politics of good health & poor decision making Jonah van Driesum By most standards, Canadians can be considered reasonably healthy people. We are known for being nice and looking after one another in a crisis, but Canadians are not without their weaknesses. We sometimes give into basic desires that reduce our overall health and life expectancy. The leading causes of death in Canada are cancer and heart attacks (even with COVID-19 in the mix). The over consumption of unhealthy food, alcohol, and cigarettes are major factors in these deaths. On principle, the government should never tell anyone how they should conduct their personal life. However, that does not mean that the government has no role in promoting good public health and advising or legislating new rules when the need arises.
Public Health in a Pandemic
While the government would never ban drinking or smoking (again, at least), they can put in place limits on how much you can buy, how much a store can sell, and the overall strength of the product. It is then up to individuals to make the choice about how they consume. The problem with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is that these personal choices now affect all of us; our individual choices can now have deadly consequences for entire communities.
linkbcit.ca
Wearing a mask and physically distancing from others have both been proven to prevent the spread of COVID-19. While many of us sometimes engage in risky behaviour, we generally follow the guidance of our “Bonnie Henry� and do what is best for Canada. There is, however, a segment of society that views any public guidelines to be Orwellian. These people are not usually public health experts, but they have a real impact on our public health system when they rally against public health policies.
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