A study of the Covid genome prevalent here finds it came almost entirely from Europe and the Americas – not Asia.
Updates from September, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Concordia and the Université de Montréal have decided to maintain distance learning through the winter term. Neither McGill nor UQÀM have made any announcement on this yet.
Dwgs
Mcgill is pretty much a done deal. From what I understand they were leaning towards distance learning but wanted to see what other schools were doing and would announce mid October. At this rate I doubt they will wait that long.
Jack
I find Zoom a miserable way to teach. How do students feel about it at the University level, can someone chime in.
DavidH
@Jack, I’m on my second zoom class. Both are seminar graduate classes where a small group of people discuss the research. We have the occasional guest researchers or field experts joining us. It’s definitely easier to get guests to pop in virtually than it was in physical rooms.
It’s working for me because I’m self-motivated and the subject matters lend themselves to that form. I would hate to do math in this format for example.
I’m not sure I would have fared well 25 years ago when I first entered University. A lot rests on your self-discipline and personality. it’s very hard to stay engaged more than 2 hours online. I don’t think undergrad classes with dozens or even hundreds of students must work very well. Having people’s home phones ring and kids entering the room also interferes a lot. The limited access to the libraries and institutions’ archives is what is bogging me the most at this point.
CE
I had a couple classes (not university) that were finishing up when the pandemic was starting so I only had to do a few Zoom classes. I hated it. I couldn’t stay focused, I was constantly distracted by other things on the computer, and the sound quality and all the flashing around between different cameras gave me a headache. I also found it very unpleasant to try to talk; it felt unnatural for everyone to have to take their turn. If I were in university this year and had to do all my classes online, I would be trying very very hard to defer.
I also can’t imagine having to do classes, write papers, and study all in the same place. When I was in university, I had a dozen or so different places around the city/campus where I would do different tasks. I did maybe 20% of my work at home.
DeWolf
For me, one of the best things about university was the seminars – small classes with fewer than 10 people, usually three hours long, where you could really get into an in-depth discussion about the topic you were studying. That’s where I learned the most, especially since I was shy and the professor had to push me to participate. If those seminars had been a nightmarish collection of glitchy Zoom calls I wouldn’t have learned half as much.
That doesn’t even being to touch on the social aspect of university. I met my wife and almost all of my closest friends during my undergrad and master’s studies. That obviously wouldn’t have happened if my classes were online. I feel bad for kids whose time at uni has become a glorified correspondence course.
dwgs
And it’s official, Mcgill will be online for the winter term.
Mark Côté
I’m currently teaching a course at McGill right now. It’s the first time I’ve ever done this (I’m a software-development manager) and I haven’t been in university in 20 years, so I don’t have much to compare with, but it’s definitely weird. And I say this after having worked from home full time for over 8 years and now again for the last 6 months, most of that time managing a distributed team.
The challenges I’ve heard of and experienced are
- It’s very hard to tell how engaged the students are during class. Sprinkling some questions and breakout-room discussions has helped (this is actually the same as was done in person in previous years), but when I’m talking I can’t tell if people are following me or not. That said, I would probably have been a lot more nervous standing in front of a class of 60+ students than talking over video, at least given that I don’t have much experience in teaching.
- Courses have had to be rejiggered because big midterms and finals don’t work well in a remote setting—they are stressful and (supposedly) prone to cheating. The thought is that if you have a giant test worth 40-50% of your grade and you are all by yourself with the Internet handy it is going to be very hard to resist the temptation to do a bunch of googling and/or talking it over with your friends. (Maybe this is a sign that big tests are just not an effective way to evaluate students, but that’s another topic).
- Instead we have been encouraged to try other things. This course already had a project and some hands-on “labs” (basically short practical exercises). So I ditched the big exams and replaced them with a few short tests and a short research paper.
- But what this means is that the work is more uniformly distributed over the semester. Some students are really struggling with this, as it means, with 4 or 5 courses, they have multiple tests and assignments every week. The theory is that if you are keeping up with the course you shouldn’t really have to do any prep. This is still a big adjustment, though.
- The lab assignments used to be done in the tutorials, in person, and were timeboxed at an hour. This is much harder (basically impossible) to do now, especially given that we have to support asynchronous learning (for students outside of Montreal). Whereas in the past some students wouldn’t be able to finish a lab in an hour and would get only part marks, at least they were done and could move onto other things. Now some students can (and do) work multiple hours to complete them, even if their grade at the end of the course would only be marginally higher. We’re still debating what to do about this.
