Whose Deaths do We Notice?

Most of my blogs start with a conversation in my head while either carding, spinning or weaving. Sometimes those conversations have little or no substance and they quickly evaporate or morph into something more interesting. But every once in a while,  a thought flitters across my mind that is so embarrassing that I immediately try to suppress it. I know that if I put that thought to paper, it will offend most who read it. Frequently, however, the more I try to ignore that offensive bit of dialogue hovering on the edges of my consciousness, the more I am driven to think about it.

Such was the case with my internal conversation about the amount of press and air time devoted to the missing Canadian Armed Forces personal who died in a helicopter crash while on duty in the Mediterranean. It seemed a bit excessive. I do not doubt that the six individuals were fine people who did their job with professionalism and pride. I do not doubt that they were particularly proud to serve in the Canadian Armed Forces, to represent this country and if need be, to defend it. Their deaths are a tragedy for their family and friends and a loss to their communities. The fact that they were all relatively young makes the tragedy more profound.

But those six individuals were not the only Canadians who died in the performance of their duty. In fact in 2018 (the last year that I can find reliable statistics), just over a thousand Canadians died while doing their jobs including 199 people in construction, 182 in manufacturing, 63 in resource extraction and 18 in agriculture (1). I do not know any of their names, their deaths were not mentioned by the Prime Minister, there were no 30-minute long radio programs about their deaths. Their families and friends mourned them but no one else cared. Their lives were never celebrated on national television.

For those workers, all of whom were doing jobs that we as Canadians need someone to do if we are going to survive as a country, they had little job security, many had no government-backed pension plan, no long term health benefits, were not able to retire after twenty years working and they had, most likely, paid for their education and training. Were they less of being a proud Canadian than a member of the armed forces? As they raised their children, coached baseball or hockey teams, belonged civic groups and shared the life of their community, were their lives less worthy of celebration?

I am not suggesting that we should, as a nation, ignore the deaths of those six soldiers. They were working for all of us and therefore we should take a moment to reflect upon their lives and their deaths. But the over 1000 Canadians, including the 7 loggers in British Columbia, who died doing their jobs - their deaths are just as important. They too were working for their country.

It seems to me that we, if we are going, in a very public way,  to celebrate the lives of some Canadians - then we need to find a way to celebrate the lives of all Canadians. If we are, again in a very public way, support the loved ones of some Canadians who have died, we need to do it for all.

addendum: I am willing to be that more taxpayers money will be spent investigating the deaths of those soldiers than was spent on investigating the deaths of those 7 BC loggers.

(1) http://awcbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/18-2-F-EN-Ic.png

Observations From Just Outside the Pandemic #13

As it appears as if we are entering a period when people and companies will slowly start to re-engage with their environment, we are going to be inundated with all kinds of experts telling us what our governments did wrong and why we should be angry about it. Some of this has already occurred with various groups/individuals suggesting that the Canadian government erred in its lack of planning, in not having enough medical supplies, in not testing enough, or doing it sooner and in not shutting down our borders fast enough.

There will also be an almost equal number of comments suggesting that the government did too much. That there was no need to close almost every conceivable service or if we had just exercised reasonable precautions, life could have gone on - in almost a normal fashion.

The problem with the above comments is that they are all, at least partially, right. It just depends upon what information the "experts" use to come to their conclusions. There would appear to be almost no consistency about how various countries measured the extent of the virus in its general population.

For example - Dr. Tam, Canada's chief public health officer on a daily bases reports the number of people who have been diagnosed with the virus. People can and do compare that number with other countries and rank whether Canada is doing better or worse in managing the crisis than other countries. The number of people sick or even in a hospital is a useless piece of data unless one knows the percentage of people who have been tested and who they are. If a country is only primarily testing people in health care, people who have been potentially been exposed to the virus,  the proportion of people infected may be significantly different than in a country where the testing limits are less restrictive in terms of occupation. Without knowing who was tested, we are comparing apples and oranges. Never a useful exercise.

