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"Most people had assumed there would be a trade-off between health and the economy; that if you imposed restrictions to limit the virus's spread and keep deaths down, your economy would be hurt -- and the tougher the restrictions the worse for the economy."

"But not so. Countries that imposed restrictions early and severely, keeping deaths per million low, also had a low decline in GDP."

"By contrast, countries that applied restrictions haphazardly, letting deaths reach high levels while hoping to protect jobs, had among the biggest declines in GDP."

"It turns out the best economic policy was successful aggressive action to limit COVID's spread."

George Fallis, professor emeritus, economics and social science, York University, Toronto

Sweden had decided on the advice of their chief medical officer of health, not to impose  restrictions on its population, hazarding the belief that Swedes would behave sensibly, following basic guidelines of a level of social distancing and protective hygiene. Swedes for the most part, acted accordingly, and voluntarily limited activities while they went about their normal lives and trusted that their government's reliance in their population's good sense would lead to a better outcome than that of their neighbours who had gone in the opposite direction; lockdowns.

 

People walk near a trash can with a sign reading “The danger is not over — Keep your distance” in Uppsala, Sweden, in October. Photo by TT News Agency/Claudio Bresciani via Retuers files

The lack of formal restrictions in Sweden led to a large number of deaths early on, and the situation        failed to improve as time wore on. Swedish politicians were determined to forge ahead with no restrictions on trade and business; the idea was to proceed as normal; perhaps not taking into account in their deliberations that with their largest trading partners -- their neighbouring states -- closed down, the faltering economy that hit their neighbours would also impact on them. In the end, they gained nothing and lost more lives than did their neighbours.

 

High-income advanced economies with reliable health-care systems represented by 20 OECD countries came out of their ordeal with the global pandemic with mixed results. Using Canada as an example, its government faltered in initial decision-making, fluctuating between cautious instructions to its population, to eventual lockdown after downplaying the emerging seriousness of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. The federal government's attitude toward securing its borders was lax, it denied the usefulness of mask-wearing, instead championing testing, tracing and isolating.

 

Pedestrians in downtown Toronto during the start of the city's second lockdown in November. Photo by Cole Burston/Bloomberg files

But even these practices were poorly executed in comparison to the take-up rate of their counterpart nations in other OECD countries. One thing all countries had in common, however, despite their modern, technically advanced economies and excellent health-care systems, was unpreparedness. Along with a critical lack of PPE and other related hospital-medical equipment. This, despite more than ample warning that just such a threat as a global pandemic hovered on the near horizon. This, despite that SARS-1 had proven itself to be a deadly virus the world handled poorly, offering a lesson in the necessity of proactive preparation.

 

The first entry of the novel coronavirus took the world by surprise as it swept through the globe following its initial emergence in Wuhan, China. Which Beijing initially played down, giving inadequate and incorrect information to the WHO, delaying the declaration of a pandemic. The world looked on, fascinated and disbelieving as China then took draconian measures to cope with a dread new virus with the intention of isolating the infection and stopping its spread. Despite which COVID appeared to experience little trouble escaping the boundaries set up to contain it as it spread virulently.

 

When the winter of 2020 merged into spring, it began to appear as though much of the world had succeeded in controlling the spread of COVID, and restrictions that were imposed were relaxed while the number of cases dwindled and a sense of optimism prevailed. Until the Northern Hemisphere entered fall, then winter and the fearsome second wave of infection re-entered. Monetary stimulus, support for businesses and workers were activated by governments even as GDP shrank and the death count rose. 

Some countries had moved expeditiously and severely to limit the first wave while others struggled to contain that huge entry of infections, with mixed results. South Korea as an example experienced a mere 4.4 percent decline in GDP, with eight deaths per million population, while the U.K. took a 21.8 percent decline in GDP, and suffered 595 deaths per million. It was soon realized that those countries with the largest GDP decline experienced a larger bounceback with the mid-year decline of COVID infections.

Austria Denmark, Finland, Germany, South Korea, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland experienced a smallish decline in GDP and a lower death rate per million, while Belgium, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom were hit much harder in both metrics. On the other hand other countries came off better in one metric and worse on another; France, Ireland,Netherlands, Japan, Sweden and the United States. Among these countries many committed errors in judgement, now facing a larger second wave of cases.

European countries -- in particular those that performed poorly during the first wave and lockdowns, have faced distinctly high daily death rates due to COVID-19. Severe lockdowns were re-instituted by early November and in some countries daily deaths are on the decline, while others remain struggling with ongoing high death counts. Austria, Belgium and Switzerland's death rates have been horrifically high. But it is in the United States where throughout the nine months of the coronavirus onslaught its spread was never brought under control, resulting in ongoing daily death rise surpassing levels seen in the first wave.

Those countries that realized partial successes in controlling the coronavirus are continuing to perform well at present, including South Korea, Japan, Norway, Finland and Denmark, where death rates have been kept at a relatively low rate. Australia and New Zealand are stand-outs for their success in avoiding a second wave entirely. What has been proven to be highly successful is a protocol of strict lockdowns maintained until low levels of cases are realized, then held there with tighter border controls. Testing-tracing-isolation regimes on a large scale has become a tool of necessity.

