Juno News - November 13, 2020
Dangling Christmas
Episode Stats
Words per minute
178.39803
Harmful content
Misogyny
3
sentences flagged
Hate speech
8
sentences flagged
Summary
Coviruses are going up, despite lockdowns, so what do the experts want? More lockdowns? Also, cancelling Christmas, the politics of masks, and the erasure of John A. McDonald. The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.
Transcript
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This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.
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COVID cases going up despite lockdowns, so what do the experts want?
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Also, cancelling Christmas, the politics of masks, and the erasure of John A. McDonald.
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Welcome to the Andrew Lawton Show, Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show here on True North.
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It is absolutely my pleasure to have you aboard on the program here on this Friday, November the 13th.
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If you thought 2020 was bad, and you think Friday the 13th are bad, well, this is Friday the 13th in 2020,
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but hopefully by this point you've been able to manage to get through your day without any of the cursed traditions of whatever either one has in store for you.
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So it is, again, my pleasure. Thank you for tuning into the show here.
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Let's talk a little bit about, not the Masked Singer, which is the big show that's on that I don't quite understand,
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wherein singers wearing masks sing, and you have to guess who's under the mask.
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I guess you know what, everyone needs a little bit of joy.
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I want to talk about the mask ringers, the people who are promoting masks as being this panacea for the coronavirus pandemic,
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despite the fact that none of the measures that were put in place a few months ago have avoided the period we're in now
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So all of these things that were done, these draconian measures to lock us down, to mandate masks in public spaces,
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none of those have avoided what is increasingly seeming like it is the inevitable.
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Let's take a look at Ontario's latest projections.
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Ontario could see up to 6,500 new daily cases of COVID-19 in December, latest modelling shows.
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Now, why this is so significant, and I've talked about the fact that cases are a bit of a misnomer.
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Well, I guess not a misnomer, but cases are not the best measure of the pandemic.
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You have to look at deaths and hospitalisations to really grasp the severity of it.
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But the reason I'm focusing on this is because right now,
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Ontario is setting records every day with the number of new cases it's adding, most recently just shy of 1,600.
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So they're talking about modelling showing that in the coming weeks, in about a month's time,
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there could be, could be, four times as many cases each day as there are this week.
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The article says the new modelling predicts the province will reach 2,500 new daily cases by that time
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if the growth rate is at 3% or 6,500 if growth is at 5%.
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Dr. Adelstein Brown, who's one of the Ontario experts behind the projections,
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said a 5% growth rate is in line with the current situation,
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or even slightly optimistic, noting the growth rate over the previous three days was 6%.
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So to get down to brass tacks, here's the advice put forward by the Ontario experts.
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If we continue on with the current levels of restrictions,
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I would not expect to see any deviation from the current results.
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I do not believe that there's a way that the cases will change without action.
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The government is getting advice from people that say what we actually need are more lockdowns.
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We need to further restrict activity and what people can do.
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And that's the only way that we can avoid this.
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Now let's talk about modelling here because modelling is more of an art than a science.
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And I think that this is particularly true when you look at how the modelling data
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have been wrong throughout most of the pandemic.
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I remember when Ontario first released its modelling, and I was a big believer in that.
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And Doug Ford, I thought, did a very good thing in sharing it.
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He said, I want the people of the province to see the data on which I am making decisions.
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And those data were actually saying that we could be looking at 100,000 deaths
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if the virus were just left to do its own thing.
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That was what those initial reports were saying, about 100,000 deaths.
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And the reality has fallen short of those projections.
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But the whole point is the modelling tends to reflect the biases
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of the people that are putting the models together.
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And right now, there is a predisposition to say
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that these things are going to keep getting worse and worse and worse
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unless we put more and more lockdown measures in place.
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And that's exactly what's happening in Ontario.
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Randall Denley, also in the National Post, says,
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Ford is about to lock down Ontario further, hopefully more carefully this time.
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And he's talking about the modelling that I just shared with you.
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And he's saying that, yes, these details, if they're true,
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will put a significant strain on the healthcare system.
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And they're calling for specifically more lockdowns.
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And then he points out, I think, which is a very sage analysis.
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the analysis that we've had so far suggested that the partial lockdown
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that closed restaurants and gyms for a month across much of the province
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Those sectors weren't contributing much to the problem in the first place.