This is just a smattering of what’s going on. It’s not easy… but it’s also new, and there’s a pandemic that is affecting students’ mental health at the same time.
Mark Côté
Ergh my bullets got eaten; sorry for the wall of text.
Kate
Mark, I’ve tried to guess where the bullets go – let me know if I buggered them up.
Ian
I have taught 8 for-credit 60 hour courses (CEGEP) since lockdown in March, and while it’s not ideal to not be able to see what everyone is doing and have a classroom atmosphere simply by virtue of us all being there in person, all my courses are essentially computer labs anyhow, so it’s not as big a jump for us as it might be for other disciplines.
My students definitely appreciate that my classes are being recorded every day so they can easily refer to them later online (they expire after a few weeks). I personally very much appreciate not having to commute. I create a class environment by running the class following agile methodology including standups, very much like my experience of working on a distributed team. All of my tests are open book and the largest proportion of the marks I give are project based so it’s actually a good thing if students try to figure stuff out using the internet since that’s what they will be doing in the field once they graduate. We have been told to accept late work with no penalty to accommodate people working in less-than-optimal home office environments, so timeboxing is no longer an issue. I think in many ways this is better than regular on-site classes.
Like I said though, I realize that this shift has been harder for some disciplines than others.
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Kate
Montreal goes into the red zone Wednesday at midnight and extending to most of October.
Restaurants will be closed for eating in. Nobody can have visitors at home.
MarcG
News link?
Kate
Sure. I was just transcribing from the online video link. It’ll be on all the media:
Radio-Canada – La Presse – CTV…
Ant6n
I very much would have liked to visit. Missing Montreal.
DeWolf
Here’s the official list of what’s open and closed:
Douglas
I feel so bad for the small business owners, restaurants and bars that are going bankrupt left and right. And then Quebec gives another death sentence on them
1000s of livelihoods are being destroyed.
Kate
DeWolf, thanks for the link – very useful.
Douglas, it’s not being done lightly. Call out for a lot of delivery. You might be surprised who’s offering delivery via DoorDash, Skip the Dishes or other delivery services. The Gazette had a recent list of fancier places now doing takeout. I got an email from this place offering haute cuisine to go. If it matters to you, bring them your business.
walkerp
So Douglas, what would you do if you were in charge of public policy in Quebec right now?
Douglas
I wouldn’t panic.
That’s a start. Ban private gatherings in homes for 2 weeks. Observe the data. After gathering the data, make new decisions.
MarcG
It’s not obvious to me if I could have a friend come over and hang out in the backyard – does that count as “à domicile”? If so, would meeting him in the park be considered an “activity organized in a public place”?
walkerp
Yes, same question here. Are children from different families allowed to play with each other at the park?
Ephraim
@Douglas – So what you are saying is that you prefer the American method of where they simply sacrifice lives to the DJIA?
JP
@MarcG: Honestly, if they’re using common sense, a socially distanced backyard visit with one or two other people doesn’t seem harmful, based on the current science. However, I think they’re probably going to intentionally avoid specifying…the backyard is next to the patio, and the patio is right by the kitchen, so before you know it, some people will allow people to come into their homes. Also, I’m sure by now we’ve all seen or heard backyard/alley hangouts go “out of control” and I don’t think people can handle being told how many people is safe per square footage. Too much math…
My family has pretty much been abiding by no visitors allowed inside all summer, except the backyard. I’m hoping we have a nice mild autumn, so I can still see one or two people outside every now and then.
@Walkerp: Here’s the thing, and I’m just thinking out loud (not questioning you specifically), if schools are staying open, then does it make a difference if they play with other kids in the park? Nevertheless, wouldn’t it be safer, if they avoided playing with other kids? I’m not judging, I don’t have kids, but if I had kids, I think I’d tell them they have to get used to playing only with their sibling(s), if they had them. But again, I’m not in the situation. I feel like if the question was asked, they’d probably say no…
DeWolf
CAQ logic: it’s fine to go buy some books at Renaud-Bray, but you’re putting your life at risk by borrowing a book from the library.
