efforts should be on vaccinating,
North American governments that have huge vaccine stockpiles (i.e. US, Canada) have been trying that for how many months now? Yet, we still have unvaccinated people. Just this morning, some lady at my gym told me she thinks the entire pandemic is overblown and the 800,000 dead can't possibly be from COVID. So suffice to say, she admitted she hasn't been vaccinated. Besides, fully vaccinated people are testing positive too. It's the lesser severity of their cases that differs from the unvaccinated.
more accurate and faster rapid testing,
That's a tradeoff of sorts. Most of the tests that Canada requires for entry are the molecular kinds that are far more sensitive (detects smaller quantity of genetic material). But it takes a few hours to amplify the genetic material because that's the current speed of PCR. Meanwhile, the lesser sensitivity of rapid tests means it's over in 15 minutes, but there's a greater chance of a false negative result. So Canada's decision to require molecular tests is erring on the side of safety and more confidence in the results rather than convenience for the traveler.
and shoring up the health care systems (even if not done overnight). Imagine if just half of all the economic losses were poured into our helth care system how much better the health network would be.
You already stated increasing health care capacity wouldn't happen overnight. So increased capacity might come in handy in the future, but we need it right now. But there are additional problems that make increasing capacity not even feasible right now. Healthcare is losing workers right now. I read a CBC story in September about nurses quitting in Quebec, and that same attrition is also happening with doctors and is also happening in the US. Workers are already burned out, and now they're facing another wave of hospitalizations. The huge workload of patients and the psychological toll of constant death are breaking some people and they're leaving the healthcare profession. For some, not even extra pay is enough incentive for them to stay.
The main takeaway is that the pandemic is an ever evolving situation. We've gone from closed borders to vaccines and low cases to increasing cases again due to another variant. Wanting it to be over is altogether different from it actually being over. I'd like nothing more than not dealing with the inconvenience of getting a molecular test, or not worrying about the rate of covid cases if I plan to travel anywhere. But yet, here we are.