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New Delhi: India is one of 11 “populist governed” countries in the world that have mishandled the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a working paper published by V-Dem Institute, which is part of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Set up in 2014, V-Dem is an independent research institute based at the University of Gothenburg, and has published a data-heavy worldwide democracy report each year since 2017. V-Dem stands for “Varieties of Democracy”.
The paper compares the performance of populist and non-populist governments over the course of the Covid pandemic in 2020. The sample includes 42 developed and developing economies, of which 11 are populist governed.
Shahar Madjar, MD
In the last several weeks I have been grappling with a curious question. Why are some people willing to drive hundreds of miles to get vaccinated against Covid-19 while others are adamantly opposed to it? I believe that I have come closer to an answer.
In my mind, this dichotomy of attitudes about the vaccine is rooted in three factors: Truth, Trust and Tribe.
The first factor is truth. The question is ‘What is true and what isn’t?’ Some would claim that the truth is a matter of opinion, of a world-view, and that each of us is entitled to their own opinion, and to their own truth. I may see the truth in one way, and you may see it differently. But for most practical questions, and more specifically for all medical questions, the truth is singular. Think about the following question: Is Covid-19 just as bad as a seasonal flu, or is it more easily transmittable, and more deadly? Or consider another question: are vaccines against Covid-19 safe and effective?
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For every caller to my daily radio show on Newstalk 1010 in Toronto claiming to clearly define an aspect of the government’s policies and actions, another just as confidently claims differently.
That does not speak badly of the callers ordinary citizens it speaks to confusing communication from government.
There are more and more doctors with diverging opinions on lockdowns and school closings. Contrary to the confident claims of some that the science is settled and doctors are of one mind, that is far from true.
CTV News quoted Colin Furness, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana school of public health, on school closing in March: “I would expect us to need to have to close schools as an important measure, once the variants really pick up steam, and I’m expecting that to happen in the middle of April.”