JP
@DeWolf: Yes! I had put a bunch of books on reserve. I was really hoping to be able to read them. I don’t even think I have the budget to buy all those books, and I hate e-reading.
GC
Yes, De Wolf, I’m also side-eyeing that one. How is a library more dangerous than a book store? It can only assume they are keeping the book store open for business reasons, but then just make an exception for the libraries, too. Not everyone can afford to buy all the books they read.
steph
So stores stay open, but no one is supposed to go shopping – genius.
Douglas
@Ephraim.
Canada is running at less than 10 deaths a day after being opened for about 4 months so your point is moot.
Before trying to bankrupt an entire industry I would act with less panic and hysteria.
Kate
Douglas, do you understand anything about math? I suggest you read the Wikipedia article on mathematical modelling of infectious disease before you talk about panic or hysteria again. Do not rely on your own intuitions: you are not an expert in these areas, but the government is relying on people who are.
Ephraim
@Douglas – Unlike the USA, we have a limited number of beds, a limited number of doctors, a limited amount of ICU beds and we don’t believe in sacrificing people from the TSE. As for infections, maybe you need more help with regression mathematics and statistics.
Also, the effectiveness of this sacrificing people to the DJIA isn’t a very proven theory, it’s a trial balloon. What we know about the “Spanish Flu” (AKA the American flu, since that was the real origin) is that afterward, because of all the deaths, there was an increase in wages because of the loss of employees. In a country so in need of unskilled cheap labour for their engine of growth, it’s going to be interesting to see (since we really don’t know) what the long term effect of these deaths and of course the need for unskilled labour over time. It’s entirely different from Canada, where we have a severe deficit in unskilled labour and people are paid a much higher salary to start, which includes healthcare. Remember, the lack of universal healthcare in the US and “pre-conditions” is a way that they keep people in jobs rather than have a truly fair and open labour market. (Many countries have experienced this lack of unskilled labour and often look at either immigration or foreign workers as a way of filling the void.)
(When I was younger, I wondered if my university courses in statistics, international relations, politics and history would ever really have a meeting point… the last few months have taught me that they finally do.)
Uatu
Nice graphic Kate! I can hear the Enterprise alarm in my head!
Douglas
270 000 people die in Canada every single year.
Right now only 5-10 people are dying every day to Covid. Even if the death rates were a few times higher it would be perfectly fine statistically compared to how many Canadians die each year.
This is the equivalent of your mom sending you to your room for 28 days because you got a scratch at the park.
Mark Côté
Probably a waste of time to debate this further… but check out Quebec’s excess mortality this year and say that covid isn’t a big deal. No, the numbers aren’t that bad now, but it’s quite a gamble to presume they can’t go up significantly again. And that’s not even mentioning the potential long-term effects both of the virus and of the people who aren’t getting medical attention this year for other conditions because of overcrowding.
And maybe those hundreds of nurses who quit due to the pressure on our healthcare system are just exaggerating I guess.
MarcG
If it was known that the scratch at the park would cause others to get scratches that might cause others to get scratches and in process some of those scratches kill people…
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Kate
Denise Bombardier tries to make a scandal out of Quebec giving money to Dawson College for enlargement. “[T]outes les minorités culturelles, raciales et religieuses” are threatening Quebec, and François Legault is doing nothing about it.
Jack
Dawson you are now the target of Quebecor’s media machine, good luck.
PKP tweeted this morning that your institutions financing challenges this statement. “La protection de la langue française est l’apanage des dirigeants de Québec.”
Four columnists have basically said that the survival of the French language is dependent on your CEGEP’s financing being cut and that only historic ( love it !) anglophones should be allowed to attend.
Dawson’s success is seen as a slap in the face for all those who are victims of the “anglosphere”
As MBC put it , “Les Québécois qui ne veulent pas mourir comme peuple appellent à l’aide.”
“https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2020/09/24/une-trahison-linguistique
The darling of the Conservative Nationalist movement is Frederic Bastien, who teaches History at Dawson.
I wonder what kind of teacher he is ?
https://cultmtl.com/2020/05/why-is-no-one-bothered-by-the-lies-told-by-frederic-bastien-professor-historian-parti-quebecois-candidate-montreal-mosque/jeather
They’re not even, as far as I can tell, letting more students IN, just giving more space to the current students. (There is a problem with the anglo cegeps, as there is not enough room in all of them for everyone coming out of English schools and ALSO everyone else who wants to enter them, and there is no obvious answer if you exclude the actual one, which is allowing them to expand.)
