Canada's COVID-19 response is more divided than ever
Episode Stats
Words per minute
193.12602
Summary
In this episode, Dr. Kelly discusses the deep divisions in Canada on the topic of Coronavirus and its impact on public health and education. She discusses the need to re-open schools in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta, and much more.
Transcript
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One of the things that concerns me so much right now about our current coronavirus response
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and conversation here in Canada is just how extremely divided so many people are on what
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should be done and also on just the basic facts on what is currently going on. You know, you can
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get in your echo chambers, of course, with any issue and you think that everybody agrees with
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you and so forth. But, you know, it's not the case. Perspectives and ways of seeing are deeply
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divided in Canada right now. For instance, take the basic issue of outdoor masking. There are some
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people out there, myself included, who go, well, I don't really know what the point of wearing a mask
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outdoors is really in any circumstance. I mean, what's it really doing, seeing as the number of
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actual proven cases of outdoor transmission are really, really small. And then there are others
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who, if they see someone who is not wearing a mask outdoors, they don't just think to themselves in
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the back of their head, oh, well, that isn't a good idea. You should wear a mask on. But they dart out
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of the way of the person outdoors to avoid them. Two very different pictures, two very different
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perspectives. And, you know, it's normal, of course, for society to be divided on, you know, things you
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like, what's better, Star Wars, Star Trek, Pepsi, Coke, and so forth, political reasons, you know,
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even really contentious things, religious issues, political things, pro-Trump, anti-Trump. I mean,
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a lot of times you can get by in society without actually having those things brush up against each
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other. If you're interacting with someone at the grocery store and they are of a very different
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religion than you or, you know, they're pro-Trump, you're anti-Trump, whatever. I mean, you can make
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it through that human experience without even being aware of those differences that are, you know,
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pretty big ones if you got to debating them. But, you know, come on, it's life. Let's just get on
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with it. But some of these ways of us looking at coronavirus, I mean, you can't make it through a
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regular human interaction or experience without these things coming up and butting up against
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each other. And it's concerning. It's worrisome. I mean, yes, I hope more and more people are putting
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this past them, putting this behind them. But, well, I'm speaking to you from Ontario where Ontario
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Premier Doug Ford has just said, no, we cannot reopen the schools. He's permanently shut them down for
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this school year for the rest of June. And, well, he's committed to opening them in September. But
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then again, one would have thought they would be open by now. So some pediatricians I've spoken to
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are already concerned. Are they actually going to be reopened in September? Or are they going to be the
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same sort of shifting of goalposts that call even that sort of stuff into question? But what's
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interesting in all that, to me, I've done a lot of writing on the coronavirus in kids, coronavirus
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in schools issue, looking at a lot of studies, speaking to experts, getting reports that, you know,
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no other media has had and so forth. To me, it's just a no-brainer that you reopen schools.
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British Columbia, the kids do not have masks and so forth. So Ontario schools, you reopen them and
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they certainly don't need to have masks in the playground, which is something that was mandated in
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Ontario schools the last time around. And yet, and yet, here we go talking about the division.
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I see a lot of people online who are saying, it's not worth it. You just can't reopen the schools.
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It's going to send coronavirus cases haywire too dangerous, even though I would say the data does
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not show that at all. And there you go. Another example of something so deeply divided that people
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want to shut down the in-person education system and other people say, no, we got to get it reopened
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right away. A year and a half into this and this division is being more keenly felt in our daily lives
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than, again, political disagreements about, you know, the former president or religious issues
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and so forth. And this is worrisome. Can we put this past us in just the weeks and the months ahead
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as cases receive, vaccination rates increase and so forth? Or are these, these very, these very strong
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divisions, are they going to linger for a while? And are they, are they going to leave people split
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and disconnected for some time to come? I hope the answer is no. I hope we can all sort of come
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together, but I don't know. People have been so split. You're going to think it might be unfortunately
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a bit of a hurdle to reconcile that moving ahead.