As of today, 2800 people have died from complications of being infected with the COVID-19 virus. As of last week, almost half of the deaths in Canada have occurred in nursing homes. If we are going to discuss the number of deaths, we need to separate the number of seniors and their caregivers in long term care who have died from the general statistics. It is not that those deaths, or in fact those individuals are insignificant but rather that the reasons for their deaths have far more to do with the quality of care (or the lack thereof) than the federal government's failure to plan for a pandemic. It might be very useful to compare data about such deaths with what happened in other countries. If Sweden or Japan have had fewer deaths from the virus, what was the percentage of seniors who died and where did they live? According to the Independent (1), a respected British newspaper, Japan, while it has a higher percentage of senior citizens than many countries, it has fewer long term beds. Japan supports the elderly without incarcerating them in institutions.

If we are going to have a conversation about how many died and why - we need to understand all of the data. Depending on what data is used will change the conversation about whether or not Canada was successful in managing this health crisis.

(1) https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/japan-elderly-social-care-system-uk-nhs-health-old-people-a8377631.html

Observations From Just Outside the Pandemic #12

I sometimes (actually most of the time) get irritated at various politicians who put their party's or their personal needs ahead of Canada's. I should know better than to take it personally. Being self-centred is, I suppose, part of a politician's job description. But there are times when I see something that is so outrageous that I fume about it all day.

Yesterday morning I saw a bit of Andrew Sheer's press conference where he was denying any responsibility for what one of his party's members (and someone who is running for the leadership of the Conservative party) had said about Dr. Theresa Tam. Sheer who lost the last federal election and then resigned as the leader has continued to act as the leader until a new one can be elected. Sloan, an MP from Ontario has stated on Twitter " “Dr. Tam must go! Canada must remain sovereign over decisions. The UN, the WHO, and Chinese Communist propaganda must never again have a say over Canada’s public health!”  While it is entirely appropriate that at some point when all of the information is available and if one is qualified to understand the data, that all officials need to reflect and discuss their decisions, this may not be the time.

Sheer, in his role as an interim leader, has refused to comment on Sloan's statement. He has absolved himself of responsibility for what a member by suggesting that it is not his role to discuss what any leadership candidate says. By refusing to condemn the comments it appears as if he is supporting them. Hiding behind someone else's comments is, at best, cowardly. At worst it is a national leader demonstrating his bigotry, his ignorance and his determination to find fault with anyone and everyone who does share his political values.

Quite frankly, Mr. Sheer needs to develop some male body parts, and have either the courage to come out and support the words and attitude of Mr. Sloan or to stand up and condemn them. There cannot be a middle path.

Dr. Tam may not have given the best advice all of the time. She and her team may have, in hindsight, needed to recommend more aggressive action earlier. Or it may be that Dr. Tam should have recommended that we follow the example of Sweden and Norway and therefore not mandated an almost total closure of the country. Perhaps the federal government should have taken control of all extended care facilities for seniors so that the death rate in those places would have been significantly reduced. Maybe we should have done more sooner or maybe we should have done a lot less. Hindsight is a wonderful tool to learn from our past mistakes, but using it in the middle of a crisis may not be wise. People who are not accountable to anyone such as Mr. Sheer or Mr. Sloan, people who believe it is their right to take "pot shots" at those who are doing their best, people who have no accountability should sit down until they have some useful suggestions.

I would hope that in the next few years a number of the possible scenarios will be investigated. Clearly we, and the rest of the world need to know how to manage these sorts of crises. While we will never know, many people including myself, would have been resistive if the Government of Canada had locked down the borders immediately. There was not the time to have a national debate as to how to deal with a medical crisis, someone needed to make a decision. Someone needed to decide on how to make that decision.

The Canadian public decided that that person would not be Mr. Sheer

Addendum:

It is interesting to note that Sweden has had a relatively low COVID-10 death rate and it traditionally has one of the lowest rates of senior institutionalization in the world (1).

(1) Age and Ageing 1997; 26-S2: 3-12

Nursing homes in 10 nations:

a comparison between countries

and settings

MIELW. RIBBE, GUNNAR LJUNGGREN1, KNIGHT STEEL2, EVA TOPINKOVA3, CATHERINE HAWES4,

NAOKI IKEGAMI5, JEAN-CLAUDE HENRARD6, PALMI V. JONNSON7