There are quite a few lessons we will all just have to wait to draw from the COVID-19 pandemic that erupted last December in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The coronavirus that causes the sickness is still rampaging across the face of the Earth. The economic and geopolitical shockwaves are still shattering almost everything that was commonplace and routine and familiar from the days before the plague began.
By last December, China was already the world’s major producer of the ventilators and respirators that have been found in such short supply, now that SARS-CoV-2 is burning its way across the world. Before the outbreak in Wuhan, half the world’s medical masks were already being made in China. By March 15, when the European Commission finally shut down the untrammelled export of personal protective equipment supplies, the European Union and more than 50 countries were either banning outright or imposing strict restrictions on the export of a variety of medical equipment types and PPEs, including masks, visors, hazmat suits, and gloves.
Canada will be needing millions of masks, and thousands of ventilators. We will have to hunt and scour every nook and cranny of the Earth for suppliers, but the hope is that enough factories can be built or at least retooled in Canada to keep up with the demand.
That sourcing from China is vastly more dependable than sourcing from the US? Imagine if ventilators were made in the US; and Trump decided to interdict all product for his uses - as they have done with masks. In the meantime, China ships in planeloads of necessary product.
We have to make are own stuff , we can't remain consumers anymore and this covid pandemic is a good lesson. Too much supplies are out of reach in the immediate need. We need to rethink our response strategies and assets.
Yeah. Hospitals can’t afford American made.
We where could concerned with cannabis oil, people kind etc.; we Canadians are living in a fantasy bubble; we will have to wake up
The lesson is stop buying so many products from China and start mfg in Canada. When this is over we will continue to buy from this dishonest Chinese virus regime.
Bring the supply chain home. Resist the lure of cheap supplies from the other side of the world.
Outsourcing of everything occurs. People want goods at the cheapest price so we are our own worst enemy
China is winning.
The lesson is our leaders and CEOs have sold us out long ago for their own pockets. If you didn't see that then, you're a fool and I hope it's your family that suffers from these decisions and not mine. Sorry not sorry.
Lol... same as advanced technology, medicine..... yet we have no masks and gloves..... we don’t deserve better either.... dumb
Well I know a lot of provinces sure could use the work after this pandemic. Why not invest in manufacturing of essential products? Use our own resources and employ our own citizens.
The lesson is not to send medical equipment to China knowing Canada will have a shortage. Of course the Post won’t examine that story.
The very said place where it’s reported to be the epicenter of COVIID-19 is also the makers of the much needed ventilators, isn’t ironic-:))
This is a free market, it looks no private company wanted to make it in Canada. So should crown corporation been set up for that?
But hey a few fat cats in the CSuite have a nice summer home and yacht so... you know it cool right?
Trump was right along, China cannot be trusted, bring back manufacturing to the US and secure the borders.
we are living and dying the lesson this very minute, this is what happen when manufacturing giants go where the cheap labour is
An entire country at the mercy of factories across the globe in a region where the last two major outbreaks came from, sounds reasonable, no masks, no med equip, no drugs unless China makes them...F*ck*ng shameful.
We must develop our own manufacturing of medical gear and medicine in Canada so we no longer need rely on China and elsewhere. We have the brains and capacity to do so and it would create thousands of well paying jobs for Canadian economy. We have to stop being the exporters
Yes. See lesson 2 here
.. also, tonnes of medical supply just arrived in N.Y. directly from Putin to Trump!
free trade agreements have destroyed our domestic industry and have redistributed the industries to cheaper foreign markets.
we need to manufacture in our own country This lesson should teach all countries
Same with the drugs. We have outsourced our fate.
Yes we need to have less dependence on China for the manufacturing and supplying of goods.
Countries need to mandate in-country support for key item production capabilities for their own Security. Globalism and free trade can not override the need to ensure a country can keep living.
Everything is made in China. Duh.
Yes a loud and clear message! Ought to be a clarion call to all nations to become self sufficient in protective gear as the US declared. Unfortunately this China centric government is too tone deaf to hear it. Too bad for Canadians who will suffer and may die because of it.
It's always amazing to watch ardent free-market capitalists suddenly turn into hardcore nationalists when they get the opportunity for bigotry. And when reality catches up, they return to Walmart and Costco in a cloud of blissful ignorance.
Free market capitalism: lower wages + less regulations + less taxes = higher profits for owners of capital. China is a capitalist's paradise.
Some of this rant might be true even thru tainted lens of Glavin's hate for China. But referencing FEMA at end of the column, he correctly notes the Americans will have no friends when trying to source medical supplies. Neither should 🇨🇦. We're not 'in it' with the US. cdnpoli
Yes. Less reliance on globalism and more domestic production... even if the initial costs are more. This applies to thousands of products.
Quit outsourcing to other countries
Yes That when Canada decided to join the UN we joined with the presumption that it was going to benefit us., MY how we were wrong. Being a member of the UN destroyed our Maritimers culture. Destroyed our Albertan Grit. And now is destroying the very fabric of our nation...
So are you gonna increase minimum wage? Cause everything will increase by 4x if it’s made in Canada only.
Yes! Globalization is not always the answer. Cheap products & cheap communist labor has hurt Canadians and their products.
I hope n wish Chinese companies n govt must be Stopped to buy any distress companies, investments outside China at this time. I have heard that China already buying in Australia? Where are these regulatory bodies
The same lesson that says we don't sell Canadian Natural Resources to China....or real estate to China...or allow Chinese fentanyl into our Country...or diseased Chinese fish into our food supply. See the pattern here?
Not about China. About these companies keeping cost low and take a huge profit.
rexglacer Lessons from CoronaVirus. 1. Globalism expands pandemic risk. 2. Closed borders work. Open borders fail. 3. We cannot trust communist China.
You’d be a “nationalist” or a racist if you’re concerned with this. See orange man for reference. Also, no masks for you, now go line up for food once a week.
We'll be able to a Ford soon!
We keep asking one question “Was this virus engineered?
If the lesson wasn’t learned from past dealings with China and from this last horrific coronavirus outbreak the world will never learn
My goodness Trump was spot om when he took office about bringing back manufacturing back
the lesson which sadly many have not learned is to stop reading glavin's blatherings
I just read on the CBC that it's going to take months to get production of these N95 masks up and running in Canada. There's plenty of lessons in this for sure
Yes. Make in Canada.
Apparently Some ingredients in our prescription drugs are from there as well. We need to start being LESS dependent on China and start buying MADE IN CANADA.
A lesson too late.
Thank god we have journalists telling us what most people knew 2 weeks ago.
Uhm. YES.
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