We can’t afford half measures in fighting this pandemic
Either we are fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, or we are not. There can be no half measures. This, I think, was what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was getting at this week when he urged premiers to put the virus front and centre.
Deal with the pandemic first, he said. Then tackle the economy.
Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s medical officer of health, made essentially the same point Tuesday when she ordered the city’s restaurants and bars to continue banning indoor dining for another 28 days.
Yes, the ban was hard on Toronto’s eateries, she said. But evidence showed it was having an effect on the spread of the virus. Why give it up now?
And yet until de Villa intervened, this is exactly what Ontario’s provincial government was preparing to do. Premier Doug Ford explained his decision to relax the rules on dining as an effort to strike a balance between the economic and health needs of the province.
What Ford forgot, however, is that this is a false choice. The economy cannot be fixed until the pandemic is dealt with.
Too often, politicians ignore this. Take, for instance, Toronto’s misguided effort to encourage winter patio dining.
This is based on the fact that the virus is less likely to spread out-of-doors. That in turn leads to the reasonable conclusion that in the warmer seasons patio dining can be safer than in-house dining.
And if it is safe to eat outside in warm weather, shouldn’t it be equally safe when temperatures are cool — particularly if the patios are enclosed and heated?
The short answer is no. If patios are enclosed and heated, they are no longer outside. Put simply, outdoor patios can work in winter only if they are, to all intents and purposes, indoors.
More to the point, an emphasis on encouraging Torontonians to engage in more patio dining contradicts one of de Villa’s central recommendations: to reduce as much as possible all contact with those outside one’s immediate household. As de Villa writes: “That means limiting in-person activities outside the home to essential activities only.”
In Toronto, politicians spend much of their time these days searching for ways to keep businesses alive — from building new bike lanes, to putting tables and chairs along public sidewalks in an effort to attract customers to floundering eateries.
Such activities are understandable. Politicians are expected to fight for jobs. But in terms of the pandemic, they are often counterproductive.
The point is not to encourage more people to go to cafes and restaurants. It is to encourage fewer to do so.
The aim is to reduce social contact, not widen it.
If Torontonians were truly committed to fighting the pandemic, they would stay at home. They would not venture out for a restaurant meal even if it were legal to do so. They would limit their purchases to the bare necessities. They would not even go to a local public library.
They might communicate by phone or internet. But otherwise, they would engage in as little direct social activity as possible.
Sound grim? Yes, it does. It is, in effect, a lockdown. But as the death toll mounts, it may be the only way to defeat this virus.