The COVID-19 pandemic

[danbrotherston]

I'm sure he still has a few ideas on the table ready to go for next week!

This thing has been so painful for everyone. I hope he and his entire party lose the next election because this has been ridiculous. We now have new models showing we will likely hit 18'000 cases per day in this province by the end of May. What will we do then? Our hospitals are already about to collapse and we're only averaging something like 4500 cases per day. How do they expect to handle 18'000?

I am curious, many people are quick to condem Ford. I am just asking what your solution would have been.  I am not being sarcastic or rude.  I ambserious about yours and others idea.

Oh, so much. The general policy would have been COVID zero, not the "barely managed situation" we have now, and possibly transitioning into "not at all managed" scenario.

Biggest specific issues with Ford and how to fix them:

1. Communication:

Communications have been muddied and confused. I would have decided on policy, (the right policy the first time), communicated it clearly, along with end conditions we are looking for.  Both at a vision level, and an immediate term level.  I'd have stopped pointing the blame at others.  This makes a huge difference, inspiring people (not something I'm good at, but I still think I could do better than Ford...if only by hiring the right people to help), is the key to succeeding here.

2. Proactive policy:

Policies have been totally reactive, and not forward thinking.

Examples:

In summery, policies should have been around planning to ensure schools are safe. I think we got lucky with school transmission being lower, but they are still closed now, and were in January. We could have done much better, investing in ventilation, smaller class sizes, etc. etc.

In late November, cases were rising. We know that Christmas is an important holiday. I would have locked down then, in order to ensure that cases are low enough to make Christmas safer. We had a HUGE spike as a result of failing to do this, because nobody was willing to plan ahead, or maybe, were unwilling to face the reality of what would happen at Christmas.

And of course the current dire situation we are facing, as a result of ignoring modeling and opening anyway.

3. Science based policy:

This one is self explanatory, stop giving people money, stop with the bad policies, focus on the real problems. Invest in the right resources (e.g., contact tracing) to make it possible to actually gather the data to make targeted policies.

I could probably think of more things, but those are the biggest problems I think.