Why harder Covid lockdowns protect economies
4 January
Angella MacEwen, economist at CUPE National, shared an article on how Canada handled the Covid-19 pandemic compared to other countries.
During the initial stages of the pandemic, Canada performed poorly as the government and public health officials were unprepared.
Between April and June the government was able to control coronavirus infections by imposing restrictions and lockdowns, but the country’s GDP shrunk by 13.4%.
Several countries followed a similar strategy of imposing lockdowns and restrictions during the period.
The article noted that those countries that imposed strict restrictions during the initial stages kept the deaths per million low but also had a low decline in GDP.
The approach to handling the pandemic was considered as a trade-off between health and the economy by several experts.
The article noted that this is not the case and that an aggressive action to control the spread of Covid-19 is the best economic policy.