As provinces and countries begin to look towards easing coronavirus restrictions, some are taking an approach reminiscent of school days gone by: pick a best friend and stick with them.
The concept of “travel bubbles” appears to be gaining traction, with New Brunswick authorizing households to pick one other household with whom to socialize, and New Zealand and Australia reportedly weighing allowing their citizens to travel only between the two friendly countries.
Officials around the world have suggested basically any form of non-essential international travel is unlikely until at least the end of the year.
The question is how to inch those borders open slowly, and while Canada and the U.S. share closer ties than Australia and New Zealand, one infectious disease expert is warning against reopening the border with the U.S. in a similar manner.
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“The U.S. has the biggest epidemic in the world right now. It’s singular — no country has more cases, no country is less adherent to the only established method of interdicting cases, which is social distancing,” said Amir Attaran, a professor of law and epidemiology at the University of Ottawa.
“In terms of who is the greatest global danger in the world right now for COVID, it’s indisputably the Americans.”
1:29 Coronavirus outbreak: United States surpasses Italy for most COVID-19 deaths
Coronavirus outbreak: United States surpasses Italy for most COVID-19 deaths
The U.S. has a population roughly 10 times that of Canada: 330 million compared to 38 million.
Because of this, that proportion is often used as the basis for grounding comparisons between the two countries, and coronavirus data is no different.
In Canada, there are 46,884 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 2,560 deaths.
If the ratio of cases and deaths between Canada and the U.S. were even, Americans would have roughly half a million cases and somewhere in the ballpark of 25,600 deaths — but that’s not the case.
There are more than 988,197 cases in the U.S. and 56,259 deaths, according to the tally maintained by the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
That’s 22 times higher than the situation in Canada and far above the normal baseline for comparison.
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There are a lot of factors being cited by experts in media reports for why those numbers are so high — everything from lack of access to health care to unequal access to social services, fewer physical-distancing measures and a lack of personal protective equipment and ventilators.
All raise serious questions about the Trump administration’s handling of the crisis and whether the American response to this and any subsequent waves of the pandemic would put Canadians at risk if the border was reopened to more travellers from the U.S.
4:07 Personal insight from Canadian living at epicentre of pandemic in the United States
Personal insight from Canadian living at epicentre of pandemic in the United States
Health Minister Patty Hajdu and chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam were both asked about the prospect of reopening the border with the U.S. by journalists on Monday.
Hajdu said a key point of concern will have to be “how we manage those re-entries so that we can continue to prevent new numbers of cases from arising from countries that perhaps don’t have a very good handle on what’s going on in their country from an infectious perspective or that maybe have outbreaks that will create a health and safety concern for Canada.”
Tam said the focus needs to be on controlling Canadian cases first.
But Attaran said Canadian data is still not good enough to be able to inform a decision on when it will be safe to reopen that border, and as a result, the government will likely either keep restrictions in place too long or cave to eventual U.S. pressure to lift the border lockdown.
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“It is utterly impossible to walk the line between those two errors if you don’t have the data showing where the line is,” he said. “The fact that we’re not getting the data makes us ultimately more likely to cave to U.S. pressure.”
The quality of Canadian coronavirus data has been criticized repeatedly in recent weeks over concerns raised by public health experts and academics that it is “incomplete.”
It isn’t separated geographically. It doesn’t distinguish date of first symptoms from lab testing date to the date a case was reported to health authorities — all of which can differ by weeks.
“I think we’re almost no better off modelling Canadian populations here in Canada than we would be if we were sitting with an internet connection literally anywhere in the world looking at publicly available data,” said Caroline Colijn, an infectious disease modeller and math professor at Simon Fraser University.
She told Global News the data is a key part of shaping decisions on everything from when physical distancing can be relaxed to when the economy can restart.
“Building up that understanding and then introducing an appropriate pandemic plan and actually implementing that plan and having data be part of that, I think that could be incredibly valuable,” Colijn said.
Attaran said without that data, the government will likely have a tough time pushing back at U.S. pressure to agree to reopen the border.
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“The mistake they’re making is they’re trying to manage Canada’s future direction politically and not scientifically,” he said.
“And if you are managing politically, when the political pressure is brought to bear — because of the United States making decisions that are probably very unwise — you will likely, too, make an unwise decision in America’s wake.”
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband.
Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC’s general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission.
The FCC is an independent agency that is overseen by Congress, but Trump has suggested he wanted to bring it under tighter White House control, in part to use the agency to punish TV networks that cover him in a way he doesn’t like.
Carr has of late embraced Trump’s ideas about social media and tech. Carr wrote a section devoted to the FCC in “ Project 2025,” a sweeping blueprint for gutting the federal workforce and dismantling federal agencies in a second Trump administration produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Trump has claimed he doesn’t know anything about Project 2025, but many of its themes have aligned with his statements.
Carr said in a statement congratulating Trump on his win that he believed “the FCC will have an important role to play reining in Big Tech, ensuring that broadcasters operate in the public interest, and unleashing economic growth.”
“Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms, and held back our Economy,” Trump said in a statement on Sunday. “He will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America’s Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America.”
