Ok, I know, people are angry that the World Junior Championship was canceled. I hear constant anger toward Canada and how restrictive that nation has been during COVID. Ontario is ramping up restrictions allowing no more than 1,000 fans for Leaf games and instituting tougher immunization requirements. Quebec followed with new restrictions and a night-time curfew starting New Years Eve. I’m a hockey fan, but also an epidemiologist and I can’t help but weigh in on something that is being missed.

Canadian policies have saved lives during this pandemic. Lots of them. Let’s look at the latest numbers:

Country:	Cases per 1 million	Deaths per 1 million	People per death	Active cases per 1 million:
USA	165,476	2,533	395	38,752
Canada	56,028	792	1,263	6,114
USA:Canada ratio	3.0	3.2	0.3	6.3

These numbers are rates, so they can be compared across countries with very different population sizes. Any way you slice it, the Canadian Government, with its “unfair” and “restrictive” policies, has done a far better job at keeping its citizens alive during this calamity than has the United States. The differences are stark. The rate of COVID-19 deaths and cases is 3 times higher in the USA compared to Canada. There are 6-times more active cases right now. The USA ranks the worst among developed nations on almost every metric, Canada ranks in the top 5. The death rate per 1 million is the highest among all developed nations, coming in worse than India, Mexico, Peru, Iran and Brazil.

If Canada had the same death rate as the USA from COVID-19, an additional 102,856 Canadian citizens would be dead right now (instead of the total death toll which now stands at 30,280).

Enough with the Canada bashing please. Let them keep doing their job. Hockey is a game people.