Into the Pandemic - The Political Side

No crisis would be complete without its share of politics, and this COVID-19 pandemic is garnering its fair share.

Here in Canada, things have been pretty even-handed.  For the most part, governments, provincial and federal, have stayed out of the way and allowed our healthcare professionals to take the lead.  Here in BC, we have been getting daily updates from the Provincial Health Officer backed up by the Minister of Health.

Federally, the government has limited its involvement to announcements of funding support and what bits of reassurance it can offer at this time.  Various national health protection bodies are doing what they are supposed to do.

Things get more interesting if you look at what's going on in other countries.

This opinion piece appeared in the CBC on March 12th.  Trump's Narcissism Carnival-Show is Dangerous in the Face of COVID-19.  The author calls events unfolding in the USA "a sorry spectacle".  Other reports seem to bear that out.

This article calls the current situation a "defining crisis" for Trump's presidency.  Even the usual Trump cheerleaders were muted by the President's announcements made on March 13th.

Once again, from across the pond, The Guardian went so far as to fact-check Trump's recent statements and found most of them wanting, to various degrees.

What is fact is that, of a few days ago, more tests for the virus had been done in the province of BC than in all of the USA.  Hopefully that will change in the coming days.  It's difficult to understand the nature of the pandemic when you don't know how many people actually have the virus.

David Frum, a former speechwriter for GW Bush, pulled no punches in his criticism of Trump's handling of the current crisis so far:

There is always something malign in Trump’s incompetence. He has no care or concern for others; he cannot absorb the trouble and suffering of others as real. He monotones his way through words of love and compassion, but those words plainly have no content or meaning for him. The only thing that is real is his squalid vanity. This virus threatens to pierce that vanity, so he denied it as long as he could. What he refuses to acknowledge cannot be real, can it?

 Some writers have compared the White House's response to the current pandemic to its response to climate change.  Deny it as long as possible, then offer thoughts and prayers.  As in this story.

And as in this video clip from MSNBC

Here in Canada, we have our own version of a know-nothing blowhard in the person of Premier Ford of Ontario, who, just the other day, advised families to "take a vacation" during their March break.  You have to wonder what numbers he was looking at.

I'm sure there will be more to come.