Canadian government to blame for 'major pandemic failures,' new series in influential medical journal says

A new series of articles in the influential British Medical Journal devotes itself to critiquing Canada's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including failures in long-term care homes and commitments to global vaccine equity.

The introduction to the series, titled "Accountability for Canada's covid-19 response," notes that Canada's death rate of 1,372 per million exceeds the global average of 855 per million. There were approximately 56,000 total official COVID-19 deaths in Canada, as of mid-2023. 

While Canada did have lower death rates and a higher vaccination uptake rate than most G10 countries, the authors of the editorial that leads the series noted this overall picture masks different inequalities according to region, setting and demographic. "Beneath the surface of a general sense of satisfaction lie major pandemic failures," they argue.

One of the main subjects tackled in the series is Canada's abysmal performance in protecting nursing home and long-term care residents from the virus. Despite more than 100 reports that foreshadowed a care crisis in these institutions, Canada still led the world in COVID-related deaths in care homes for older people, the authors state. This was particularly jarring given Canada's status as a wealthy country and one that touts its "free healthcare" system. 

The editorial also notes that Canada failed to take into consideration lessons learned from the SARS outbreak of 2003, which impacted Canadians more than any other country outside Asia. 

The authors also took aim at Canada's failure to deliver on promises of global vaccine equity. "Canada was judiciously ungenerous and unsavvy in its global behaviour, despite repeated pledges by its prime minister to deliver global solidarity during covid-19," the authors argue. Canada bought up more COVID vaccine doses per person than any other country, and would go on to deliver more booster shots to Canadians than donate doses to developing countries. 

The editorial calls for an independent, official inquiry into Canada's handling of COVID-19, in order to review public health failures and draw proper conclusions for future public health emergencies. 

The editorial authors are skeptical of the National Citizen's Inquiry (NCI), a privately-led and funded commission that toured the country from March to May of this year taking testimony from Canadians about how the pandemic affected them. Rebel News covered the NCI extensively. including testimony from economists, research scientists, and constitutional lawyers. 

The editorial argues:

Lacking an independent, federal inquiry allows others to step into the frame. The so called national citizens’ inquiry, for example, appears fuelled by vaccine safety misinformation and ideological concerns with government public health measures and is far from the full, national, and public inquiry led by independent experts that Canada’s pandemic performance deserves. A disturbing covid fallout is the growing social and political divisiveness, which is ignored at Canada’s peril.

Criticism of the NCI aside, the authors provide multiple other reasons as to why the Canadian government should authorize a federal inquiry, including providing accountability for those who died and providing a way forward to reform Canada's health-care system. Among the areas that are singled out as needing improvement are Canadian research and development, as well as getting over the "inertia" needed to improve the dysfunction in the health-care system. 

Rebel News

Staff

Articles written by staff at Rebel News to help tell the other side of the story. 

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