The study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Monday, credits Canada’s strong performance in restrictive and persistent public health measures as well as a successful vaccination campaign. A team of Ontario researchers compared data from February 2020 to February 2022 in 11 countries named G10 due to the late inclusion of a topic. They analyzed data from Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States – all countries with similar political, economic and health systems. care. “If you look at Canada compared to the G10, the differences are huge,” study co-author Dr Fahad Razak said in a recent interview. “If you look at our vaccination rate, we had the highest in the entire G10, we had the lowest number of people infected and the lowest number of people who died.” The survey suggests that the cumulative per capita incidence rate of COVID-19 in Canada was 82,700 per million, while all countries – with the exception of Japan – were over 100,000 per million. The COVID-19-related death rate in Canada was 919 per million, once again the second lowest behind Japan. All other countries were over 1,000 per million. Raywat Deonandan, an epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Ottawa who did not participate in the study, said the research methodology is good, even though it can be difficult to compare infections and deaths across different jurisdictions. “Bottom line: Canada’s relatively rigorous approach has resulted in fewer infections and deaths,” Deonandan said in an email. CLOCKS The expert explains how Canada did relatively well in the pandemic:
Canada’s public health measures make ‘big difference’ against COVID-19, says expert
A new study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggests that Canada’s public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic was better than many similar countries. The Montreal cardiologist Dr. Christopher Labos agrees, saying Canada did well when it took into account factors such as mortality and vaccination rates.
“Persistent level” of restrictions
Razak said at least 70,000 more Canadians would have died in the first two years of the pandemic if Canada had the same death rate as the United States, the country with the highest cumulative number of COVID-19-related deaths. “This means that most of us would probably know a grandparent personally, or a friend or family member ει living in Canada today, who would have died if we had the same trajectory as the United States,” he said. Razak. He said Canada’s relatively positive results came despite it gaining access to vaccination later than most countries, noting that there were other structural flaws in the healthcare system that had to be overcome nationwide at the start of the pandemic. A member of the Governor-General’s football team, wearing a mask, waits on the red carpet at the Governor’s Performing Arts Awards Gala in Ottawa on May 28. (Patrick Doyle / The Canadian Press) “Some hospitals were so overwhelmed that we had to transport an ambulance or patients to other hospitals,” he said. But Canada, he said, differed from other developed countries when it chose to implement public health measures that were both strict and persistent. Although such measures provoked strong reactions in some circles, Razak said they helped mitigate the overall impact of the pandemic. “Compared to many other countries … they would have periods with strict restrictions but they would decline quickly,” he said. “For Canada, it was really this high and persistent level almost entirely for the first two years.”
Higher ratio with two doses
Razak said the success of Canada’s vaccination effort emerged as the strongest result of the research, praising officials for contacting the population and ensuring that vaccines were readily available nationwide. More than 80 percent of eligible Canadians have been fully vaccinated in two doses since June. The percentage of vaccinated populations in other G10 countries is between 64 and 77 percent, according to the study. “There was magic in Canada around these vaccines during doses 1 and 2,” Razak said. “When we talk to our colleagues around the world, Canada is the envy of everyone around us for our population. It is a lesson to the world that there can be a very high commitment to the right strategy.” Dr. Eleanor Fish, a professor of immunology at the University of Toronto who did not participate in the study, said the findings were in line with her own assessment of the pandemic in Canada. Like Razak, she said the high rate of vaccination of the population played an important role in the country’s strong performance. CLOCKS Dr. Theresa Tam on the Amplifier Schedule:
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Financial burden
The study also showed that countries’ response to the pandemic left an economic burden, with public debt rising for all countries and Canada recording one of the highest relative increases. “We had these very significant economic consequences, we had very strict restrictions on our individual freedom that led to things like isolation; but we also really had some of the best results in controlling the effects of the virus,” Razak said. “Was it worth it? This is not a scientific question. It is a matter of values and ethics and politics.”
