What surprises bioethicist Kerry Bowman isn’t that more than a third of Canadians think governments overreacted to COVID, according to a new national poll. It’s that the sentiment isn’t higher. “I think a lot of Canadians have doubts,” said Bowman, who teaches bioethics and global health at the University of Toronto.
“What we didn’t do as a nation was think about, in a mature democratic society, how far can we go with restrictions, and how far can we go, quickly, in the absence of clear evidence.” Five years after a mysterious pneumonia-like illness of unknown origin emerged in Wuhan, China, before spreading around the globe, many Canadians believe extreme and unprecedented government-mandated policies to “flatten the curve” went too far. Thirty-six per cent of Canadians agree with the notion that government reactions to the pandemic were exaggerated, according to the poll by Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies (ACS).
Men were more likely (41 per cent) than women (32 per cent) to think governments overplayed the threat of COVID-19. The view was also highest among those aged 18 to 24 (40 per cent) and 35 to 54 (42 per cent), but dropped to 30 per cent for the 55 plus cohort. People in the Prairies and Alberta were more likely to have a negative perception of the decisions taken by government.
Forty-seven per cent of Albertans and 45 per cent of Manitoba and Saskatchewan respondents agreed the COVID response was exaggerated. Overall, 50 per cent o.
