As we watch the disaster unspooling in America, you have to wonder how two countries so close together can have such different outcomes with COVID-19.
We are neighbours, sharing the longest land border in the world (8,900 km) and the storied “special relationship” of economic partnership and shared culture and language. (That border is closed to non-essential travel, although it is showing itself to be porous.)
And yet.
America has been whacked by COVID, much more so than Canada. According to the Johns Hopkins University COVID dashboard, America has had 3,576,221 confirmed cases and 138,359 deaths as of Friday.
The same dashboard shows Canada (one 10th the population) with 111,144 confirmed cases and 8,875 deaths.
In America, data shows 10,571 cases per million with 415 deaths per million. In Canada, there are 2,883 cases per million with 233 deaths per million.
In America, the curve is spiking. In Canada, it is flattened.
What explains this?
The knee-jerk reaction of many Canadians is to cast an eye south and make the observation that “you can’t fix stupid.” This would be that old Canadian sanctimony rearing its head again. It has always made Canadians feel better about themselves to call Americans stupid, but when there is so much death and suffering about, this sort of sanctimony is out of line and unhelpful.
Besides, there is so much more to it.
It is true that in Canada we have accepted the sacrifices — the lockdown, isolation, missing loved ones, fines, masks and other limitations on our rights and freedoms.
Sure, there has been grumbling. But on the whole, Canadians have been compliant.
Not so all Americans.
We’ve seen an outbreak of “mask rage” with mask burnings, killings over mask conflicts and declarations of rather being dead than caught wearing a mask.
OK.
So in America, the mask has become a symbol of stripped liberties and infringed freedoms.
I suppose you could say that Americans place a higher value on their rights and freedoms than we do in Canada.
In Canada, we also value our rights and freedoms but we more readily accept limitations for the good of the herd.
America values individualism above the herd. To require an individual to wear a mask to protect others is an infringement on the freedom of the individual.
This streak of rebelliousness stems from history. America was born of revolution. They fought against authority and oppression and booted out the British some 250 years ago. Individual freedom is baked into their national DNA.
Here in Canada, we remained colonial and to this day keep our (figurative) head of state in Britain.
In America, there is disdain for anything that smells of socialism. This has prompted states and cities to lift lockdowns before it was safe to do so.
The other thing setting the two countries apart in a time of COVID is leadership in a time of election.
America will vote in November and its current president is orchestrating his COVID response around his own political agenda. When public health measures conflict with the value Americans place on freedom, the president knows which side he is on with an election just months away.
This has led to mixed messages around things like mask wearing, drugs and opening after lockdown. The attitude of the cure being worse than the disease has also encouraged states and cities to open up too soon, leading to further spread of COVID-19.
Many Americans — like Canadians — listen to the messages coming from their leaders. Of course, Trump is a polarizing politician but people listen and agree with his provocative statements, even if they contradict those of public health officials such as Dr. Anthony Fauci.
So America is in trouble and as their closest neighbour we can only look on with horror and keep our borders shut. Hopefully, we can find compassion and more to say than just “stupid” as our neighbour struggles through this crisis.