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The things that are done to supposedly stop the virus from spreading by governments
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don't tend to target the areas where transmissions are actually taking place.
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The hospitality sector is responsible for a minuscule,
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And the hospitality sector is one of the most hard hit by lockdowns
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And, you know, I actually had this conversation with someone the other day.
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Anything is an essential business if you rely on it to feed your family.
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I think has been one of the most dangerous things to come out of the pandemic
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because government has decided unilaterally that things are either necessary or unnecessary.
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But because of that, they've kind of decided that,
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OK, well, therefore, the virus has more of a likelihood of transmitting at a necessary
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or at an unnecessary business than a necessary business
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instead of focusing on, OK, how can we do everything safely?
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How can we adapt and amend our practices so that,
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or sure, you can go to a dine-in restaurant safely?
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Why is, and again, when Ontario rolled back from stage three
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into this, like, multicolored approach that they have now,
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one of the first things to go in these so-called hotspots
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That was the thing because, OK, no, we're back to takeout only for restaurants.
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And I'm thinking here, well, wait, where were the cases in restaurants?
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So when they put in these further restrictions,
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they're not actually addressing the question of, OK, what is the biggest impact?
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Where are the areas that are most responsible for it?
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No, they're saying, what are the easiest things to shut down?
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And they're going for the low-hanging fruit, but it isn't about the actual case.
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And where things are happening are people that are deciding
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they aren't paying attention to the rules or aren't interested in it,
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people that are in close contact, people that are having dinner parties,
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people that are traveling in groups, people that are doing all of these sorts of things.
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And that is not going to be changed because that's a behavioral thing
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by most of the legislation, unless you want to start putting in this Stasi-esque
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door knocking, the 12 a.m. knock on the door just to make sure you don't have
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So we have to stop believing that there's going to be a way to regulate our way out of this
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when all of the data we've seen to date have been really overemphasizing the risk.
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And more importantly, all of the things that have been targeted,
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the things that have been scapegoated, have not actually been responsible for it,
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which is why these restrictions haven't actually done anything.
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And when I said a moment ago that any business is essential if it is your business,
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I have to share some of the effects that these measures are having on people
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because I don't really think the media is paying attention to the effect of the pandemic
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on the businesses that are being shut down as much as they're talking about the people
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that are affected by it medically, which is, again, a valuable story.
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Calgary bar and gym owners describe how they'll adapt to the latest COVID-19 measures.
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So this is responding to Alberta, which has put in what Jason Kenney is pretending right now.
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And I don't say that as a swipe at Jason Kenney.
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I just know that anytime someone says something's just for two weeks, we've learned that that isn't the case.
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A two-week pause, basically, on recreational sports, restricting bar and restaurant hours,
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Jason Kenney says this two-week pause is, quote,
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our last chance to avoid more restrictive measures that I and most Albertans desperately want to avoid.
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What it is is that for two weeks from this week until November 27th,
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you can't have an indoor Zumba class or whatever, no team sports, no amateur choir,
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which is unfortunate because I was hoping to get out to an amateur choir event in Calgary at some point.
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You don't know what you're missing until someone tells you you can't do it.
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And this is going to be in Edmonton and surrounding areas, Calgary and surrounding areas.
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And Jason Kenney has said, yes, you know, fitness operators, sports organizations,
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This is just saying that at this province, at this point in the province,
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we need to get rid of anything that has a chance of spreading infection from one to many.
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And anything where people are using exertion or singing or yelling,
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anything like that is going to have a greater risk.
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Where are the cases of people getting it at a restaurant after 11 p.m.
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when restaurants and bars will now have to close down?
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And if there's data that are showing that there is a surge happening after hours,
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you know, I saw a meme to this effect the other day where, you know,
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there's no coronavirus at 10.59, but once 11 p.m. hits,
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or it might have been 9.59, 10, once, you know, the clock strikes, whatever it is,
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That's the real Friday the 13th spook this year.
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So when we have politicians going after these measures,
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it is negatively affecting people that are already hanging on by a very thread.
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So to go back to the businesses that are trying to amend and adapt and move on,
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the owner of the Side Street Pub and Grill says,
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listen, I mean, this has proven to be a financial crunch.
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But for pubs, this is now eating into our golden hours.
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And he points out the obvious here that if you're forced to leave a pub at 11 p.m.,
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So you're not actually dealing with the problem.
