Church holds another illegal service
That church in St-Léonard held another illegal service on Sunday, allowing 60 people into a building that should only have permitted ten. No tickets were issued, although TVA doesn’t attempt to explain why not.
Alex Norris just mentioned on Facebook that the city’s executive committee has renewed the five‑day state of emergency for the 70th time running.
La Presse is kind of pushing for opening up. I’ve been struck during the pandemic by how media have sloshed back and forth on “taking sides” about public health: Monday it’s performance artists and downtown merchants wanting things to move.
I wish media would be a little clearer about the simple fact that you cannot negotiate with a pathogen. Hard though the pandemic is on us, it isn’t really about us! Nobody is oppressing you or your business, we all have a hard fact of life that has to be dealt with.
Mark Côté 10:38 on 2021-02-22 Permalink
I don’t think I understand this thing about not being able to negotiate with a pathogen. Obviously no one is suggesting that literally. Rather, we are (constantly) negotiating with ourselves about how to react to a pathogen.
Clearly there are many ways that societies and governments have chosen to cope with, deal with, or ignore the issue. I’ve been dutifully housebound for a year like many people, but I wonder what the end of a pandemic looks like. Clearly it’s not now, but there isn’t going to be some sort of very discrete all-clear flag that says “yesterday we were worried about this but today we aren’t”. So this conversation isn’t going away because, well, it has to happen, and when is more “appropriate” to have it is far from clear. Doubly so because it is also very clear that our government has zero interest in a New-Zealand-style 0-tolerance approach (leaving aside the debate about whether that’s possible here or not).
Mark Côté 10:45 on 2021-02-22 Permalink
That said, the media definitely has a role in shaping the conversation. I saw a headline on CTV, I think, about how businesses didn’t want any more yo-yoing. The headline implied that some businesses might support, say, a strict lockdown for 6 weeks followed by extended reopening, but of course what the article actually said was that businesses just want to open now and stay open.
Kate 12:11 on 2021-02-22 Permalink
> The media definitely has a role in shaping the conversation
Yes, it does. And I’ve been feeling all along that media has dabbled in making people feel injustices are being done. Media don’t have to act as an uncritical mouthpiece for government to have good sense about this.
Phil M 16:05 on 2021-02-22 Permalink
Seems like there’s a lot less outrage when churches are flouting the rules than when synagogues do it…
steph 16:19 on 2021-02-22 Permalink
Once I get vaccinated I’ll be parading my “all-clear flag”. Is there any other hope?
dmdiem 17:55 on 2021-02-22 Permalink
Steph unfortunately the vaccine doesn’t prevent you from catching or transmitting the virus, what it does is reduce the severity of the illness and the chance of death.
MarcG 18:06 on 2021-02-22 Permalink
@dmdiem: Got a reference for that? WHO and CDC say otherwise.
Mark Côté 18:12 on 2021-02-22 Permalink
From the WHO website about the Moderna vaccine:
Does it prevent infection and transmission?
We do not know whether the vaccine will prevent infection and protect against onward transmission. Immunity persists for several months, but the full duration is not yet known. These important questions are being studied.
In the meantime, we must maintain public health measures that work: masking, physical distancing, handwashing, respiratory and cough hygiene, avoiding crowds, and ensuring good ventilation.
Meezly 18:38 on 2021-02-22 Permalink
Indeed, I don’t know why there isn’t stronger PSA on this.
Even if individuals get vaccinated, they still need to exercise caution.
We won’t achieve true herd immunity until enough of the general population is properly vaccinated.
MarcG 19:12 on 2021-02-22 Permalink
On the same page it says “The Moderna vaccine has been shown to have an efficacy of approximately 92 per cent in protecting against COVID-19”. Am I not smart enough or is this confusing?
Mark Côté 22:42 on 2021-02-22 Permalink
It is confusing. My understanding is that the vaccine mostly prevents covid-19, which is the disease caused by the virus. It seems that you can be vaccinated, and hence at a much reduced chance of getting covid (or at least reducing the effects), but the coronavirus itself can be in your system regardless and can possibly be transmitted through the usual routes (breathing), which are mitigated to some extent by wearing a mask and keeping at a distance from others. Hence, if you get vaccinated but there are still many who aren’t, then if you don’t keep the same precautions you can put the unvaccinated folks at risk.
As far as I can tell we’ll only be safe, for some definition of safe, when the R-level falls significantly below 1, presumably due to vaccine-induced herd immunity. But there won’t be zero risk for a long time, if ever, and the presumably long but unknown grey area (er, time) stresses me out, particularly since I don’t trust/agree with this government’s risk analysis, who would presumably be the ones to “officially” declare the pandemic over at some point.
Meezly 23:22 on 2021-02-22 Permalink
That has been what I’ve been reading last week but forgotten I’d read it, because I’d been isolating at home with the kid because her class had a case of Covid and the days jhave been blurring… again…
I was also wondering why I had deja vu when talking about herd immunity and realized I was parroting myself here asking if our health minister was putting all his eggs in the vaccination basket way too prematurely:
https://mtlcityweblog.com/2021/02/17/quebec-vs-montreal-during-covid/#comment-156954
dmdiem 00:19 on 2021-02-23 Permalink
The vaccine isn’t a magical shield, it just teaches the body to recognize the virus. So instead of walking around for weeks before its recognized, it could be a few days. This both reduces the severity of the symptoms when they occur as well as reduces the window in which the virus is transmissible. But since you’re still contagious for those few days, you still need to take precautions.
jeather 09:48 on 2021-02-23 Permalink
Amazing, the usual suspects aren’t jumping to say how Bad Religion Is and how They Deserve Tickets and How Dare They Think They Are Special now that it’s not Jews at a synagogue. There are a lot fewer articles about this, too. Must be a coincidence, our secular society surely treats all religions the same way.