Covid-19 stats for The US and Canada

I've been watching this and I think it's actually a few factors.

1) Canada was just a little behind infection curve relative to most other countries, which gave a little bit of breathing room to make decisions. Given the exponentiality of this, just a few days earlier on lock-down can make a big difference. In relative terms (days after 1st 100 cases) I think Canada locked down sooner than other places.

2) Canada was testing way more aggressively early on.

3) Canada has a public healthcare system - so it's coordinated by default. The hospital systems are prepared at the provincial level for pandemics, it's not a big coordinating effort.

4) Canada is smaller, so possibly a little bit easier to coordinate.

5) Interprovincial and political issues are not nearly as severe as in the US. There isn't a lot of arguing, relatively speaking.

6) This is hugely speculative ... but I think Canadians are more compliant and risk-averse in general. 'Stability and Good Order' vs. 'Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness' means I think Canadians are systematically more likely to follow the rules as they develop. Honestly, Canadians are so not like New Yorkers ... it's definitely measurable on some level.

7) Because everyone has healthcare, nobody is afraid to go to the hospital and get tested.

8) Paid sick leave means people are not afraid to take a few days off if they have to.

I think it's mostly 1 and 2 though.

I also think Coronavirus is going to expose any system that doesn't have fairly universal coverage.

If 5% of Americans have no coverage, and another 20% are afraid of their co-pay, and as a result don't get tested, or delay that - what that will do is make life much more miserable for the remaining 20%.

I'm not going to promote the 'Canadians system' as 'better' - there are serious deficiencies, but I would say that definitely America has to work on getting everyone covered, one way or another, by hook or by crook.

Only time will tell if these differences are meaningful. FWIW I'm in BC and have found little fault with the provincial health agency's response and, for the most part, have been impressed with the level of compliance from the public. Is it enough? Time will tell, but so far the numbers could be a lot worse.

I'm not sure to what extent things are shutdown in the states, but all of our major cities are more or less locked down. Vancouver is imposing big fines on social distancing and already didn't have a great nightlife to begin with. We also have less cities close together.

The Canadian government took it seriously from the beginning and the US didn't.

I suspect culture has something to do with it too. People are more likely to seek treatment or call public health authorities when they don't worry it will bankrupt them.

Canada may be testing a greater proportion of the infected people. They may also have different criteria for when someone's death is "caused by" COVID19.

For starters they have about 10x the tests per million and started testing much earlier, so they are doing better at tracing & containment.

Most likely sheer brute force as well considering Canada's population is 10% the population of the states.