Sam.

On one hand, we have to understand the difficulty our elected leaders face when this crisis appeared. Decisions needed to happen quickly, and usually without enough facts. I’m not sure I could have done a better job.

On the other hand, we should have been prepared a lot better. Where were the stockpiles of rubber gloves and masks? Where were the well-thought out social programs that should have been rolled out when isolation was ordered? In this regard, government failed miserably.

The testing is one of those features of this crisis that is not being treated in a forthright manner. We should be testing just about everyone — if we really want to get a handle on this pandemic. Yet testing is very selective — even in Canada. It seems there is a big shortage of testing kits, qualified people to test and analyze, and/or laboratories to conduct the tests. But so far, the politicians and media do not want to delve into the reasons for a lack of testing. We may find out later, but right now, forthrightness is not offered.

Anyways, our lack of preparedness shows a failure of governance. I have written how a different kind of governance would have handled Covid-19.

https://medium.com/@davevolek/covid-19-and-tiered-democratic-governance-81dcc4e4e7fd