Juno News - May 01, 2021


Will society ever return to normal？


Episode Stats

Length

5 minutes

Words per Minute

211.91707

Word Count

1,080

Sentence Count

59


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 What are public manners going to be like in Canadian society moving forward as we step out
00:00:12.100 of this pandemic? What are handshakes going to be like? What are greetings going to be like? I've
00:00:16.280 been thinking about this a lot lately, as I think opinion is very starkly divided right now among
00:00:22.920 Canadian society. You know, I was remembering about a year ago, Tony Fauci, Dr. Fauci, he said
00:00:28.100 on CNN or at some press conference or something that the shaking of hands may be a thing of the
00:00:33.320 past. We may never do it again. I think that's a bit of an exaggeration, a bit over the top. I've
00:00:38.980 already had circumstances, encounters where you meet someone and they extend the hand for a
00:00:43.420 handshake. Maybe people do the handshake or maybe they go, oh yeah, I forgot we're not really supposed
00:00:47.460 to do that. And they go for the elbow thing or, you know, what have you. But there's people out there
00:00:51.500 who are not horrified by the idea of a handshake. Let me put it that way. And there are other people
00:00:56.240 who I think really are horrified by the idea of a handshake and they do not want to go back to it.
00:01:01.580 How's that going to happen moving forward? Sort of very basic social interactions, exchanges that
00:01:07.520 we've taken for granted throughout our lives. They're going to be a little bit different moving
00:01:12.760 forward, whether you like it or not, because maybe you're okay with going back to these things, but
00:01:17.460 other people may not be. And you never know. You don't know how to navigate that terrain.
00:01:21.660 And I guess that also brings me to ask, well, who is the onus on to sort of make sure the social
00:01:28.780 exchange is a pleasant one for all? Is the onus to sort of take what the lowest barometer of
00:01:34.820 offense is and go, okay, because there's some people out there who are not going to like the
00:01:38.200 handshake. We're not going to do the handshake anymore. And we all just have to say no handshake.
00:01:43.060 Or is it up to that percentage of people who are really uncomfortable with the handshake?
00:01:47.000 I don't know what the percentage is for them to just exempt themselves and for them to kind of
00:01:52.280 feel awkward. So you extend the hand for the handshake and then they just kind of, oh, no,
00:01:56.480 thanks or what have you, or they extend for the fist bump or what have you. One thing that's kind
00:02:02.040 of been frustrating me a lot lately is the dynamics around the joggers, around the running. I like to go
00:02:07.520 running and it's something I've been doing for years. And I've always considered myself a well-mannered
00:02:12.500 runner, by which I mean, I'm not running close to people on the sidewalk or, you know, you don't
00:02:17.240 want to startle people and so forth. You give folks a, a wide berth and so forth when you're passing
00:02:21.980 them. And if there's a person on the sidewalk who has a stroller or they're in a mobility device or
00:02:26.480 whatnot, of course you just, you know, get out of the way. You're not running near them. You're the
00:02:30.540 faster person. You don't want to inconvenience them or be disrespectful to them and so forth. So be a
00:02:35.140 polite runner. I'm all about that. But one thing that's, that's getting a little odd is those people
00:02:40.580 who, when they see you coming, they don't just, you know, move six feet out of the way or expect
00:02:45.560 you to move six feet of the way or whatever, but they make a point of walking far up some other
00:02:51.280 person's driveway. This happens so much. Walk up all the way up this driveway and kind of glare at you
00:02:56.380 as you go by or something. They stop and they kind of wait. It happens a lot. If you're a runner,
00:03:00.840 you've may have had this experience. And I'm kind of like, look, when I got sort of close to you,
00:03:06.580 I would have certainly left the sidewalk. I probably would have done that anyway in non-COVID
00:03:11.640 times. I would have left the sidewalk and I would not have been six feet close to you. COVID times
00:03:16.420 or non-COVID times. So number one, that. Number two, generally infectious diseases experts say
00:03:22.520 outdoor transmission just isn't really a thing in those fleeting moments. I mean, the various studies
00:03:28.260 and reports they've done have shown there has been some degree of outdoor transmission, very,
00:03:32.920 very few cases that they found. But when people are at prolonged close contact together, so like
00:03:38.540 really sitting right beside each other on the bleachers or something, talking for a long period
00:03:42.520 of time, that, that kind of thing. But this, this passing someone, like someone running by you or
00:03:47.220 bicycling by you, it's just not a thing. So I'm kind of like, yes, I'm, I'm a polite runner. I want to be
00:03:53.660 polite and respectful to people I pass by. But then at the same time, I'm like, you're, you're walking
00:03:58.380 all the way up a driveway, like 10, 15 feet away. You're kind of glaring at me as if I've done
00:04:03.100 something wrong when like, I, I haven't done something wrong. So I got to say, you're kind of
00:04:09.100 the person who's kind of messing up the social nicety there. We were not going to be six feet
00:04:14.060 apart anyway. And yet you're doing this kind of oddball thing that I got to say six months ago,
00:04:20.180 I was like, well, you know, whatever. People are still navigating this COVID thing. Fine. Now I'm like,
00:04:24.080 what is the reason behind doing this? What is the evidence besides like extreme antisocial
00:04:29.420 behavior? So there you go. That's clearly a pet peeve that I've been experiencing of late. And I
00:04:36.280 don't know, are people going to come together on these things in the months ahead as Canada probably
00:04:42.320 sees the case rates drop again, more and more folks are vaccinated and so on. It should mean that
00:04:47.320 people are okay with going back to shaking hands or that yes, they don't want to jog or bumping into
00:04:52.820 them, but they're not going to flee and glower at the person or maybe they are what's going to
00:04:58.860 happen in the months ahead. I hope it's a coming together, but I'm really worried that the social
00:05:03.880 fabric is kind of already frayed.