Following COVID-19 public health advice 'a moral position', ethicist says

If the COVID-19 pandemic was dealt with as a moral position or an ethical question, more people would comply fully with the public health measures.

That's according Kerry Bowman, a bioethicist at the University of Toronto, who says there is a divide between those who realize that the advice will help protect vulnerable individuals, and those who either don't realize it or don't care.

"Some people fundamentally really don't care what their behaviour is like for other people. And then a lot of people do care, but that caring doesn't extend much past their own families," Bowman said.

"If you say I'm going to meet with my cousins or the neighbours or whatever it is, it's really not just about your safety and the safety of the cousins you meet with or the neighbours you meet with."

"It's a deeper societal question about the fact that you're elevating risk for vulnerable people," he said.

Bowman adds that people have a hard time seeing the downstream effect of their personal behaviour. 

"Precautions, isolations, lockdowns — these are moral positions. Social distancing is a moral position." 

Politicians holiday travel 'problematic

Bowman calls it 'problematic' that some Canadian politicians travelled abroad over the holidays while the country continued to deal with the pandemic, adding that they breached a moral contract.

He says the news may cause others to feel they can also disregard the public health measures.

"There's going to be people who look at that and say that's awful, and others are going to say 'Well this isn't fair, if they don't have to do it, then I don't have to do it" Bowman said.

He believes there are other factors which are also playing into whether people decide to take risks, like visiting a loved one or not wearing a mask.

Bowman feels these could also include that we're in the middle of a Canadian winter when more people are spending time indoors, as well as the fact that most people are exhausted from enduring the pandemic and its restrictions over the past ten months.

Results of a recent survey come as a surprise to Bowman. The stats show that nearly half of Canadians visited with family and friends over the winter holiday period.

"That is very worrisome, and it couldn't come at a worse time. We're at a critical point with the pandemic. We've got rising numbers, most of our interventions are not working."

Holiday travel poll

The Léger/Association for Canadian Studies poll found 48 per cent of those surveyed visited with people outside their households, compared to 52 per cent who said they did not.

Public health officials had pleaded with Canadians to sharply limit their contacts during the holidays to avoid massive spikes in COVID-19 cases.

But it appears something gave for Canadians, said Léger vice-president Christian Bourque.

"Usually we Canadians are sort of much more, I would say, disciplined when it comes to going by what governments are recommending in terms of our behaviour, but over the holidays, apparently, it was sort of tougher on Canadians," he said.

Of those who did visit with friends or family outside their homes, 34 per cent did once, 12 per cent did two or three times, and two per cent did it often.

COVID-19 case numbers are rising, and the poll suggests 62 per cent surveyed have little to no confidence in Canada's ability to limit the spread of COVID-19 over the next few weeks.

Canadians skeptical

That pessimism is notable, considering that before the holidays, polls suggested Canadians were feeling optimistic about 2021, Bourque said.

But stories in the waning days of 2020 about delays in vaccine rollouts, climbing case counts and news that many politicians left the country over the holidays despite limits on travel, seem to be turning Canadians' moods, he said.

"I think it's gotten people to be more skeptical about how much we can do in the short term," he said.

Throughout the pandemic, Léger has asked Canadians about their mental health, and Bourque said the latest round of responses reflect a downturn: in the most recent survey, only 33 per cent rated their mental health as good, the lowest figure yet, he said.

"January is set up to be a bit gloomy," he said.

Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies carried out the survey of 1,506 Canadians between Dec. 30, 2020 and Jan. 3, 2021.

The poll was conducted online, and cannot be assigned a margin of error as online surveys aren't considered truly random.

Ban international travel?

As pollsters were asking the questions, news reports surfaced of politicians, including Ontario's finance minister, several federal MPs and provincial politicians in Alberta, among others, taking trips outside the country in recent months.

That's in spite of repeated warnings from local and national governments, as well as public health officials, that travel should be limited only to essential trips.

In the survey, 87 per cent of those asked said they would support a total ban on international travel until there are several consecutive days of reduced numbers of COVID-19 cases

Bourque said that number is consistent with similar questions asked throughout the pandemic, but also reflects a growing desire by Canadians for governments to take concrete action to try to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The federal government has said only a small fraction of the active cases in Canada can be directly linked to recent travel, though it did ban incoming flights from the United Kingdom after a new variant of COVID-19 that is believed to be more contagious surfaced there late last year.