had been possible.
The result? The Spanish flu killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide. (By comparison, some 16 million died in World War I). Fully one fifth of the world’s population was attacked by the virus. Entire families were wiped out. Many who survived were permanently damaged. In the United States alone, (arguably the most scientifically advanced society of the day), some 675,000 people died, more Americans than were lost in World War I and II, Korea and Vietnam combined. Here in Canada, the virus claimed some 50,000 lives. At the time this represented roughly 6,250 individuals per million population, as Canada’s population at the time was only 8 million.
Now contrast that with the combined results of federal and provincial government actions during COVID-19. As of April 2024 there have been 59,000 deaths in total, or 1,538 per million. Put another way, the Spanish flu was 4 times more fatal. This is a huge differential from any scientific point of view. It is also far more significant considering that seniors – a cohort most vulnerable to fatal outcomes — constituted a much higher percentage of the population now than in 1918.
Comparatively, Canada’s COVID record is the best of all G7 countries except Japan, where the result was only slightly better and that country benefited enormously from a pre-existing traditional culture of mask-wearing in almost all public settings all of the time.
Other comparisons provide even more significant findings. For example in the UK, where the Johnson government was extremely slow to act and imposed far fewer limitations[iii], the results were devastating. The deaths per million were more than twice as high (3,389) as ours, as were the cases per million (363,366 as opposed to Canada’s 128,843). Moreover the severity of the disease for those infected in Canada was also substantially lower than in the UK, resulting in far fewer hospitalizations.
Then there is the case of Sweden, where – alone among progressive Scandinavian governments — a misguided attempt to achieve “herd immunity” by eschewing almost all preventive measures failed spectacularly.[iv]
But the most devastating evidence of the positive impact that government policies had in limiting the disease can be found in the United States, where almost no preventive measures were in place for most of the time. President Donald Trump was in a state of denial about the disease. He first claimed, falsely, that it was merely a type of flu, and then recommended individuals take an antimalarial drug or one used on horses, to the dismay of his Chief Medical Adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Moreover many states were run by vaccine mandate opponents, while others provided almost no limitations on social activity and one or two actually banned the wearing of masks.
The results were, sadly, predictable. The United States, arguably the most scientifically advanced country in the world, suffered the highest level of infections and deaths on the planet. It recorded some 3,647 deaths per million, and an appalling 333,985 cases per million. A total of 1, 219, 487 lives were lost. And the numbers would have been far worse had it not been for the advanced pre-existing level of treatment available in most American hospitals, since the number of hospitalizations were also exceptionally high.
What more evidence do the sceptics among us need? Have these doubters taken notice of recent articles in scientific journals and in the mainstream media about the potential spread of avian flu to humans?[v] The future may be closer than we think, and the past demonstrates conclusively that government intervention works.
[i] Sharon Kirkby. “Too fast, too spurious?” Ottawa Citizen. December 14, 2024.
[ii] Op cit
[iii] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/08/how-will-boris-johnsons-handling-of-the-covid-crisis-be-remembered
[iv] https://www.forbes.com/sites/mishagajewski/2020/08/11/stop-trying-to-make-herd-immunity-happen-swedens-attempt-at-covid-19-herd-immunity-failed/
[v] https://www.aamc.org/news/how-worried-should-we-be-about-avian-flu-academic-experts-weigh