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because now you don't have the contact tracing vehicle that a pub offers
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And more importantly, people are going to be more confined
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which again, you're not changing the desire to socialize.
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You're not changing the desire that people have to hang out with their friends,
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You're just shifting it from one place to another.
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And so much of this pandemic has been instilling false senses of security.
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And there's probably no greater example of that than masks.
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And I know I've talked about this a number of times,
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because they give you a false sense of security.
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To, eh, right, you could wear a mask if you want one.
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And last week, or it might have been two weeks ago,
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well, you know, maybe you should all have three layer masks.
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So now a lot of these, you know, special masks that people ordered
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are not necessarily going to be doing the job here.
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But here's where, again, I point out that mask orders went into effect
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In many municipalities and province-wide in Ontario and other jurisdictions,
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So this so-called second wave, this surge in cases,
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has come while everyone has been forced by law to wear masks indoors.
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So perhaps, perhaps this is to say that if no one were wearing masks,
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the spike would have been sharper or would have come sooner.
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But suffice it to say, I don't think masks have actually done anything.
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And this is why people are starting to question it
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They're being called a bunch of yahoos or whatever the case may be.
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They're being maligned by media when they decide they want to have
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these rallies and events because they want to criticize these measures.
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And the politics of masks have become quite important
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because mask shaming, two words that I'm not convinced
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have ever been put together in the history of the English language,
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mask shaming is now a thing where people that don't want to wear a mask
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or people that for medical reasons can't wear a mask
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are shamed by others because they're apparently killing grandma,
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even though the cases are apparently getting so bad
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there would be 6,000 cases a day if the current restrictions were to hold,
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which include mandatory masks in pretty much all individual settings.
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You can take it off to, you know, have a sip of your water
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ranging from, you know, the bandana that's just tied around
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that you see every now and then have like a filtration valve on them.
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Some of them are actually not doing all that much at all.
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melt blown, something, something, something propylene.
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Melt brown is like one of the colors you can get it,
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So these are the masks that apparently were the top performers.
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There were some that did well, some that did not so well.
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or the other polyester cotton ones did not do well at all.
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And the ones with the exhalation valves actually do nothing
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because you're actually basically just turning your mouth
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But what I find to be kind of bizarre about this
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is that their study was actually quite exhaustive.
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They did it with a University of Toronto professor
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and they looked at particles that were similar in nature
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to the particles that could contain coronavirus
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And they found that basically when you go through these steps,
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the masks are not preventing the virus from getting out.
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So when you have people that are just wearing a mask,
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that anyone's wearing a particularly effective mask.
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But I also think that there's something missing from the story here.
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that had the greatest success with the virus early on,
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They also did border closures right out of the gate.
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once it is endemic to your society or state or province or country,
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none of these measures are really going to do all that much.
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And I don't know if the takeaway from that is that,
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within the parameters of the country we want to live in.
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But let's not believe that we can kind of just get this down to zero
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unless we prevented it from getting above zero really in the first place.
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And you know, one thing I have to point out here
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that I found interesting and actually kind of sickening
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the part of the world that unleashed this virus on the rest of us,
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they actually seem to be quite fine with it afterwards.
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You know, they were kind of like the first economy
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They've just been able to go back to life as normal
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while everyone else is somehow finding things are worse now
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Now, I'm not to say that Wuhan is at all something
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and the World Health Organization's capitulation to China
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that they are not dealing with the restrictions
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and say that China's my favorite country in the world.
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But I'm pointing out that there's something particularly unfair
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about the way that Western nations are dealing with this
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So I want to point out that there are constitutional issues,
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that aren't necessarily telling the full picture.
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Otherwise, there's no way a society can survive.
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which is why Christmas is the next battleground.
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I think a lot of Canadians are looking at the holidays,
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and see loved ones that we haven't seen in a long time.
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our childish obsession with seeing family on holidays
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is going to kill our families in record numbers.
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because they don't enjoy others treating them like children.
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is projected to see the largest number of travelers
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is now breaking records for daily infection cases.
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But despite clear warnings and clear precedent,
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this dynamic between essential and non-essential
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who might not have much time left in the world,
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okay, is this how I want to spend my last days?
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And again, the reason I'm so keenly aware of this
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And as such, he's managed to end up behind bars.
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his need for constant close monitoring, unquote.