Alberta’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw. Photo by Chris Schwarz /Government of Alberta
Albertans who have an eligible medical condition that allows for a mask exemption are now required to carry a doctor’s note, the province’s top doctor said Thursday in response to some people finding “loopholes” in existing guidelines.
Effective Thursday, a medical exemption letter provided by a nurse practitioner, physician or psychologist is required to verify qualified medical conditions, such as sensory processing disorders, cognitive impairment, facial trauma and recent oral or jaw surgeries.
“There have been some incidents reported in the media where individuals who are not following public health rules are perhaps seeking loopholes or areas in the rules where it’s not clear,” said Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health.
This article has been updated.
A few sentences have shaken a century of science.
A week ago, more than a year after the World Health Organization declared that we face a pandemic, a page on its website titled “Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19): How Is It Transmitted?” got a seemingly small update.
The agency’s response to that question had been that “current evidence suggests that the main way the virus spreads is by respiratory droplets” which are expelled from the mouth and quickly fall to the ground “among people who are in close contact with each other.”
The revised response still emphasizes transmission in close contact but now says it may be via aerosols smaller respiratory particles that can float as well as droplets. It also adds a reason the virus can also be transmitted “in poorly ventilated and/or crowded indoor settings,” saying this is because “aerosols remain suspended in the air or travel farther than 1 meter.”
Here’s one disturbing thing about COVID: It’s an unseen enemy. Two, it’s incredibly contagious. Three, you’re already infected, yet it still doesn’t hurt. This virus from hell is so sinister you’ll never know you re a carrier, unless to get “swabbed”, or start showing symptoms, a few days after contracting it.
But with swab testing inaccessible/too pricey in most parts of the world, you try and live a “normal” life until you, and those around you, start getting feverish, sneezing like crazy and start infecting others too.
And, unfortunately, people die from COVID. The primary route of transmission? There’s a growing body of evidence it’s through aerosol ultra-tiny particles loaded with virus wafting about in the air, especially in indoor settings. It’s how the the breath-and-sneeze-of-death cycle goes on, a growing number of scientists argue.
Should we still wear face masks in shops after the pandemic? This is what Echo readers say
File photo dated 24/7/2020 of a shopper wearing a face mask in a supermarket in East London. Supermarkets were among the main beneficiaries when lockdown restrictions were first introduced in March, with shoppers emptying shelves of store-cupboard IT S one of the biggest questions and talking points to come out of Covid times: Should we continue to wear face masks in shops when the pandemic ends? Medics sit on both sides of this debate, with one side saying it will curb the passing of infectious diseases - such as colds and the flu.
Bonus antidote:
This is Humphrey. He would like to discuss bigger bowl options whenever you get a chance. It’s just that this looks ridiculous. 13/10 pic.twitter.com/QbItzZEPtb
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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About Lambert Strether
Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to