POLICY - HEALTH
No ‘magic’ response: diplomats discuss international lessons learned from COVID-19
'We’re living a gigantic world-wide experiment of geology, economy, and psychology, and we will only know later what happened,' says German Ambassador Sabine Sparwasser.
Canadians have a chance to gain more ground in the UN Security Council seat race by sharply contrasting our values with the current American political leadership; a growing divergence that is notable.
‘Until we know where the discrepancies and inequities in health are, we can never tackle them,’ says the Alliance for Healthier Communities.
Most regulators share the common goal of protecting the health and safety of their citizens. So why not accept the results of testing that trusted colleagues have already undertaken?
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The narrative of war and rallying support for the battle of our lives and those of our fellow citizens excludes anyone who does not conform to a dominant masculine/feminine binary narrative.
Will the collective shock compel people to think seriously about a fundamental transformation of political motivation to prioritize social justice?
Some 4,000 people, from scientists, to web developers, to architects, have volunteered their time to help Canada fight COVID-19. 
There are indications that Canadian contact-tracing apps could hit the app stores as early as this week. That could prove unwise.
Concerns over privacy have often complicated the timeliness and sharing of data needed to assess risk for adverse health outcomes, and privacy zealots in Canada have challenged public health innovations.
Although there have been high-level talks with his office, as the government discusses with app developers, Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien says he hasn’t heard any of the finer points.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has likened efforts to procure medical supplies right now to the ‘Wild West,’ and the feds are taking a whole-of-government approach to pull it off. 
Even as different parts of the country start to ease restrictions in the weeks ahead, Dr. Tam cautioned that in managing the 'next phase' of the spread, Canada will need to ensure there’s the capacity to detect outbreaks.
Critics argue that failures in early warning are linked to failed early action on COVID-19. This conclusion is both misleading and obstructive. Early warning isn’t the problem. Early response is. 
Put side-by-side, Canada’s response to the coronavirus crisis is stand up well in relation to the crap show unfolding south of the border.
Now more than ever we need to show our valuable health workers our support by explicitly including them in the capacity planning equation, and implementing protective policies and practices. Otherwise, we’re left with one hand clapping.Even if Canada does not have official coronavirus shortages today, we are vulnerable to them. Let us use this pandemic as a wake-up call to finally pay attention to the problem of drug shortages plaguing health-care delivery for years and now threatening to jeopardize our response to COVID-19.
Time will be the ultimate judge. However, the numbers so far indicate that Canada’s approach has been vastly more effective than Sweden’s in keeping down the relative number of cases and deaths. Indeed, most countries share Canada’s, not Sweden’s, approach in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis.
We call on governments to include Canada’s charitable sector in their plans to stabilize and protect what is most important—the health and well-being of Canadians.
It’s time the federal government used its authority to create critical data infrastructure. More policy stories
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