Canada imposes COVID restrictions and USA is open for business

The omicron variant is spreading around the world like wildfire. Canada is imposing more and more restrictions, and the United States, (for the most part) is still open for business.

This is quite different than at the beginning of the pandemic, when Canada and the United States had similar reactions: shutting down and confining everyone, things look quite different this time around.

Canada's largest provinces are shutting down. However, the United States, for the most part, is still up and running. Frustrated Canadians may be asking themselves why? What's the difference?

Why is our neighbor to the South still functioning? For example this picture shows a football game on January 9th in Baltimore: the stadium is packed, there is no social distancing, and very few people are wearing masks. Meanwhile in Ontario we need to hunker down, gyms are closed, and we have to homeschool our kids, etc???

The answer is shockingly simple: private vs. predominantly public health care systems. In the United States, the healthcare system prioritizes the free market and therefore has more hospital beds per capita than the Canadian public health care system does. It is simple economics.

Bloomberg spoke to physician Bob Bell, who ran health Ontario from 2014-2018, who told the publication: "I'm not advocating for that American market-driven system. But I am saying that in Canada, we have restricted hospital capacity excessively."

Cutbacks to public health care in Canada over the years have also affected the capacity limit in intensive care units in Canadian hospitals.

According to Bloomberg, in the province of Ontario, for example, there is only one ICU bed for every 6,000 residents, according to population estimates and figures provided by the provincial government.

Out of all the Canadian provinces, Ontario has the worst resident to hospital bed ratio, so it is no surprise that with the surge in omicron, schools in the province are returning to online learning.

Meanwhile, in the United States, the numbers are unsurprisingly different. According to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, on average, the country has one ICU bed per 4,1000 people.

However, unlike in Canada, where health care is public, not everyone in the United States can afford access to those beds.

If we look at the larger picture, Canadians have far better access to health care than Americans. As a result, Canucks tend to live longer and very rarely end up in debt due to health care costs.

In addition, despite fewer hospitals beds, fewer Canadians are dying from COVID than in the United States: in fact, the death rate is a third less.

Experts chalk it up to a combination of public health care and stricter, more widespread use of COVID restrictions and preventative measures.

Nonetheless, it is clear that Canadian hospitals struggle more when faced with a large influx of patience due to COVID. Health care may be free of cost, but the government can only afford to maintain so many hospital beds. The result: more restrictions and lockdowns.

Undoubtedly, Ontario is one of the Canadian provinces with the worst patient-to-bed ratio in the country and currently has 2,300 people impatient due to COVID.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced on January 3rd new business and school closure due to the pressure omicron is putting on hospitals and said, "The math isn't on our side."

In Brampton, Ontario, the Brampton Civic Hospital was forced to declare a state of emergency on January 5th due to a lack of beds and workers.

This wave of COVID has caused many hospital staff members to be forced to stay home and isolate due to exposure or infection.

The mayor Patrick Brown then tweeted, "We need a national conversation on inadequate health care capacity and staffing. We haven't done an adequate job of developing capacity that will serve the needs of Ontarians," Bell said. "There's just no surge capacity available."

Undoubtedly, Canadian hospitals and ICU capacity is a problem, and the health care system in Ontario has suffered due to cutbacks.

For example, hospitals were already strained during flu season before the arrival of the pandemic. But other issues have caused both Canada and the United States to react differently to this wave of COVID.

For example, Canadians, in general, trust their government to make decisions on their behalf for the collective good.

Experts such as Bob Bell say that Canadians simply would not tolerate the amount of death due to COVID as the United States has.

According to former University of Toronto president and physician David Naylor, Canadian policies are guided by a "collectivist ethos" more than in the States.

As a result, shutdowns and public health restrictions to keep hospitals going are better tolerated by Canadians than their southern neighbors.

Naylor told Bloomberg in an interview on the subject, "America's outcomes are almost inexplicable given the scientific and medical firepower of the USA. With regret, I'd have to say that America's radical under-performance in protecting its citizens from viral disease and death is a symptom of a deeper-seated political malaise in their federation."