What you get when you mix politics with science is ... just politics, unfortunately
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. — George Santayana
This applies to some, but not all of the “mistakes” made by Canada in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2003, SARS claimed 44 lives in the Toronto area; half of the cases were in health workers. Some 26,000 pallets of PPE including 55 million masks were stockpiled, but 80 per cent were disposed of by 2013 and were not completely replaced.
Last February, 16 tonnes of PPE including face shields, goggles, masks and gloves were sent to China. Subsequently there was a shortage in our country. By late May 2020, about 17 per cent of Ontario coronavirus cases were in health workers.
Some policy shifts are probably excusable. Initially, there was no point in restricting travel from “hot spots” until there was and on March 21 the U.S.-Canada border was closed.
Though masks were commonly used in Taiwan, South Korea and other countries early during the outbreak, they were not recommended here. Now all persons are urged to wear them in grocery stores, shops and other places where physical distancing is impossible. They are required on public transit systems in Toronto and Ottawa, and by 80 world countries, 10 states and a number of cities in the U.S.
According to CNN, masks may reduce the risk of spreading the virus by a factor of six. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, feels that they should hence be mandatory in public places.
Yet we should realize that similar reversals of belief have occurred frequently in science.
For example, when I graduated from medical school in 1970, I assumed that in future, new antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs and drugs for hypertension and diabetes mellitus would be developed, but likely all the major diseases were already known.
I was very wrong.
Many infectious diseases remained to be identified, including Lyme disease, Legionnaires’s disease, Ebola, HIV, Zika, SARS, and of course COVID-19 — now with over 9 million cases globally and nearly 500,000 deaths.
Beta blocking medications were initially prohibited in persons with congestive heart failure and IV Valium was contraindicated in the treatment of acute epileptic seizures; now they are both mainstream therapy for these disorders.
Thus we should give Health Minister Patty Hajdu and public health experts such as Dr. Theresa Tam considerable latitude and accept that much remains unknown about COVID-19; the situation is rapidly evolving.
I would not give much slack to several politicians. Some undermine public health recommendations by their words and/or their actions.
At a time when Canadians were urged to remain at home, and the Quebec government restricted travel into that province, Justin Trudeau spent Easter weekend with his family at Harrington Lake and proudly circulated photos. ;Recently, though well-intentioned, he participated in large, closely-packed protests, which set a very bad example.
U.S. President Donald Trump refuses to wear a mask, and has pleaded (not in jest) to “slow the testing down” — a contradiction to the strong advice of Dr. Fauci and all world public health experts.
Worse still, he has chosen “hot spot’ areas such as Tulsa and Phoenix to hold meetings with thousands of persons. None practised physical distancing and few wore masks.
Very relevant is the book, “The Great Influenza” by John M. Barry. The more virulent second wave of influenza was returning to the U.S. from Europe. Politicians had organized a Liberty Loans parade in Philadelphia on Sept. 28, 1918, in Philadelphia, Penn. Public health experts and many physicians in writing urged that the event be cancelled, but they were overruled by the city politicians. On the front page of the main newspaper was the headline, “This is a great day for Philadelphia.” Some 200,000 attended.
However, within a few weeks, some 12,000 persons had died. The city morgue had space for only 36, so there was a considerable delay in collecting and burying the bodies.
As Barry argues, “When you mix politics and science, you get politics.”
Hopefully, U.S. governors, Canadian premiers and other politicians will learn from the past and heed the advice of public health experts, while acknowledging that this may be updated and revised.