Pandemics are not worse than natural disasters

Thank you for the editorial entitled “Lasting scars of the pandemic.”¹ It certainly hit many valid points and communicated how difficult this year has been for all of us all during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. I feel that a comment is needed to rebut the notion that a pandemic is worse than other disasters, such as a natural disaster. I have worked in humanitarian response for more than 20 years—from post-genocide Rwanda to post-tsunami northwest Indonesia, to Bangladesh, Pakistan, Haiti, Mozambique, and more. Although natural disasters go away, the long-term, lifelong effects for those affected often do not. Life is often not the same as it was before. Those who are vulnerable and marginalized are affected even more than the average person, as we have seen in Canada during this pandemic. Let us not downplay any type of disaster, because for those affected, life is too often never the same again.