Time to address growing cynicism

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/04/2021 (1826 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“Mandated outdoor masks?? This will cause havoc in the streets good luck!”

“We’ve been good little rule-followers so far, but if there is an outdoor mask mandate, you can kiss our support goodbye. Zero scientific rationale.”

“He plainly states that personal gatherings and faith gatherings are increasing the numbers. And his moronic response is to suggest an outdoor mask mandate. It doesn’t resolve the problems he specifically described.”

— A selection of public social media comments from CBC and The Brandon Sun news sites

With the recent messaging coming out of the Pallister government, it sounds like the province is gearing up for another major offensive against the COVID-19 pandemic, now thought to be in the early stages of a third wave.

Just yesterday, the province’s COVID-19 vaccine task force announced plans to open a temporary, high-volume immunization clinic in Winnipeg, while scaling back its pop-up sites to rural and northern communities with smaller populations – including here in Westman.

But even as the province begins focusing its vaccination efforts on larger community centres like Winnipeg, where health professionals are seeing a faster spread of the coronavirus, the spread of misinformation about the pandemic, paired with growing anti-vaccine rhetoric, is equally concerning.

Earlier in the week, Dr. Brent Roussin had foreshadowed the likelihood of bringing back stronger pandemic restrictions as case numbers of COVID-19 grow — particularly the more contagious variants of concern.

That comment alone prompted a wave of commentary through social media and on Brandon Sun story posts that “communism” was on its way and that public rights were being curtailed again, and that our way of life was under threat from power-hungry officials.

Those thoughts were then amplified when Roussin suggested health officials are also considering the implementation of an outdoor mask mandate. While the idea may seem “ludicrous” as more than a few commenters stated this week, it’s not without some scientific reasoning.

In February, B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry told CBC News that there had been several cases of outdoor transmission between spectators “clustering and talking with each other” during soccer games and wedding receptions where people gathered under tents — but not from brief outdoor encounters.

In the same article, Ottawa medical officer of health Dr. Vera Etches suggested that residents in Canada’s capital should wear masks outdoors at all times because infection rates were climbing.

“People should wear masks when they’re outside of their house as much as possible,” Etches told the CBC. “It’s an added barrier. You don’t know if you’re going to come into close contact with someone or not.

“Outdoors is much safer than indoors, but if you are right beside someone, you could breathe in their respiratory secretions.”

While this may be medically sound advice, we wonder whether the provincial government will have a steep uphill battle convincing an already frustrated public to don a mask every single time they walk outdoors. With calls for the continued removal of health restrictions — even in the face of growing variant COVID-19 case numbers — the formerly small number of people voicing displeasure with any lockdown measures at the start of the pandemic have grown louder and shriller.

Public grumbling about the slow pace of the vaccine rollout in Manitoba — and in Canada as a whole — is a symptom of this frustration with government officials. Ordinarily rational citizens are more susceptible to misinformation as a result — talk of conspiracies to limit Canadian freedoms as some kind of international plan, for example. The anti-vaxx movement has also seen a surge across the country as questions arise over the safety of the AstraZeneca and the Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

Such headlines do more to seed doubt about their veracity than any vaccine ingredient list, even if their results fall within accepted parameters.

While we fully believe our health officials are merely trying to keep people safe and prevent our hospitals from being overrun with patients, provincial and federal officials need to do more to address the growing public cynicism about pandemic-related health measures.

Otherwise, scenes of protest and civil disobedience like those we saw in Quebec and Alberta last weekend may become more prevalent. And that’s the last thing anyone needs.