If We Know What's Right, Will We Do What's Right?

The Toronto Star just quoted Kieran Moore,

I’m very loath, after 1,000 days of a pandemic, to put in a mandate. We know what works, and we can trust Ontarians to do the right things. 

Nope. If we could trust people to KNOW what's right with all the misinformation out there, and then to DO the right thing (i.e. wear an N95 completely covering mouth and nose at all times in all public places), then we wouldn't have kids being shipped to hospitals across the province because of overflow. It's even worse now that we have 112 Paediatric ICU beds in Ontario, and 122 patients in need of a bed. 

In Ontario, 19 children have died of Covid so far. How much worse does it have to be for people to understand the need to wear an N95 around others? Like many communicable diseases, Covid spreads through carriers - a third of cases have no symptoms, so we need to mask even when we feel perfectly healthy. We can't know we have it, and can't know if someone nearby will die or be permanently disabled from catching it from us. Vaccines help prevent severity, but don't significantly stop transmission. N95s are a painless and effective way to stop the spread. If public health had pushed masks over hand washing in the last few years, then I might trust Ontarians to "do the right thing," but PH comms has been a disaster. 

From a Socratic perspective -- he argued that if we know right, we'll do right -- the problem is that most people don't know in their hearts that walking around publicly without a mask is wrong. We often avoid doing wrong because we'll get in trouble, but when we really know wrong -- like if you were asked to kill an innocent child -- it doesn't matter whether or not you'd get in trouble because you wouldn't be able to betray your conscience to that extent. The problem with masks is that many people don't know it intellectually either. They don't get how Covid is transmitted and don't know what to believe about the effectiveness of masks, and they don't get the difference between an N95 that seals to the face and a flimsy bit of cloth or surgical mask. And then, once they get the right information, they have to make the connection between walking around the grocery store without a mask on and killing an innocent child, the one in the cart next to yours in the check-out line, or the one that the cashier has waiting at home for mum, in order to really know know that it's wrong. Only then can we trust them to do the right thing.

Please wear an N95 or better in public places, especially schools, healthcare facilities, transportation, grocery stores, and anywhere people NEED to be. If you think we need a mandate in order to save the lives of our children, let Ford know at 416-325-1941. 

More from that article:

With cases only expected to spike over the next two months, the growing chorus of medical professionals say the simple step of masking will help staunch the flow of patients flooding into ERs. . . . Instead, [Moore] wants people to remember the “basic layers of protection” of staying home when sick, masking in indoor settings, wearing a mask while recovering from a respiratory illness. and good hand hygiene. . . . But experts question whether reminders and recommendations will get enough people to mask to meaningfully curb infections. They worry people have become numb to repeated messaging, and say asking people to mask — even in a worsening health crisis — may not be enough. . . . 

“When mask mandates were lifted, people really did interpret this as a signal that the pandemic was over and that they were safe,” said Dawn Bowdish, an immunologist at McMaster University. “But we are now in a mask-free era with more (COVID) deaths, more hospitalizations for COVID and other respiratory infections, and certainly more pediatric cases than earlier this year when we had mask mandates. If masks made sense in early 2022, then they make even more sense in late 2022.” . . .  

On Wednesday, the head of the Ontario Medical Association said masks can protect against contracting respiratory illnesses and recommended Ontarians wear them indoors. . . . While experts agree that being vaccinated against COVID and influenza is important — there is no RSV vaccine — they say urging more people to take the simple step of masking will also make a difference. “Masking is just like the simplest, lowest-hanging thing that we can do,” said Matthew Miller, director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster, adding that there is “no credible data that there’s any harm done by masking.” A Public Health Ontario report in August highlighted studies showing that schools that implemented mandatory masking have been associated with lower incidence of COVID compared to schools without mask precautions. “I would have hoped that one of the lessons that we took out of the pandemic is the normalization of masking; there’s really no reason why (wearing masks) shouldn’t become a habit during times where there is enhanced circulation of respiratory viruses.” 

During an Aug. 31 press conference — the last one he’s done — Moore said a requirement for masking would be introduced if respiratory infections were having severe impacts on the health system. But some wonder if that threshold has been reached. “The thing about public health, which is so unique, is its mission and commitment to prevention,” said Maxwell Smith, a bioethicist who specializes in infectious diseases and an assistant professor at Western University.“It’s really troubling to think that we need to have a metric of catastrophe — and that apparently we haven’t even met it yet with what we’re seeing in pediatric hospitals — before we introduce preventative measures, i.e. masking. “The whole point of public health collective measures is to prevent some of these harms to the population.” . . .  

In April, with a spike in COVID cases and hospitalizations, Philadelphia brought back its mandate for masking in all indoor public spaces, such as schools, offices, stores, restaurants and city buildings. “Given how quickly the Omicron wave grew and how many Philadelphians were hospitalized, as well as the large number of deaths in that recent wave, we are in a critical time to slow the spread of COVID-19,” the Philadelphia Department of Public Health stated at the time. It proved futile. Just four days later, the health department reversed the mandate after strong opposition from both ordinary citizens and businesses who immediately sued, attempting to get the mandate revoked. It seemed the renewed mandate for the city’s 1.6 million people, who tend to vote overwhelmingly Democrat, was a line they just wouldn’t cross. In rescinding the mandate, Philadelphia’s health commissioner, Dr. Cheryl Bettigole, chalked it up partly to a lack of rise in hospitalizations. Also in April, the Joe Biden administration’s mask mandate for public transportation and commercial flights was struck down by a Florida judge. 

Yet here in Ontario, two large municipal public health boards are urging action on masking. On Monday, Ottawa’s health board voted to pen a letter to Ford, Health Minister Sylvia Jones and Moore seeking, among other things, that the province “intensify the visibility and reach of a mass health communications campaign” about the benefits of masking and vaccination. And on Tuesday, Toronto’s public health board urged the city’s medical officer of health, Dr. Eileen de Villa, to “urgently explore” the possibility of reissuing mask mandates, starting with schools, amid rising numbers of children showing up in hospitals with respiratory illnesses. But any formal mask mandate should come from the province to avoid a patchwork of jurisdictions requiring masks, says Dr. Mustafa Hirji, acting medical officer of health for Niagara Region. “We shouldn’t have gotten rid of masks in the first place,” said Hirji. “It’s a simple thing we can do that is actually going to save lives while not restricting our ability to go about our normal activities.” He points out that Canada has recorded more COVID deaths in 2022 than in each of 2020 and 2021. 

In addition to helping reduce cases of COVID, RSV and influenza that will require huge hospital resources, masks would also cut down on the high rates of school absenteeism reported by school nurses in the region, he said. “There’s a lot of children who had school disrupted over the last two years, which of course has affected their education, affected their social development and now it’s being impacted because they’re sick and they’re away from school again,” Hirji said. “Masks are a way that we could keep kids in school.” . . . 

Right now, he says, there is a “massive chasm” between what public health recommends and how the public responds. “After two and a half years,” he says, “you can’t rely on hope for people to act.”