(09-06-2020, 06:33 PM)Bjays93 Wrote: I don't know if this is appropriate place to discuss covid lockdown measures but what I was more getting at was not that we have done nothing (we've done plenty) but that ultimately it has amounted to nothing.
Lockdowns and closing everything are pointless without fully eradicating the disease. You are hurting local businesses, only to open up and allow spread again, ultimately re forcing businesses to close. There hasn't been much foresight in any of our covid reactions. Lockdowns also make sense when things are spiraling out of control but things were neither out of control or fully eradicated in Canada.
If you aren't willing to take on the full pain of a lockdown to get rid of the disease, strict social distancing protocols are your next best option. Our back to school plan doesnt hae this, which is a recipe for disaster. The virus is still in circulation and we havent taken adequate preparations and precautions to prevent large outbreaks in the coming weeks.
New Zealand took the short term pain to get completely covid free (minus their recent Auckland cluster which has been traced at this point) since they are completely covid free outside of this cluster, they aren't taking as stringent of measures. Things have been mostly normal in New Zealand for the last half of the summer thanks to their strategy.
You're right, this probably isn't the right place for this discussion, but I can see it upstream from you, so no harm, no foul.
1) I don't think that our measures have amounted to nothing. Rather, if we look at the US, we can see that our more robust lockdown and measures of resulted in significantly less cases. Based on the US case count, if we were on part, we'd have about 800,000 rather than the 132,000 we have now (the US is about 8.9x our size).
2) I agree we have hurt businesses, a lot. But we didn't know how to handle things at first, hence the lockdown until we knew more. There was no way we'd eradicate thing, even with a prolonged lockdown. Many reason is that we still have major trade and travel with the US, and Canada allowed residents back into the country, the lied about being sick.
3) As for NZ, very different country than Canada. They did take a stronger approach, and they also have the advantage of being isolated. No matter what Canada did, we're not isolated, at all. We just look at the what is happening in BC with travel from Washington to Alaska. We also allow back and forth travel for various reason. We also have strong trade with the US, so thousands of transports driving into Canada every day.