When Corona Came to Canada: The 2003 SARS Outbreak and Its Aftermath

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was the first pandemic of the 21st century, and Canada was the only Western nation to experience an outbreak. The effects of the outbreak on Canadian society provide a window to understanding responses to future pandemics. Over the short run, SARS had a major effect on the Canadian economy: adverse effects were experienced by health-care workers, who were at greatest risk of contracting the disease; by workers in the hospitality industry, who lost income as tourism and travel ground to a halt; and by the Chinese-Canadian community, who experienced discrimination because of the Chinese origins of SARS. However, over the long term there were few consequences of the outbreak in Canada, whether in the social, economic, or political domains. The principal effects were improvements in the Canadian public health system, many of which were rolled back after a decade without a major epidemic.