Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
experience of Hong Kong and Singapore in the SarS crisis demonstrated that at a
critical juncture, their governments had to impose border control measures, enforce
strict quarantine, and forbid the arrival of air flights from infected areas. These
measures would be very difficult to implement in Canada if vociferous trade unions,
influential business chambers, and opposition politicians were squabbling with the
governments at the federal and provincial levels.
at a particular juncture where infectious disease entails human-to-human
transmission, the canadian government would have to evoke emergency regulations,
applied to federal, provincial, and municipal levels, so that decisive actions would
be legalised to stem the inflow and outflow of an influenza pandemic. 17 Ideally, the
House of commons would pass a motion in support of the government's decision
to declare a national emergency. Internal national security would be of paramount
importance to canada regardless of how the critics would react to decisive measures.
A significant potential danger during an outbreak would be the precedence given
democratic rights over national security. at a critical juncture, all canadians,
including opposition parties, business groups, and trade unions, must be united in
supporting whatever measures are adopted by governments at all levels to combat
the onslaught of the influenza pandemic.
It is tempting to argue that any democratic regime has to strike a balance between
democratic rights and national security in the event of a pandemic. As with the fight
against terrorism, western states have been under severe criticism for trampling
individual rights for the sake of protecting themselves against terrorist attacks. an
influenza pandemic is tantamount to biological terrorism. In response, decisiveness
and authoritarianism would thus be the sine qua non to contain deadly infectious
disease.
If, for example, a lottery system is proposed as a way to decide who would
receive vaccines instead of determining a priority list of citizens, the Canadian
government's capacity would be severely curtailed. Such a lottery system would
generate governmental clumsiness. Fairness must be observed in the governmental
treatment of citizens receiving vaccines, because citizens at the lower end of the
priority list might be treated later. Groups and individuals ought to be allowed to
voice their views freely, but such views should not usurp the authoritative power of
the government to allocate resources in times of crisis. Governmental capacity, which
also embraces the freedom to distribute resources and mobilise human resources,
will have to be maintained. Canadians will have to appreciate that any influenza
pandemic would be comparable to another world war, instead of thinking of it as
SarS-type mayhem on a grander scale.
as with the asian situation, canada's governmental capacity in disease
control will be shaped by political leadership. Hong Kong's response to the
SarS crisis revealed serious problems in departmental coordination, especially in
communications between the Department of Health and the Hospital authority. 18
when the authorities at the Prince of wales Hospital planned to close the entire
emergency ward to prevent any members of the community from being infected, the
health department held a different view. the case of Hong Kong demonstrated that
 
 
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