The Canadian province of New Brunswick has weathered the pandemic with zero deaths and no long term care outbreaks and is currently down to just two active cases and no hospitalizations. There was a sixteen day period in late April and early May when they didn’t have any active cases at all.
How did a province of 750,000 with an aged population manage to outperform its neighbors — including Maine, Nova Scotia, and Quebec — to virtually contain a global pandemic? As I reported in Saturday’s Portland Press Herald it was a combination of acting very early, closing its borders with the United States and with other provinces, not being as close to major hotspots and, well, a lot of dumb luck.
Enjoy.
COLIN WOODARD is a New York Times bestselling author, historian and award-winning journalist. He is the author of seven books that have been translated into a dozen foreign languages and inspired an NBC television drama. He is currently Director of Nationhood Lab at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Affairs at Salve Regina University. As State and National Affairs Writer at Maine's Portland Press Herald, he won a 2012 George Polk Award and was a finalist for a 2016 Pulitzer Prize. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, The Economist, Smithsonian and dozens of other major publications.