Montreal City Weblog

Kate 13:48 on 2023-03-31 Permalink Reply  

• Blork 14:37 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  It’s unclear to me if that means “15,000 new infections every day” or “on any given day there are 15,000 cases of Covid.” Does anyone here know?

• MarcG 15:28 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  New inflections per day. Tara Moriarty’s team estimates that 223,289 Quebecers (1 in 38) were “currently infected” during the week of Feb 26-Mar 4.

• Kate 16:05 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  Just came in from doing errands in half a dozen places in the ‘hood. Almost nobody wears masks any more, but I’m still unwilling to put myself out there as a guinea pig. I have a lot to do, and don’t want to risk getting sick – and I’ve really enjoyed not having any other viruses over the last 3 years too.

• shawn 16:33 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  Funny I just sort of stopped masking today, out of laziness. Back it goes!

• Michael 17:09 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  Normal masks are useless. Look at what masking did to stop covid spread in China.

• MarcG 17:15 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  Masks work and better masks work better. Be selfish, protect your organs.

• Daniel 17:23 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  Masks can work, but “masks” as a category seems almost useless at this point because there are different types fitted and worn with varying degrees of rigour.

  I’m surprised to see that many people have not gone beyond wearing a surgical mask, since while that shows some effort toward masking, it perhaps at this point falls short in terms of usefulness. It seems like a holdover from the very early days of the pandemic when the notion was to save the best masks for hospital staff maybe?

• Kate 17:28 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  I ordered some N95s awhile back and am slowly working through them. The very fact one’s wearing a mask tends to keep people at a bit of a distance, I find.

  I’ve chucked out the first generation of cloth masks I got during the first year of the pandemic.

  I went into a fruiterie today without my mask on, expecting only to be there a few minutes, then I heard the owner coughing and coughing. He wasn’t wearing a mask, so I hastily put mine on.

• MarcG 17:30 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  I’m also very surprised when I see crappy masks being worn crappily by people who are not being forced to wear them – you clearly haven’t fallen for the ‘mild’ lie but in the process of educating yourself you didn’t come across “wear a tight fitting respirator”? Je ne comprends pas du tout.

• Daniel 17:31 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  Interesting. Well if we ever cross paths, you’ll recognize me because I’ll be the other person wearing an N95 (or Canadian equivalent). :p

• Blork 17:55 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  I still diligently wear my mask at the grocery store and a few other places. But I do find myself occasionally not wearing it if I’m going into a large place that seems well ventilated and has few people in it.

  Many people I know have had “close calls” without getting infected. Supposedly the newest variants are very contagious, but situations like the following real-life one from last month seem to happen a lot:

  Person A has a two hour meeting in an enclosed room sitting across a small table from Person B.

  A few hours later Person B calls Person A to say they have just tested positive for Covid.

  Person A fully expects to come down with it but never does.

  Please don’t interpret that as any kind of Covid denial. Just saying it’s not as predictable as we might think, and it does make me wonder if “all mask all the time” is the wrong approach. In fact most trustworthy epidemiologists say things along the lines of “wear a mask in crowded or poorly ventilated places.” I think that’s pretty much my strategy now. Except for the grocery store; I don’t know what their ventilation is like but it’s such a habit now to wear a mask that I see no point in changing.

• shawn 18:29 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  I wear an N95, well-fitted.

• EmilyG 22:01 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  I still wear a mask when in indoor public spaces. Two masks if I’m going to be inside for a prolonged period of time.
  I get boxes of N95s at the local Home Hardware.

• JaneyB 20:48 on 2023-04-01 Permalink

  Also still porting an N95 indoors. I see regular readers actually have some things in common here. That makes me wonder what the erstwhile irrepressible, now mostly lurker Bill Binns is up to. Mask or no mask Bill?

• JP 22:00 on 2023-04-01 Permalink

  I’m a regular reader and have done away with masks, but I get that others want to keep wearing them and that’s fine; I respect that.

• MarcG 11:28 on 2023-04-02 Permalink

  JP: Thanks for giving us your blessing? The libertarian reframing of public health as individual choice is very disturbing.