Montreal City Weblog

Kate 19:54 on 2020-09-20 Permalink Reply  

• dmdiem 04:26 on 2020-09-21 Permalink

  What?

  25 people can go to a wedding.

  Unless it’s held inside, in a movie theatre. In which case 250 can go.

  Gyms can remain open.

  They were always a cesspool of bacterial and fungal infection, but viruses? Nah totally cool.

  bars and restaurants will stop serving alcohol at 11pm and close at midnight.

  Because the problem is not a virus, it’s vampires and werewolves roaming the streets.

  Whatever happens to us in the next few months, it’s exactly what we deserve.

• Say G. 10:47 on 2020-09-21 Permalink

  I am glad that those Terror-Warning color-coded warning signs have been recycled.

  Why waste money and resources on new signs when multiple propaganda campaigns can use the same fear tactics.

• MarcG 12:08 on 2020-09-21 Permalink

  Does anyone know the reasoning behind the bars-closing-earlier thing? I know the obvious answer is “they’re stupid and think we’re stupid” but seriously, they must be following some kind of logic that could be explained.

• Ian 15:01 on 2020-09-21 Permalink

  …and now Arruda has declared that we are indeed in the second wave. I can’t imagine bars will stay open for much longer.

• Michael Black 15:18 on 2020-09-21 Permalink

  I suspect some of the rating is due to necessity. It’s better to not stop some things, like food or schools, but fun type things aren’t really a necessity. They are now talking about length of contact being important, so if you close bars early, it cuts back on how long someone is spewing germs.

  Yes, everything is a problem for businesses (though not as bad as shutting everything down again) but none of the orange alert restrictions mean a thing to me. Obviously it all matters a lot to people who like to go out, but that seems to be the vector, because it brings people in close contact because that’s the point.

• Blork 15:36 on 2020-09-21 Permalink

  I suspect there are at least two lines of thinking behind bars closing early:

  (a) Generally speaking, later bar patrons are drunker than earlier bar patrons, and drunker patrons are less likely to be careful about distancing. (E.g., many people might pop into a bar for a drink or two at 8PM or 10PM but not many people go out for one or two drinks at 1AM. So the majority of patrons in a bar after midnight are people who have been in one or more bars for several hours.)

  (b) A nagging reminder. Knowing that the bars are closing early every night is a constant reminder that these are not normal times and you can’t behave as you normally would, even if you’re sitting there in a bar as if things were normal.