The five-person commission has a 3-2 Democratic majority until next year, when Trump gets to appoint a new member.
Also a prolific writer of op-eds, Carr wrote in an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal last month decrying an FCC decision to revoke a federal award for Elon Musk’s satellite service, Starlink. He said the move couldn’t be explained “by any objective application of the facts, the law or sound policy.”
“In my view, it amounted to nothing more than regulatory lawfare against one of the left’s top targets: Mr. Musk,” Carr wrote.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending his embattled carbon-pricing program on the world stage, and he argues that misinformation is threatening environmental progress. He spoke at a conference held by the anti-poverty group Global Citizen, ahead of the G20 leaders summit in Brazil, and said fighting climate change is not in conflict with affordability. (Nov. 17, 2024)
PROVO, Utah (AP) — Shortly after sunset on Saturday, Rabbi Chaim Zippel clasped an overflowing cup of wine and a tin of smelling spices as he marked the end of the Sabbath with a small Jewish congregation at his home near Provo, which doubles as the county’s only synagogue.
The conclusion of the ceremony known as Havdalah set off a mad dash to change into blue and white fan gear and drive to the football stadium at nearby Brigham Young University, the Utah private school run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Zippel never expected to become a BYU fan, or even a football follower, but that changed when the school where 98.5% of students belong to the faith known widely as the Mormon church added its first Jewish quarterback to the roster.
Retzlaff has earned a hero’s embrace by rabbis and others in Provo’s tiny but tight-knit Jewish community while also becoming a favorite of the broader BYU fan base that lovingly calls him the “BYJew.”
One of just three Jewish students in a student body of 35,000, the quarterback and team co-captain who worked his way into the starting lineup has used his newfound stardom to teach others about his own faith while taking steps to learn more about Judaism for himself.
“I came here thinking I might not fit in with the culture, so this will be a place where I can just focus on school and football,” Retzlaff told The Associated Press. “But I found that, in a way, I do fit. People are curious. And when everybody around you is so faith-oriented, it makes you want to explore your faith more.”
The junior college transfer from Corona, California, formed a fast friendship with the Utah rabbi when he came to BYU in 2023. The two began studying Judaism fundamentals each week in the campus library, which would help Retzlaff speak confidently about his faith in public and in his many required religion classes.
BYU undergraduates must take classes about the Book of Mormon, the gospel of Jesus Christ and the faith’s core belief that families can be together forever if marriages are performed in temples. Retzlaff said he was surprised to find many references to the Jewish people in the Book of Mormon. Some classmates and fans have even called him “the chosen one,” referring to both his success on the field and a Latter-day Saint belief that members of the Jewish faith are God’s chosen people.
“It’s a lot of respect, honestly. They’re putting me on a mantel sometimes, and I’m like, ‘Whoa guys, I don’t know about that,'” he said with a laugh.
Retzlaff, 21, has embraced becoming an ambassador for his faith in college football and in a state where only 0.2% of residents are Jewish. The redshirt junior wears a silver Star of David necklace on campus and attends dinners on Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, at the rabbi’s house during the offseason.
He led Utah County’s first public Hanukkah menorah lighting last year at Provo’s historic courthouse, brought a kosher food truck to a team weight training and wrapped tefillin with Zippel in the BYU stadium. The tefillin ritual performed by Jewish men involves strapping black boxes containing Torah verses to the arm and forehead as a way of connecting to God.
“I told Jake, I said, after doing this here, after connecting to God on your terms inside the stadium, no amount of pressure will ever get to you,” Zippel said. “I think there’s no greater example of finding your corner of the world where you’re supposed to make your impact and making that impact.”
Retzlaff is affiliated with the Reform denomination of Judaism, which melds Jewish tradition with modern sensibilities, often prioritizing altruistic values and personal choice over a strict interpretation of Jewish law. He plays football on Friday nights and Saturdays during Shabbat and says sports have become a way to connect with his faith and to inspire young Jewish athletes.
Among them is Hunter Smith, a 14-year-old high school quarterback from Chicago who flew to Utah with his dad, brother and a group of Jewish friends to watch Retzlaff play. The brothers sported Retzlaff’s No. 12 jerseys, and their father Cameron wore a “BYJew” T-shirt depicting Retzlaff emerging from a Star of David, the most recognizable symbol of the faith.
“Being the only Jewish quarterback in my area that I know of, I feel like I get to pave my own path in a way,” Smith said during Saturday’s game. “Jake’s the only Jewish quarterback in college football, so he’s someone I can relate to and is like a role model for me, someone I can really look up to.”
When Retzlaff lit Provo’s giant menorah last December, Zippel said he was touched to hear the quarterback speak about the importance of his visibility at a time when some Jewish students didn’t feel safe expressing their religious identity on their own campuses amid heightened antisemitism in the United States.
His presence has been especially impactful for BYU alumna Malka Moya, 30, who had struggled to navigate her intersecting identities on the campus as someone who is both Jewish and a Latter-day Saint.
“Jake feels very comfortable wearing his Star of David all the time,” said Moya, who lives near Provo. “I haven’t always been very comfortable with expressing my Jewish identity. But, more recently, I feel like if he can do it, I can do it.”
