Including in 2017 I have visited Costa Rica 4 times, my latest being 6 weeks in November/December of 2020.

 

Similar to Canada, while in Costa Rica in 2020 it was a requirement to wear a mask when in public, to social distance, and at most public building entrances hand washing stations (soap) and/or hand sanitizer dispensers were present.

Unlike Canada however, lockdowns were never employed, nor was contact tracing used.

Costa Ricans were/remain free to move about, and to gather in groups, and after a brief initial shutdown at the beginning of the pandemic, their businesses reopened to normal operation.

Out of curiosity, once in late December and again today, as a non-scientific comparitive measure, I divided the number of to-date Covid caused deaths in Canada and in Costa Rica, by the respective total population for each nation (with the result expressed as a percentage)

To gauge how the performance of the restrictive measures imposed upon Canadian society for the past 15 months contrasted to the laissez-faire approach taken by Costa Rica.

Interestingly, my December 2020 calculation showed the same percentage for both nations: 0.04 %

And my April 1, 2021 calculation showed the same percentage for both nations: 0.06 % (increase perhaps is due to the mid-January spike in infections??)

I find it informative that Canada, despite being a wealthier G7 country than Costa Rica, who are a supposed 3rd world country, that Canada’s death rate is no better than that of Costa Rica.

Perhaps this is partially attributable to Costa Rica having a very professional, high quality, public not-for-profit health care system?

Which begs the question; what has Canada gained from employing several rounds of draconian lockdowns, and the resulting disruptions to our businesses, especially small businesses (over 200, 000 have permanently closed), job losses (in excess of 800, 000), the upheaval of our school system, the destruction of the studies and near-term aspirations of our university students and graduates, the cruelty of isolating our fragile seniors in our nursing homes for months on end while not allowing them visits by family members, as well as the degradation of individuals’ mental health, in particular those who live alone.