COVID‐19 pandemic responses of Canada and United States in first 6 months: A comparative analysis

Shianne Combden, Anita Forward and Atanu Sarkar

International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 2022, vol. 37, issue 1, 50-65

Abstract: Introduction Canada and the United States have distinct health care and social policies, and it is important to see how they had been responding to the ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic. Methods The study period was limited to the first 6 months of the pandemic and aimed to explore the responses by public health authorities, media, general population, and law makers during the initial phase of pandemic. Results Social disparity, underfunded pandemic preparation, and the initial failure to act appropriately have resulted in the rapid spread of infection in both countries. In the United States, prevailing social inequalities and racism, inaccessible health care, higher rates of preexisting medical conditions and disputed political leadership have further deteriorated the situation and enhanced public suffering, particularly for the black and Indigenous communities. In Canada, its poorly regulated services of long‐term care facilities, initial restriction of testing and lack of access to epidemiological data have helped spread the infection and increased casualties in vulnerable populations. Conclusion Analysis of the pandemic responses of the United States and Canada has revealed how existing social disparity, underfunded pandemic preparation, and the initial failure to act appropriately have resulted in the rapid spread of infection.

Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/hpm.3323

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ijhplm:v:37:y:2022:i:1:p:50-65

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0749-6753

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Health Planning and Management is currently edited by Calum Paton

More articles in International Journal of Health Planning and Management from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().