We all got the mission wrong – here’s why
Our pandemic objectives are wrong. And we're achieving them.
At the outset of our pandemic response, governments in Canada had a very clear understanding of the mission: protect the healthcare system from collapse. That drove every decision – until it didn’t.
We flattened the initial curve, largely by making employment illegal for millions of Canadians. When the predicted second wave arrived, we continued banning things and revoking freedoms, hoping something – anything would work.
Somewhere along the way, our mission shifted from protect the healthcare system to eradicate the virus. That was a mistake. But, it wasn’t our first mistake – and it wasn’t the error that caused the most damage.
When we first defined our mission as protecting the healthcare system, we were wrong. We forgot to ask, “why?”
We’re succeeding at the wrong mission
“Why?” is the single most important question when developing a strategy for anything. Answering it is the only way to understand and define your mission. Screw that up and you can’t possibly succeed.
Why did we want to protect our healthcare system?
Well, because if our healthcare system is overwhelmed by virus patients, then other patients wouldn’t be able to receive life-saving or life-altering care.
Why, did that matter? Because, without such care, our lives would be unacceptably shortened and our quality of life would be unacceptably degraded.
So, our mission was not to protect the healthcare system. That was a (very important) means to an end.
In fact, our real mission was: to maintain an acceptable quality of life for Canadians. And, in this, we have inarguably failed.
We locked down our population to protect the healthcare system.
Today, the Mayor of Toronto’s only public rationale for continuously extending his city’s lockdown is so he won’t have to reimpose a lockdown in the future. Consider that for a moment – in order to prevent a future lockdown, we must extend the current one. What’s the difference? What’s the benefit to the people locked down?
As a result of articulating the wrong objective, we have intentionally undertaken to destroy the quality of life for millions of Canadians. And, sadly, we’ve succeeded.
Almost nine million of us were forced to apply for government benefits, just to feed our families. All of this, to eradicate a virus no one believes can be eradicated – to protect a healthcare system so our quality of life can be maintained.
We set our sights on the wrong objective. And, unfortunately, we achieved it.
Hopefully, future generations will learn from our ignorance.
It’s not too late.
Our leaders still have time to reset our mission. We can re-target our whole of government and public health measures to protecting quality of life. We can move rapidly to lift lockdowns that are destroying lives – and focus instead on identifying the infected, sequestering them from the herd to protect the uninfected, and aggressively treating them for the virus. Meanwhile, accelerate the vaccination programs as much as possible.
And, commit to never again make this same mistake.
I agree you with you 100%. I've thought for months their plan is to eradicate the virus. Wish more people would speak up! I'm convinced that every person who wants the lockdowns still receives their pay cheque. Doug Ford and John Tory have done a good job in making people so fearful of others that we are now in 2 camps. If you aren't as scared as them then you are in denial.