Hi everyone,
I would like to analyze COVID-19 pandemic from a Canadian and socio-economic perspective. This is the first time in history we’ve had a pandemic this disruptive to the world since the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic , which killed 50-100 million worldwide. This pandemic is comparable not because of the number of deaths, but how the level of impact to the word through the interconnected global economy. Overall, I’m glad we are acting now when things aren’t so bad (compared to Asia and Europe) and taking preventive measures than waiting until things progress and get worse and taking reactive measures. However, I am still concerned because the Canadian government estimates 30 to 70 per cent of the country could get it eventually, so this has been on my mind.
So far, we’ve been adopting measures such as “social distancing.” We’ve had orders for greater physical distancing, less groups gathering, and less travel for the time being as our government work to stamp out all cases of COVID-19 being transferred in our country, though they are more like guidelines, as opposed to the Chinese and Israeli officials who are enforcing these measures. However, the situation changed last week when there was a spike in infections, which also coincided with Prime Minister Trudeau announcing that his wife Sophie tested positive for COVID-19. After that, Canadian officials are trying to tackle the virus in two ways: (1) decreasing transmission from travelers returning from abroad and (2) decreasing community transmission from person-to-person contact.
This week, non-essential businesses are shut down, which drastically affects private sector industries, especially the service industry, which employs 8 out of 10 Canadians because businesses are no longer operating and laying people off. Although this pandemic affects everyone, it affects lower-income Canadians the most, as “salespeople, hotel and casino workers, as well as restaurant staff [are] many of whom work in low-wage jobs with little financial cushion.” The government is trying to fix the economic downturn by providing employment income assistance and injecting funds and bailing out the oil and gas sector, but Margaret Wente (a columnist for the Globe and Mail) thinks the relief is not enough to save jobs and the economy, that only the end of this pandemic would save the economy. At the individual level, I would add that although an improvement would not restore some peoples’ livelihoods, it is a bandaid solution that would help restore some dignity and give hope; something is better than nothing.
For the next blog post, I will explore the dimension of class in this pandemic, and how some will suffer more detrimental effects than others, including workers in the service industry. For the blog post after that, I will analyze more broadly by focusing on the dimension of economic sector, and how the natural resource sector will suffer more consequences from this pandemic, such as in the case of Alberta. My heart goes out to the front-of-line staff working right now, such as healthcare professionals and grocery store clerks who are risking their lives to serve us, so thank you thank you thank you.
Sincerely,
Guest
