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Were Canadian officials a little slow off the mark on COVID-19? Maybe.

They probably didn’t implement travel bans quickly enough but they were reasonably quick at shutting non-essential services and demanding social distancing once the full threat was understood.

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And they did vastly better than their American counterparts.

There are reports from Toronto and Vancouver that federal officials are still letting foreign air travellers into the country without proper screening and mandatory isolation. If that’s true, it’s unforgivable.

But before anyone claims our politicians and public health officers should have acted faster, ask yourselves this: Two months ago would you have imagined the whole developed world could be shut down, with everyone at home, because a deadly, flu-like virus had spread rapidly around the globe?

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Our officials were ready for a second SARS. The 2003 outbreak of that disease infected 438 Canadians and killed 44. But COVID-19 is SARS times 20.