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Updates from December, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• Kate 21:46 on 2021-12-21 Permalink | Reply  

  After Monday’s Twitter jibe by Quebec labour minister Jean Boulet blaming asylum seekers for “Ominicron”, Boulet says he has nothing against migrants and that he has no evidence these newcomers brought a wave of contagion with them – but also that, like Édith Piaf, he doesn’t regret anything.

  Nonetheless, it doesn’t seem entirely coincidental that Radio-Canada has a simultaneous story about the federal government’s intention to shut down the Roxham Road access from the U.S. to Canada. Closed for most of the pandemic, the road reopened on November 22, according to this piece, and about a hundred migrants have crossed each day ever since. Ideally, a better accord with the U.S. over asylum seekers would make Roxham Road irrelevant, but people may not be willing to trust the outcome of diplomacy, or not able to wait for its resolution.

  Nick and Meezly are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • Meezly 14:09 on 2021-12-22 Permalink

    What a load of crock! Esp. when it’s been common knowledge that the first wave was brought by Quebecers returning from Europe and US, and the first cases of Omicron were brought by air travellers returning from Europe and Nigeria, it’s a reprehensible statement to make.

  • Nick 14:57 on 2021-12-22 Permalink

    I wrote here about six months ago guessing this would happen in post about vaccine passports. Speaking about the US I guessed they would use the virus as a means to turn away migrants and refuges. Invoking public health would allow them to put up their ‘wall’ without being called racists. Quebec politicians just don’t mind being called racist.

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• Kate 12:25 on 2021-12-21 Permalink | Reply  

  Mayor Plante has just declared a new state of emergency (Twitter link).

   

• Kate 10:53 on 2021-12-21 Permalink | Reply  

  La Presse is predicting we’ll see a record 5000 cases of Covid when the numbers come in at 11 on Tuesday morning. (Update: the number came in at 5043, with 8 new deaths.)

  Rather than closing or moving, the vaccination centre at the Palais des congrès is being more than tripled in size.

  City emergency wards are preparing for war, it says here. Imagine what it’s like for weary healthcare workers, after nearly two years of pandemic, having to ratchet up to an even more intense level of preparedness. And there are outbreaks in hospitals and CHSLDs.

  The mayor having attended an indoor event a few days before testing positive, all 300 of the participants have had to be tested. Mayor Plante says her symptoms are moderate.

  Quebec is considering calling in the army and the feds are said to be favourable to sending them in to support Quebec’s vaccine booster campaign. I like the idea. Rather than support dogs and other calming interventions, it’ll be “Suck in that gut, soldier!” and bam, right in the left buttock.

  Aaron Derfel is back with one dissection of the numbers.

  Blork, Spi, Phil M, and 3 others are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • jeather 14:19 on 2021-12-21 Permalink

    Funny how we were all just told not to test if we’d been exposed, only if we had symptoms, but everyone who interacted with Plante gets a test just in case. Deux poids, deux mesures, as always.

  • Tee Owe 14:31 on 2021-12-21 Permalink

    They’re looking for who to blame

  • Joey 14:44 on 2021-12-21 Permalink

    @jeather I had the same reaction, though it seems that the instructions to those 300 people came before the province changed its testing guidelines. Two of my son’s classmates tested positive mid last week – they first told us to get tested on Saturday, then ASAP. Given his lack of symptoms, his negative rapid test result (at school) and his limited exposure to the kids, we opted to book an appointment rather than spend 90 minutes in the cold waiting for a PCR test at Hotel-Dieu. First availability was later today (booked it during the weekend); given the guidelines, we’ve cancelled his test.

  • Phil M 16:57 on 2021-12-21 Permalink

    As I understand it, rapid tests don’t work if you don’t have symptoms, so testing would be useless and wasteful at that point.

  • Spi 17:46 on 2021-12-21 Permalink

    @Phil I’ve heard many epidemiologist disagree with that, although all test work best when you have symptoms have a higher viral load, rapid test they can still detect the virus in asymptomatic people.

  • Blork 12:46 on 2021-12-22 Permalink

    Yeah, my understanding is that they are LESS effective if you’re asymptomatic, but not ineffective.

    This NY Times piece sums it up:

    “Rapid antigen tests, which do not amplify the virus, are less sensitive than P.C.R. tests. If you take one during the earliest phase of an infection, before the virus has replicated widely, the test could return a false negative.

    Some of the at-home rapid antigen tests have an overall sensitivity of roughly 85 percent, which means that they are catching roughly 85 percent of people who are infected with the virus and missing 15 percent. In some studies, their real-world performance has been even lower.

    But the tests are more sensitive in people with symptoms than without and are most sensitive during the first week of symptoms, studies have found.”

    A number if sites also mention that they have to be used correctly, and because they are self-administered, some people don’t follow the instructions very well, which can also cause false negatives.

    So basically they’re pretty good at detecting people who are shedding virus, but if your infection is so new that you’re not shedding, or if you’re a dumbass who can’t follow instructions, then they might give a false negative. And most important: the results are really only valid for a few hours.

    Source (paywall): https://www.nytimes.com/article/at-home-covid-tests-accuracy.html

• Kate 00:19 on 2021-12-21 Permalink | Reply  

  The state of emergency declared by the city that began on March 27, 2020 was ended on August 27 this year. Mayor Plante is considering reinvoking the measures which allow the city to open its sites to community groups and extend its assistance with food and shelter.

   

• Kate 00:04 on 2021-12-21 Permalink | Reply  

  Linda Gyulai writes about how the elegant part of Maisonneuve, around Morgan Boulevard and encompassing the market, the library, the park and five other elements, will be bisected by the elevated REM and what this could do to it. Including a nice retelling of the history behind that part of town.

  Kate, Tee Owe, dhomas, and 1 other are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • david292 00:19 on 2021-12-21 Permalink

    It’s running way away from the market and library and all the rest – if anything, it’ll increase the number of people using those facilities and the park.

  • dhomas 04:28 on 2021-12-21 Permalink

    Did you read the article, @David###? The REM will create visual pollution counter to the heritage designation being discussed. Also, I don’t think you live anywhere near Morgan park. If you did, you would know that the park is used plenty and doesn’t need any additional traffic from a potential REM stop 7 blocks away from it. It would also need to delete the bike path along Notre-Dame, which I would contend brings far more people to the park than the REM ever will. Having used that bike path daily for over 5 years, I can tell you that it would be a big loss. Though it is quite close to Notre-Dame street, there is a green “belt” lined with trees between the bike path and the street. This line of trees makes for quite a pleasant ride, separating cyclists from the visual/air/noise pollution of the nearby street.
    I’m not against progress and I think public transit is important. I just don’t appreciate the approach being taken by the CDQP. Public transit is supposed to improve the lives of the citizenry and reduce reliance on private vehicles, thus reducing our environmental impact. The CDPQ is going about it with a “profit at all costs” attitude, damn the consequences.

  • Kate 10:44 on 2021-12-21 Permalink

    Thank you, dhomas. I’ve used that bike path as well – used it often when I was cycling out to the Grace Dart to see my mom, when she was there. It’s nice how it winds among the trees and keeps the rider very separate from traffic. Would be a shame to lose it.

  • Tee Owe 10:56 on 2021-12-21 Permalink

    Speaking of visual pollution, what about that Olympic tower looming over Marché Maisonneuve – ?

  • Kate 12:09 on 2021-12-21 Permalink

    Also looming over the Botanical Garden and so on. It’s difficult to get a calendar-art type shot of the Chinese or Japanese garden without that tower photobombing in the distance. But it is what it is, and most of what we’re talking about runs south of the Olympic park.