Hello comrades and friends and friends of comrades!

You might have seen posts or hashtags about Canadian Shield relating to a pandemic response plan

It's not like our federal, provincial, and municipal governments have been doing a great job so I decided to investigate

THREAD

So Canadian Shield is a report sponsored by Global Canada which appears to be a corporate/business minded think tank

You can read the report here: https://covidstrategicchoices.ca/ 

A few influencing figures on this site have been promoting this so my first question was who wrote that report?

What expertise does that group collectively have?

Among the authors we have:

Chamber of commerce guy
Bell Canada corporate services guy
Economics prof
CEO FN health NGO
Yukon Minister of economic development
Businessman/consultant
PolSci associate professor
Scotiabank economist
Hobbyist biostatistician
QueensU NGO businessman

Epidemiology grad student

Infection model math expert
MD and public health expert
Emergency physician
Public health professor
Physician infectious disease specialist
Assistant prof public health

Now it's reassuring to see public health, infectiology, clinical expertise

Phew!

You'll notice I lumped the hobbyist biostatistician with the business people. First he blocked me when I asked why he wouldn't immunize healthcare workers first https://twitter.com/Fred_Langlois_/status/1345574572368809985?s=20

Second: he has recently lashed at people from oppressed communities

Third: not my favorite thing to pull a credentialist argument, but maybe he should listen to more qualified non dude and BIPOC that have medical or scientific expertise

Moving on..

So we have here a mixed group where the business people outnumber experts

The report itself focuses on a stronger lockdown, as well as increased testing, contact tracing, monitoring capacity until the COVID-19 vaccines have been fully deployed

Sounds good, right?

But see here the recommendations are based on short-run economic impacts vs. social impact + effect on virus transmission

Putting short-term economic impacts concerns first is what got us into this mediocre pandemic response

That's ... Not great.

They did say social impacts so what are they recommending?

"provide direct assistance to those most affected"

Hmm... That's vague

Besides providing more PPEs there's no mention of measures to increase the safety of workers, or anything specific to the sites of the greatest Canadian outbreaks (e.g. LTC, meat packing plants, distribution warehouses, etc.)

No provisions for precarious frontline workers (e.g. increasing transit capacity to reduce transmission, paid sick leave, mandatory distancing, no permanent or even temporary pay increase, etc.)

No assistance for those who stay home: no canceling rent, no canceling mortgages

No assistance for parents who keep children at home

Nothing wrt to schools, students, educators, or school staff

The lockdown stuff is good, as are the testing/contact tracing/monitoring recommendations. BUT they are measures meant to benefit the economy

Benefits to the public are a just a lucky coincidence if there's no consideration for those who have been made vulnerable

In conclusion I just want to remind everyone to be mindful when supporting a plan whose primary goal is to reduce short-term economic impacts

Thanks for reading

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to @poly_distortion who first put me on the scent

Friends help each other