I can live with our local mask law. Our situation is not the same as further south and people have been responsible. I’m not sure how much it adds. There are some times it is clearly helpful, and others where it makes some people feel safer. It made more sense 3 months ago.
Alberta now has twice the daily per capita cases as Ontario. There is no requirement to wear masks in public yet but a lot of people thankfully still are. The maskholes were even out protesting here in Calgary last week. This is not the pit so I can not say what I really think of those vile dirtbags.
The scary thing is that AB Health has not been able to identify the source of the spike. I have one idea - the June 13 hail storm. There has been a huge amount of activity to deal with the fall out. I personally have inspected at least a hundred residences. Many local trades are run off their feet, we are all exhausted, trying to get these homes temporarily sealed up. Our client insurance company alone had over 5000 claims. They have brought in a catastrophe team of 150 adjusters, from the US, to inspect and estimate. I have no idea if they isolated for ten days, they very well may have, but that stuff is not checked. Likewise there are countless out of province workers coming in.
I wear my mask and sanitize my hands before and after each visit for what it is worth. I can’t speak for anyone else.
It is foolish to protest against wearing a mask. And it is dangerous to politicize public health measures. Because, in practice, masks are often touched, moist, reused, turn out to be lower quality than expected or are not the N95 standard - it is still important to physical distance, wash hands and try not to touch the face. Masks do provide some protection, and reassurance, but can also lead to a false feeling of security. That said, education must be balanced with reassurance and when the risks are low reassurance is important. Health is very important but not independent of economics. Covid is concerning but so are many other health problems.
I did not think anyone was still promoting public wearing of masks as protection but rather as a measure to reduce transmission.
Masks likely protect other people from you. Some public health authorities say they can reduce virus transmission by up to 50%. That’s pretty significant. And a bold claim - I’d be pleasantly surprised if the number is anywhere close to that high. It is claimed new research emphasizes respiratory spread and the length of time particles can stay airborne. Surfaces are thought to be less of a factor. But the bigger question is why some people are super-spreaders.
It is not at all unusual for doctors to confidently make statements on moderate evidence (which turn out to be overconfident). Because there is a lot of variability with masks and areas with Covid they are hard to study in practice. Hospitals might have much more exposure than a public area.
Masks do provide some protection and do reduce transmission. Really, despite some studies, no one is certain just how much.
Ontario. Public support is overwhelming. I know of very few people even grudging, much less opposed.
So that we don’t have to go back into lockdown and people can get their jobs back. The likelihood of another flareup is, obviously, far less if masks are worn. It’s a cheap, easy added measure. It doesn’t really cost anyone anything, reduces spread, and should have been the law a long time ago.
80% agree or somewhat agree with mask laws. I would include myself in that group and yet I’m not delighted about it. Sorry to blow your mind.
I’ve got Facebook friends of friends that are still pulling out crap from Feb/March when the guidance was to not wear a mask and saying that we are all sheep. I clicked on one profile to see posts about Pizzagate, JFK Jr’s plane being downed by a bomb, and that Bill and Hillary were executed by firing squad in April.
Most Canadians however are sane.
A good article highlighting differences in coronavirus strategy.
What has this world come to that I can read a David Frum piece and agree with him!?!?! Thanks for the link Dr. P.
Has anyone heard any Canadian politicians say the following things? I can only think of very isolated municipal examples.
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Covid is a hoax (when we had the benefit of seeing what transpired in Italy and China).
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Covid is a conspiracy. (Connect the dots, man! Corona… lager… loggers…)
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Look, all the doctors are wrong. (Sometimes they are.)
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This is just the ‘flu. (Minimization.)
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We’re going to hold work outside and everyone gets beavertails and free beer. (Beavertails are yummy.)
No, because generally speaking we have largely sane and only slightly crooked politicians compared to our neighbours to the south. There are exceptions of course, but they generally flame out quickly.
Thanks for posting the Frum article. It’s unreal, the difference.
Here’s an LA Times article, also praising Canada’s (and individual Canadians’) response: Column: I'm in Canada, where the COVID police are watching
This is just ridiculous. Like, truly worthy of ridicule. See, this is the kind of thing that is giving experts a huge hill to climb.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-canada-sex-idUSKBN25T2Y9
“Like other activities during COVID-19 that involve physical closeness, there are some things you can do to minimize the risk of getting infected and spreading the virus,” she said.
Skip kissing, avoid face-to-face closeness, wear a mask that covers your mouth and nose, and monitor yourself and your partner for symptoms ahead of any sexual activity, Tam said.
That article doesn’t mention but the advice was specific to sex with people outside your household. Here is an article that quotes that statement.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/03/health/coronavirus-masks-sex-canada-trnd/index.html
I don’t think it’s ridiculous to remind people that random hookups can be safer with a mask. I look at it as very similar to condom use. You may not use one in a committed monogamous relationship but if you are with a new partner they are pretty much de rigeur.
If you want to make fun of something, try BC’s official advise to consider glory holes.
I guess the notion that ‘random hookup’ sex might be marginally safer with facemasks on is not absurd on the face of it. But the idea that this is a public health policy recommendation is just so, so symbolic of everything that is wrong with the (wrong parts of the) global approach to this thing.
It demonstrates an incredible naivete, on the one hand, to believe that anyone is going to actually follow the advice. (Anyone who doesn’t want to, that is. I’ll leave the kink factor out, recognizing that some may actually hope the guideline stays in place long after the pandemic is gone.) On the other hand, it’s really a ‘solution’ in search of a problem. At best. At very best.
Meanwhile, the Province of Ontario has
- Announced you can’t get tested without an appointment, and
- Reduced efforts at contact tracing,
… all during an alleged burst in infections.
The fact they aren’t prepared to do wider testing, and are not doing 100% contact tracing, both because they just aren’t prepared to do so, is a fiasco, and by itselfg means Ford and his government don’t deserve to keep their jobs.
In the other hand, I will note that the alleged surge in infections is probably partly illusory. Even at inadequate levels, testing is several times higher than it was in spring; in all likelihood there were far MORE infections back then than the official numbers said. (Positivity rates were way higher.) Or maybe not; that seems likely but with the province still behind the eight ball we cannot know for sure.
Similar problems are happening in Quebec.
Really, this isn’t being handled as well in Canada as we’d like to believe. “Better than the USA” is not a good standard but it’s the one we’ve been living by. I also cannot help but think that the government has successfully managed to, in a truly remarkable double play, not do enough to get a hold of this while absolutely terrifying a good portion of the populace. The numbers as they currently stand really aren’t any sort of major public health threat. There is no pressure at all on ICU capacity. Very few people are actually dying, since they’ve learned who has to be protected. It’s no more a danger than the flu now, and there is little reason to think it’s about to explode. Almost everyone wears a mask and is generally fairly responsible. Yet I know young, healthy people who are literally afraid to even go outside for a walk. Folks are living in fear, and it can’t continue this way. There is no vaccine and there may never be.
Nicely said. The job of the government is to help balance education with prudent reassurance. They’ve done a really good job on the first part. It’s not an easy job to do, in fairness. But with the States being such an important trading partner - that does not exactly help dial back the fear.
Yes, what’s happening south of the border, watching it all unfold, every twist, is a large part of what’s frightening people, I think.