Second lockdown: what next?
All kinds of media are already bracing for whatever additional pandemic rules will be called down Wednesday at 5 p.m. when François Legault is to hold a presser, with the Journal evoking the October Crisis and the Gazette reviewing the mixed success of other lockdowns around the world.
dmdiem 12:45 on 2021-01-06 Permalink
It seems to me the greatest indicator of whether a lockdown is successful is compliance. If people adhere to the spirit of the lockdown or if they look for loopholes in the rules, or ignore it outright. That’s what’s happening right now. People are gathering at each others houses. I think the reason the first lockdown was as relatively successful as it was, was because people were terrified and actually locked down. I suspect that if the virus was slightly more deadly to younger people, there might be greater compliance.
DeWolf 13:57 on 2021-01-06 Permalink
The Gazette mentions data from several studies in the US suggests that closing schools leads to a 60 percent reduction in cases and deaths. And yet here we seem to be bending over backwards to keep schools open as much as possible. It seems like a big blind spot.
Michael Black 14:25 on 2021-01-06 Permalink
But all of this has been about value versus spread.
If everything stopped, we’d die. So some have to be out there, no matter how much it might spread the virus. Other things are in the “nice” category, so those can be shut down with only economic hardship.
Schools aren’t vital, but learning is. It’s a stimulus, and in our society school is a place to house kids. For some, auxiliary things like hot lunches matter a lot. It’s incredibly hard to shut that down even if it’s a spreader.
Ironically, it’s easy to say “stay home unless it’s absolutely needed” but way harder to control. So schools may be spreaders, but there seems to be activity that shoukdbpn’t be happening but which is way harder to check on.
Jack 14:31 on 2021-01-06 Permalink
During the October Crisis was there a curfew? It’s just if the Journal de Montreal says it , I look it up. I can’t find any evidence of a curfew. Can someone help me out?
Michael Black 14:46 on 2021-01-06 Permalink
I remember no curfew but I turned 11 later in the month, so I was hardly out late.
We did go out on Halloween, the only detail I remember was a house two blocks over guarded by a soldier. An MNA, maybe cabinet minister, lived there. We skipped that house.
David256 03:06 on 2021-01-08 Permalink
Thanks for your recollections.