Page - 208 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

VULNERABLE208 were different. Preparations for something akin to SARS would have been inadequate for COVID-19. Moreover, electoral cycles are four years. Pandemic preparations for the unknown take much longer. Here is a failing not only of the media but of the body politic: forgetfulness as events rush forward. In theory, the media should be the public’s reminder of matters come-and-gone but nonetheless seri- ous, as in pandemic preparations. After SARS, former University of Toronto President and medical doctor David Naylor reported on les- sons learned and proposals for better preparation.9 It was reported on, then largely forgotten. The occasional writer would pen a com- mentary reminding us of the perils of pandemics. A 2015 report on pandemic preparedness by a group of civil servants did not produce sustained action.10 The question therefore is why the media did not follow up and pester elected officials, to which the perhaps unsatisfac- tory answer is a combination of the previously mentioned shrinking of resources and, of greater importance, the rush of events otherwise known as the “news.” The urgent too often trumps the important in the media business, now operating on a 24-hour news cycle for audi- ences with fleeting attention spans. Preparing for something that might happen, somewhere, sometime, with unknown consequences does not at all fit into the paradigm of what constitutes “news.” Of importance, yes; of “news” value, no—until a pandemic happens, at which point the lack of preparation becomes “news.” The media did fall into the trap of putting too much faith in long- term predictions that any experienced journalist should be inured to treat with great skepticism, be it in economics, politics, or anything else involving the human condition. For instance, who can really pre- dict with accuracy three years from voting day which party will form a government? Where will the stock market be in two or three years? What will economic growth be three years hence? Will war break out somewhere? Or, as a former bank economist predicted in a book The End of Oil, when will the price of oil hit $200 a barrel? Answer: it did not and will not. Oil is still with us in such abundance that the price has plummeted, even to entering negative numbers at one point. 9. Learning  from  SARS:  Renewal  of  Public  Health  in  Canada—Report  of  the  National  Advisory  Committee  on  SARS  and  Public (Ottawa: Health Canada, 2003). 10. “Canadian Pandemic Influenza Preparedness: Planning Guidance for the Health Sector” (last modified 9 September 2019), online: Public  Health  Agency  of  Canada <www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/flu-influenza/canadian-pandemic- influenza-preparedness-planning-guidance-health-sector.html>.