Note: This article was published March 30, 2020. Due to the rapidly evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the information in it may no longer be current.
It was clear after SARS and Ebola that we were woefully unprepared for another outbreak if it hit our shores.
We live in the most interconnected time in the planet’s history. That shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s cheaper than ever to travel. You can fly across the planet in less than 24 hours.
Trade lines from the far East to the West move trillions of dollars worth of food, technology, household goods and, most importantly, medicine. Free and liberalized movements of labour in Europe mean the continent is borderless.
In a world where people from everywhere can go anywhere, we have allowed ourselves to be accessible and reliant on other countries, some of whom are not our allies. This is because when times are good, globalization works. When times are bad, globalization goes out the window.
Patient zero of COVID-19 was internally reported in China in early November 2019. Similarly, a complete shutdown of the country led to a full stop of information flowing to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and the WHO from Chinese officials.
China stopped relaying vital information to other countries, including their average incubation period, death rate statistics, and possible prevention methods. This was exactly the deadliest part of the SARS response.
Sovereignty reigns supreme in times of crisis. Consider the fact that the vast majority of medication used in Canada and the U.S. is manufactured in China, and that manufacturing was essentially shut down in the past couple of months.
What are Canadians who rely on medication supply chains supposed to do? We have become so addicted to low prices that we have forgotten that we cannot control when those vital supply chains start and stop.
Similarly, it should anger you that WHO workers and American journalists are either expelled or not given full access to the Chinese information chain to track the exact number of cases and prevention methods.
Communication shuts down between countries that are in crisis mode. That needs to change.
Disinformation campaigns spread widely throughout villages in West Africa about why doctors were looking to quarantine people, so many locals refused treatment, hid from the medical officers in scary hazmat suits and instead, got themselves sick and continued the spread.
If we are going to beat this thing, we need to communicate internationally and locally, incredibly fast.
We need to strongly encourage other nations to join global efforts, show accurate information, and respond equally, globally. If one city says they will lock down, people panic and scatter from that city. The centralized WHO, with tremendous input and help from the American CDC, the British NHS and others, need to coordinate messaging campaigns and response efforts.
If one country shuts flights down, we all should. If the U.S. and Canada say everyone should quarantine, then everyone else should. If Italy reports accurate statistics, to show what happens with little to no planning, then so should China.
We don’t need globalization when times are good, we need it now.
File photo.