 

 

COVID-Centric Retail Shopping

Canadian malls face a new type of normal as they take their first tentative steps toward reopening during COVID-19. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

"From the moment you walk into our store, we want you to see something that's new. The sticky mat, the welcome table -- they're all triggers in the customer's mind that things are different now."
"We don't want this [employee's revised manual] to feel like a sterile or clinical interaction. With masks on, you may feel a bit awkward at first, but don't let that hold you up!"
"It's your job to still create a connection! [with the customer]."
Andrew McLean, Chief Commercial Officer, American Eagle Outfitters

"The customers who come in are coming in to buy. They are not coming in to look."
"This has been a two-month process of figuring out what it's going to take to make people feel secure. It's a new reality:Customers want to come back in, but they want to come back where they feel safe."
Jay Schottenstein, chief executive, chairman, American Eagle

"Experience has shown us that loosening restrictions and shelter-in-place orders means a resurgence of disease."
"Masks, temperature checks, hand hygiene -- they're all important as stores reopen, but there are still risks for increased transmission."
Robert Bednarczyk, professor of global health and epidemiology, Emory University

Hamburg: Shopping bags from fashion chain Zara. Photo: Bodo Marks/dpa

"Retailers are starting to consider more than just the cleanliness of their stores."
"They're thinking about merchandising, about where things go. How can they make it easier for people to shop?"
"This pandemic isn't going to level off. It's going to be a long roller-coaster."
Wendy Liebmann, chief executive, WSL Strategic Retail consulting firm, New York

So, how did your novel, enriched, exciting shopping trip go? Tell us all about it!

Oh, the irony! At the very time in recent history when bricks-and-mortar retailers were concerning themselves over falling sales in reaction to the growing popularity of online shopping, and they researched and analyzed down to the last aching dollar to arrive at a consensus that they had to collectively make shopping a more dynamic, exciting prospect for consumers, to make them want to come out to shop 'till they drop, and not want to leave the premises because there's more, much more to be seen. Along came SARS-CoV-2.

 

 

 

 

 

"The customer steps forward as the employee steps backward, so there's always that six-foot [1.8-metre space]."
"We feel it's a pretty safe journey. But I say pretty safe because, as you know, there are no guarantees right now."
Sid Keswani, Pandora jewellers

How everything has changed! Now the COVID-centric prevailing idea is in-and-out. No more leisure shopping, fingering the goods, casually trying on scads of clothing, testing makeup, hauling kiddies along so they can play with toys in the aisles. Shopping is about to become more deliberate, efficiently swifter, conscious and safer. As shoppers submit to new rules and regulations to become accustomed to a new reality. One that invites them to come in, and disinvites any undue contact or forbidden lingering.

Shoppers' temperatures are now being checked before entry at a number of retailers. Some even require that customers come by appointment. Beauty consultations, alterations services; forget all that. Unneeded frills. Bathrooms may no longer be accessible; pee before you go. Go when you get home. Some fitting rooms may remain open, and there will be a long wait for access. Returns will be placed in quarantine of up to 72 hours before they're placed back on shelves. They say.

American Eagle has invested in curbside pickup and infrared devices to measure temperature as customers walk by. Displays at entries once full of apparel now serve as "welcome tables" where bottles of hand sanitizer, disposable masks and sticky blue material to clean shoe soles are placed for obligatory use. Clothes on the shelves folded in a manner discouraging browsing with hands on the goods. The number of shoppers in each of their stores now strictly limited where a mobile app notifies customers when they may enter to shop.

Physical distancing in the age of COVID-19 the rule. (Anis Heydari/CBC)

Shopping in person is back on. Personable shopping is off. Shoppers will no longer flock to J.Crew, Neiman Marcus, Stage Stores and J.C.Penney; they're in bankruptcy, and likely more to follow, and forget about Pier 1. Those interactive displays that are so eye-catching and invite participation, just forget it; unsafe and vetoed. But the image projected is meant to be one of reassurance to potential customers; come to our establishment, shop for our wonderful goods in perfect safety. Fun? Not exactly.

New protocols have been enacted where employees or sales personnel as they're called, must be vigilant to disinfect door handles and fixtures should shoppers wish to use change rooms, and then only every other one; the rest to remain unused to create desirable space for complete security. The Danish jeweller Pandora moved machines to clean jewellery from backrooms to the selling floor to enable employees to sanitize each piece after handling.

Working at a retail establishment and wearing a mask? Smile. Really -- smile behind the mask because your eyes will reveal what the mask covers. Wash your hands repeatedly. The stores provide thermometers the employee must disinfect, then take their temperature with. Employees watch best-practice face mask tutorials to give them confidence in how to wear them, remove them and not feel constrained to smile.

You never know; there may be a candid camera following your every move.

Toronto Premium Outlets/Google Maps