In retrospect, not so compelling https://twitter.com/Justin_Ling/status/1238540675781660672

Tangent: how much of the Cdn government's fatally bungled approach to COVID-19 was simply a reflexive desire to appear un-trump-esque (even if, ironically, trump himself made some of the same blunders)? The desire to appear anti-racist, support open borders etc became the goal

These are not illegitimate objectives. There was racism against Asians. Trade is important. but our govt wasnt capable of pivoting to the more serious medical threat until it was too late they got entrenched in their postures.

We had govt by mascot instead of govt by ministry

One grim irony: I can attest that from what I saw in Toronto, the Cdns who were most concerned about where travelers were coming from were often, *themselves* Canadians of East Asian ancestry, since they sometimes were more educated about events in China, singapore, SK etc

This is a pattern around the world. we rightly talk about how technically and logistically underprepared we were for a pandemic. But in fact, many of the delays were caused by the inertia associated with a government's ideological *brand*...Canada was not alone in this respect...

Trump is obsessed with his self conception as an economic genius & savior, & was resistant to impose measures that interfered with that. Thousands are dying as a result. Trudeau/Tam/Hadju see themselves as Trump's ideological opposite. Yet the result is identical: more corpses...

In the UK, there were unconscionable delays that resulted from Johnson's (and the people around him) populist reveries, by which they initially imagined that any problem can be managed if they flippantly zig while the bien pensants zag. Result: dead people ...

And in China, uncountable thousands died because of govts' obsession initially with secrecy & public image

In all cases, covid19 has brought out the underlying political neurosis of each country. It's like the first sentence of Anna Karenina. But few of us are now happy families