Ian
Maybe Bombardier is mistaking enlarging classrooms for increasing enrolment but as this has been discussed in the Francophone media recently, back in June – but I kind of doubt it. This seems like exactly the sort of intellectually disingenuous anglo-baiting flag-waving she delights in along with the other dopes like MBC.
Jack
Ian I know I’ve made this argument a million times but MBC is Quebec’s most important public intellectual. I would argue his influence and his ability to effect public policy is quite remarkable. He has almost single handily been responsible for changing curriculum in Quebec’s education system. ERC and History and Citizenship courses at the High School level are gone because of his attacks and multiple platforms. His vilification of “Islamists” has had consequences. His constant attack on ” Multiculturalism” has consequences for all who are not from the majority culture. He has exactly the same concerns as Richard Spencer, yet he has multiple platforms that inundate Quebec’s media space.
His ideas and concerns have consequences.
I feel bad for the students at Dawson because they are next.Kevin
Jack
That MBC is the most important intellectual in the province is pretty sad considering how many great thinkers there are in this province. He is a bigot who is eternally fighting the referendum that he was too young to vote in.Ian
He’s not an intellectual, he’s an ethnonationalist with a platform. Let’s not exaggerate his contribution to the flourishing of humanity.
That he could even be perceived as an intellectual speaks to the provincialism of our society.
Raymond Lutz
Pour le plaisir, voici MBC se faire varloper par Aymeric Caron, journaliste et essayiste Français de passage au Québec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNDUGAzch1E . Et au passage, ça s’évalue comment, l’importance d’un intellectuel? Influent != important
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Kate
The SPVM say they need a bigger budget to pay informants if we expect them to quash the trend of shootings around town.
Ephraim
This is a symptom of the mistrust in police. When police are considered part of the community, they have natural connections to information.
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Kate
Quebec City has decided to stop advertising on Radio X, CHOI-FM, saying they’ve become a danger to public health by opposing sanitary rules.
The station has also been promoting rumours of conspiracies. Quoting Jonathan Montpetit, “two weeks ago, the station’s top-rated lunch-hour show had on a QAnon YouTuber as a guest. The host – Jeff Fillion – lauded the guest for his ‘very detailed and well researched’ work.” Alexis Cossette-Trudel and Lucie Laurier, both prominent conspirationnistes, have also been welcomed.
Su
Who owns RadioX? Does anyone know?
MarcG
A bit of internet sleuthing tells me it’s owned by RNC Media out of Westmount which is currently headed by this guy https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-ranger-31368a2a/.
Su
Thanks MarcG. I was fearing the owner might be U.S based Sinclair, or a mysterious hedge fundy thing. . After all Quebec does have a huge amount of lithium up north.
Raymond Lutz
Lucie Laurier est notre Faith Goldy “De Souche” ™ 😎
Ché pas pourquoi, mais ça prend toujours une pitoune dans cé gang-la pour montrer qu’y sont pas juss des gars.
Sûr, y a les “Karens” parmi les coronasceptiques, mais dans les milieux suprémacistes elles sont plus rares.
Raymond Lutz
Oh boy! Je viens de (re)-découvrir que Lucie Laurier est une ex-conjointe de PKP! Ça donne du piquant aux critiques contre elle de la part du couple Richard Martineau/Sophie Durocher (whom I once got a crush on when at UdM )
Azrhey
@raymond i once had a crush on Richard Martineau when he was journo at Le Voir. It was the 90s, that’s my excuse …
Kate
Martineau was an entirely different guy before he drank the Quebecor kool-aid.
MarcG
@Su There’s no proof they’re not taking brown envelopes from shady figures down south.
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Kate
A Repentigny snow contractor is accused of stealing snow removal machinery including three major items belonging to the city of Montreal.
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Kate
Christian Dubé and Horacio Arruda will be holding a press conference Monday at 17:30 to explain what it means to red-zone Montreal and Quebec City.
“Only” 750 new cases registered Monday.
steph
An announcing an announcement. So we have until 5h30 to cancel our thanksgiving plans voluntarily or they’re going to do it for us. Thanks dad.
