This is going to be a one off post because I don't want to get trolled or banned but if I were American, the context of Canada would be the biggest damning fact of how things have been handled in the States.
Since people are talking Michigan, let's start there:
On July 29, the date there is last complete data for both Michigan had twice as many more new cases (996) than the entire country of Canada (476).
The population of Michigan is roughly 10 million, the population of Canada is roughly 38 million.
The biggest hot spot remaining in Canada is Windsor, which borders Michigan.
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90% of the Canadian population lives with 100 miles of the United States border.
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In terms of countries, the United States has about 10x the population of Canada. The United States had 68,543 new cases yesterday, Canada had 476.
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Canadians and Americans are basically the same people, particularly near the border. People in British Columbia and Washington State are no different. People in Southern Ontario and in New York are no different. People in Quebec and people in Vermont are maybe a bit different but same basic conditions, same population density (yes, Canada has a huge mass of land but again, 90% of people live in a small area near the United States border.
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That the differences between the two countries in terms of numbers and response are so wide is stunning to me.
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So what was different in Canada? I don't know but here is what my observations would be.
- We had access to at will, on demand testing very early - whether you had any symptoms/close contact or not, drive thru tests were available and contact tracing for positive results as a result was, I believe, months ahead of the United States. I know that the "test less" notion is more recent in the United States but "test more, earlier" was what happened in Canada.
- The Canadian population as a whole (painting with a broad brush and there are exceptions) is more submissive, like European countries, Korea, Japan, etc... and when they are told to stay home, wear a mask, socially distance, for the most part they will do it for the collective group, rather than rally against it because of "personal freedoms".
- Masks. This goes with the above point but I don't think can be overstated. It was well under control in comparison because of the early testing and contact tracing, so the starting point was lower but there was a noticeable dip in the numbers everywhere when masks went from "recommended" to "mandatory". We do still have people fighting against it but the group is small, and the compliance rate is very high.
I really think that's all the difference.
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I've deliberately posted almost all objective facts and I don't care to debate it, the numbers really speak for themselves. Just providing some context from north of the wall.