The COVID-19 Pandemic has been an unprecedented time and no matter where in the world you are, it has altered your life in unimaginable ways.
It has been the worse of times to say the least. The uncertainty and unpredictability of the virus has been in a way we have never experienced before and it continues to surprise and teach us new things with every passing day. We have moved past the first wave of the outbreak but we aren’t in the clear yet.
Some countries reacted immediately to the threat and some didn’t move fast enough. In due time, most of the world was under orders of shut downs and lockdowns to stop the spread and the fatalities. Hospitals and health care workers overwhelmed and struggled to get ventilators and personal protective equipment (PPE), while the rest of us shuttered up and did our part not to exasperate the problem.
And who could forget the toilet paper debacle. Which still remains a mystery why we rampaged through local stores to hoard packs of toilet paper as if pulp and paper was going out of stock for eternity.
Most believe that the sense of normalcy that we enjoyed pre-pandemic can only become a reality through immunization. Variations of vaccines are going through human trials as we speak until the right dosage can be found to counter this invisible enemy.
Its too early to judge where this pandemic will take us or how much longer we will live through our new reality of social distancing, masks and self-isolation but one fact remains and that is some countries have done better than others in their response, especially those that took the threat seriously from the onset.
The current stats with COVID-19:
As of June 7, 2020, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), there have been nearly 7 million cases of infections globally since the first case was reported from Wuhan, China.
There has been over 400 hundred thousand fatalities from those 7 million cases. The United States leads in numbers with nearly 2 million cases and over a hundred thousand deaths. Brazil, Russia, the United Kingdom and Spain follow in order ranging from half to a quarter of a million infections and between 20-50 thousand deaths in each respective country.
Since the virus left the borders of China, the first two countries to report cases were Taiwan and Australia (data retrieved from the WHO). Interestingly enough both countries share a similar population of approximately 24 million but have very different COVID-19 tales to tell.
Taiwan leads in the world with the lowest number of COVID-19 cases and fatalities per capita. They have reported a total of 443 cases and seven deaths to date. Australia has had over 7 thousand cases with over one hundred deaths.
Taiwan is an Island off the coast of China. Geographically they are much closer to China than Australia, however, they have had very different outcomes with the pandemic.
This is mainly due to Taiwan’s leadership. And one woman who stands at the helm of the country is President Tsai Ing-wen.
She has been globally praised for her quick and calculated response to the pandemic without putting her country into lockdown. She immediately imposed 124 measures to stop the spread of the virus on January 25. She also sent 10 million masks to the US and Europe.
This theme isn’t unique to Taiwan. Countries led by women seem to be experiencing better outcomes and have more control over the spread of the virus compared to those led by men.
I recognize that the number of nations led by women are significantly less and the populations in most of the sampled countries are smaller compared to most G20 countries but nonetheless it doesn’t change the respect they have earned from quick and decisive actions to counter the outbreak.
On May 11, Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, thanked her country for their efforts in eradicating, rather than just controlling, the COVID-19 outbreak. She ended the lockdown that New Zealanders were under since March 25.
The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is also being praised for decisive action and her straight forward approach with Germans to take the pandemic seriously and to listen to health and government officials. She took the pandemic seriously and Germans have experienced far lower number of deaths than Britain, France, Italy and Spain.
Prime Minister Sanna Marin leadership allowed Finland to have “fewer than 10 person as many deaths as nearby Sweden.”
Denmark has over eleven thousand cases to date with over five hundred deaths. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen shut down the country’s border on March 13, closed all schools, and banned gatherings over 10 people.
Iceland has had ten deaths from its nearly two thousand cases. Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir’s offered free testing for all citizens and put in place an extensive tracing system which prevented the country from shutting down schools.
Successful women leaders function within the following realities:
Access to good health care. Populations of the above countries all have access to adequate, publicly funded, health care, which makes a world of a difference in a pandemic. When people can get tested and the government is tracing the movement of those who have tested positive which ensures they remain isolated, then controlling the spread of the virus becomes easier.
Legislated sick days. The ability for workers to have designated sick days which allows them to stay home when unwell without worrying about their job security or paycheque significantly reduces the spread of the virus in the workplace and on transit commutes.
Lack of partisanship is a large part as to why these countries have been successful in their battle.
Andrea Gunraj, Vice President of Public Engagement at the Canadian Women’s Foundation explains “we know women’s leadership tends to be more inclusive, tends to listen to lots of different diverse perspectives, tends to focus less on partisanship and focus more on where are the best practises and you can tell how important that is right now.“
Partisanship is the devil in politics. When it is the driver in public policy then everyone is at a loss. Just look at the United States. President Donald Trump paints a different reality from his state governors and mayors.
Before the Black Lives Matter protest, you had Americans protesting in front of the White House and at state legislative buildings across the US to lift the lockdown orders. The President empathized while some governors like Andrew Cuomo of New York were pulling out his hair and pushing for ‘stay in shelter’ orders.
This makes for theatrical television on CNN or MSNBC but it sure does confuse citizens.
The truth of the matter is that the named women leaders have been honest and direct about the challenges and the threat of COVID-19. More importantly, they have relied on the medical experts and the data to set the path for their actions.
These women also didn’t put their economy before the health and well being of their people. They had their economies in mind and the proof is in the fact that all of them have re-opened and are working through ways to restore the activity and growth.
Ardern is currently shopping around the idea of a four day work week so people can have more leisure time to travel across New Zealand and stimulate the economy through tourism and other activities. And there is data to back her claim of a four day work week in terms of increased productivity and economic growth.
Side note: what good is an economy when your people are too ill or worse, dead, to participate in it?
The Canadian Story:
I have been in lockdown in Toronto since March. Canada closed the border with the US and placed a ban on any foreign, non-Canadians, from entering into the country. Schools in Ontario remain closed until September and we remain in a state of emergency until June 30.
Our outcomes haven’t been great as we continue to record daily highs of COVID-19 cases. Our biggest challenge has been long-term care and senior residents as they represent 80% of fatalities among residents and staff. This is one of the most unfortunate circumstances and the problems within these centres steam long before the start of the pandemic.
One thing that we as Canadians have been astonished by is the manner that our politicians have come together during this pandemic. We have a Liberal Government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa and large number of conservative premiers across the country. In Ontario, we have been especially surprised at the way Premier Doug Ford, a very big conservative, has been able to work with the government in Ottawa.
As a Torontonian, I have been proud in the manner that Mayor John Tory has been able to work with both governments to keep residents of my great city safe and protected.
And although outcomes aren’t anything to brag about, one thing is true, and that is Canadians have listened in a concerted effort to our public and health officials. And that is mainly because we haven’t been confused by the messaging as everyone has sang the same tune.
Take aways:
Yes, women are great leaders and especially on the world stage. They have demonstrated this beyond immeasurable proportions during the pandemic. However, their formula for success hasn’t been anything extraordinary. They have been driven by data, listened to medical experts and executed practical solutions that directly responded to stopping the spread of the virus, rather than thinking about the risks to their political futures.
And in my humble opinion, most of these women have earned their people’s trust and respect to be re-elected again!
Until next time, stay safe, keep 6 feet apart and wear that face mask when in public.
Sara Alimardani 