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Kate
People using the Opus à l’année system were invited to suspend monthly payments for the pass as of April, but there’s no mechanism to deauthorize the cards remotely, so lots of people have gone on using them. Now some users, unaware of the situation, have bought tickets for occasional use and continued using their card, and have received warnings because the STM’s machines have preferentially tapped the yearly pass still on the card instead of debiting the tickets.
Paul
This isn’t so. As a user of the Opus à l’année program, I can assure you that the card provided with Maestro status cannot be loaded with individual cards. The card was also remotely deactivated upon accepting the terms of suspension. No deactivation procedure was required on the part of the user.
I absentmindedly attempted to use it a few times and was denied access until I reactivated it in September.
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Kate
The new chairman of the EMSB was acclaimed on Sunday, since there were no challengers to Joe Ortona, who’d previously been vice-chair. All but one of the board members has also been acclaimed in, which may at least avoid an election during a pandemic, but sidesteps the organization’s need for a breath of fresh air.
Kevin
There’s also a search going on for a new Director General, which should have more of a role in the daily operations of the board.
Jack
What a joke “Team Ortona” wins 9 of 10 wards without an election. Ortona like many others before will bide his time waiting for a Liberal safe seat. Dominique put him on speed dial.
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Kate
Sunday’s high temperature established a record for the date, held since 2003. Monday will be warm too, but after that it’s a return to more seasonal weather.
Ian 19:51 on 2020-09-28 Permalink
No real surprise there – not only does Montreal have a smallish Asian population, but we already knew the first cases were almost all from people coming back from ski trips over spring break.
walkerp 20:54 on 2020-09-28 Permalink
Didn’t the virus originate in China? The ones that came here also came from China but took a stop in Europe and the States?
Kate 21:12 on 2020-09-28 Permalink
walkerp, it did, but I suppose the implication is that there was a mutation somewhere along the way that’s like footprints to a geneticist.
Ephraim 21:27 on 2020-09-28 Permalink
@walkerp – There have been a number of mutations. The current mutation we are seeing seems to be more contagious but less deadly. The March mutation (614) increased infectivity, which is what lead to the lockdown. But from what I saw of the graphs, the Chinese original came to Canada and quickly died out. In Quebec, more than elsewhere, we saw cases come from Florida and France…. hence the March break connection.
See https://nextstrain.org/ and National Geographic has an article on how they track and why they track in March.
Raymond Lutz 22:00 on 2020-09-28 Permalink
also: “Research led by the University of Barcelona showed the presence of the virus in samples of wastewater in Barcelona in MARCH 2019, and infections were present before knowing of any case of COVID-19 in any part of the world. ”
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1192756.shtml
Meezly 09:19 on 2020-09-29 Permalink
It’ll be interesting to see whether these new facts become common knowledge and supplant fake news. Hopefully corona-racists will take heed and leave Asians the f*ck alone.
jeather 10:20 on 2020-09-29 Permalink
Surely the racism will just move to “where do you think the virus came from before it hit Europe”? Racism isn’t logicked away.
Meezly 10:40 on 2020-09-29 Permalink
Sadly, in many cases, it does not, but that’d be a bit defeatist. Education can help to mitigate racism.
Uatu 10:46 on 2020-09-29 Permalink
Have you seen these idiots? One of them was caught on video harrassing a young girl he thought was Asian. She was actually Cree and he actually told her “to go back where you come from”
jeather 12:06 on 2020-09-29 Permalink
I think education can help, but I don’t think “most cases in Quebec came from Europe or the US” is the kind of education that will help for the people who blame Asians for covid.
Meezly 12:58 on 2020-09-29 Permalink
I cannot deny covidiots and coronaracists are in a class of their own.
Ephraim 13:07 on 2020-09-29 Permalink
To quote Gilbert and Sullivan, “Let the punishment fit the crime.” When you don’t wear a mask where required, or you wear a mask incorrectly, you shouldn’t be fined, you should be required to work in a COVID ward for a few days. I’m sure they need someone to help with cleaning floors and washing bedpans. And they don’t need to wear protective clothing or a mask while there… it’s a falacy? Walk in without a mask! Frankly, I don’t know many people that wouldn’t be moved by seeing someone in ICU on a ventilator face down.