You’d think public health officials would at least put some gusto into their messaging about masks, key tools in holding airborne illnesses at bay. But no.
This week, Dr. Kieran Moore said the province will drop its mandatory five-day isolation period for people with COVID-19. It’s enough now to just avoid returning to work until your symptoms have improved for 24 hours . And if anyone has close contact with someone who’s ill, please monitor for symptoms and mask for 10 days yourself.Sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.
While Ottawa’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Vera Etches, notes that hospitalizations from COVID are reasonably low now compared with eight months ago, Moore expects an increase in the fall. So why give the public advice that seems short-sighted? Some health officials feel it’s time to treat COVID as just one of many illnesses circulating. Nothing to see here; move along. Vaccination rates, Moore notes cheerfully, have been high; some schools have better ventilation, and children 5 to 11 can now get their boosters if they’ve waited six months — luckily, since they no longer have to mask in those crowded indoor settings called schools.
Lockdowns are likely a thing of the past, along with vaccine mandates. Fair enough. Yet you’d think Moore would at least put some gusto into the messaging about masks, key tools in holding airborne illnesses at bay. But no; while reiterating their importance to the vulnerable, he says people should continue masking when “it’s right for you.” Apparently, the strategy is no longer about protecting anyone else.
That signal is distressing. Ontarians — Ottawans in particular — believed early on that we all had a role in protecting not just ourselves, but others. This is no longer a public health theme. It bodes poorly for the fall, and for future pandemics.
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