Why we want to re-evaluate the concept of social bubbles
As Ontario moves forward with its reopening plans and more and more people meet with friends and circles of relatives, some experts say the province wants to rethink how social bubbling works. In June, the Ontario government announced that it would allow social bubbles for up to 10 other people. This meant that if you lived in a relative of five, you may agree with some other circle of relatives of five to be in contact with them, without the need for a mask or physical distance. For interactions involving others who are not in this organization of 10, you are expected to physically walk away and wear a mask when this is not possible.
Steve Joordens, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto, said that while he was once an advocate for this strategy, he now believes he can create a “false sense of security.” “Once the members of our bubble start to come out and interact, suddenly this concept that everyone in our bubble is virus-free disappears. Because we don’t know,” Joordens told CBC Ottawa. Joordens said the concept doesn’t look good for other young people who need to socialize and meet new people, whether they’re friends or romantic couples. “It becomes almost the opposite of what [is] intended to be,” he said.
For many others, bubbles, also known as social circles, are an enigma, said Dr. Gerald Evans, professor and president of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Department of Medicine at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Evans said many of them may simply not remain pure, as other people come into close contact with other people outdoors. “What other people fundamentally don’t perceive is that it then allows the virus to be transmitted from one circle to another,” he said. The challenge of maintaining an “exclusive” bubble will be particularly complicated with the opening of schools in the fall, Evans said.
Ash Zade, a father from Ottawa, faces this challenge. Zade said his circle of relatives had tried to rub shoulders with only those of his bubble: 4 grandparents and one or two families in his neighborhood. But he’s afraid to send his 4-year-old daughter to kindergarten in September, as he already has upheaval with his two-year-old daughter who attends day care at home, which exceeded the bubble limit of the family circle. His wife is a schoolteacher, which only complicates things. “It’s a bit like counting calories at this point, where you say, “Fruit doesn’t count,” he says. “So the nursery, we don’t count as [part of] 10. We should, though.”
Joordens said the habits that people are forming post-lockdown will be difficult to change, especially within families and friend groups. “I think we had a certain safety when we were under lockdown in our own place. But now … we’re all gambling with other people’s money to an extent.” He’s worried those who’ve become more at ease during the pandemic might not even know they’re potentially putting themselves and others at risk. “They’ve been living in the bubble and feeling safe and engaging in certain behaviours,” Joordens said. “[And] they don’t realize their bubble has popped.”
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COVID-19 wastes entry-level labor market
Around the world, young people armed with new degrees, diplomas and professional qualifications are struggling to enter the workforce as the pandemic pushes the global economy into recession. COVID-19 has thwarted hopes of landing first jobs — important for jump starting careers — as employers cut back graduate recruiting plans or even revoke job offers. The problem, like the pandemic, is global; graduate job vacancies for July are down from the previous year in 10 countries, according to Adzuna, a job postings search engine.
The wave of delays in tasks will have an impact on the entire economy, said Brian Kropp, director of human resources studies at consultantic Gartner. Many graduates will have student loan debts that they can’t begin to pay until they find a task, he said. “If you can’t get an access point assignment today, it means you won’t move out of your parents’ house, you won’t have a genuine painting experience, you won’t buy your first home until later and I won’t get married until later.” According to experts, a significant long-term effect for young graduates who take longer to find a smart first task is to decrease their careers earnings; someone who takes a year or more to locate their first task is falling behind their peers in terms of promotions and is also competing with other young people entering the job market later.
The pandemic is aggravating the unrest of other young people in countries ravaged by chronic economic instability. Two years after graduating from Zimbabwe Midlands State University, 24-year-old Emmanuel Reyai is nowhere near earning a task similar to his degree in local governance. His studies are hampered by the country’s economic collapse and the coronavirus epidemic. Maria José Casco, a newly graduated doctor, did not locate a task after graduating from Ecuador in April. Although the pandemic is causing increased demand for fitness services, 24-year-old Hull has found that employers do not rent for full-time tasks. She and her husband live off their savings and their monthly salary of $480 and plan to emigrate.
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How gaps in the search for interprovincial flight contacts can increase the threat of COVID-19
Public fitness officials are not doing enough to succeed with others in other provinces who may have been exposed to COVID-19 on flights, avoiding touches at their own borders, warns an epidemiologist. “Canada has a tactile search formula in the field, but as soon as it rolls and they start pushing a small beverage cart, that formula stops,” said Amir Attaran, a professor of law and epidemiology at the University of Ottawa. Part of the challenge turns out to be that each province or territory is guilty of tracking instances within its borders, however, thefts increase in several jurisdictions.
It appears as though the federal government isn’t tracing cross-border cases, instead relying on provinces and territories to notify one another — sometimes indirectly through their websites. Even then, it can take time for that information to reach passengers who were potentially exposed to the virus, if it ever does. In Manitoba, for example, over the past six weeks, public health officials announced six domestic flights carrying symptomatic Manitobans and three international flights carrying two Manitobans who tested positive for COVID-19. That information was made public between one week and 17 days after the flights landed. “That’s useless,” Attaran said.
Canada’s medical director, Theresa Tam, said no airborne cases had been reported in Canada, but that there was a thorough investigation of the hazards. Gabor Lukacs, an advocate for air passengers, says Canadians are exposed to the dangers of flights and that other degrees of government deserve to do more to ensure that data is transmitted to the public. Attaran said that wasn’t the only problem; The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) communicates with provinces and territories by fax and slow processing. PHAC stated that it relied in the provinces and territories to transmit when a user in its jurisdiction who tested positive for coronavirus was on a flight while infectious, which was then posted online, but stated that its list of thefts is not exhaustive.
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Ontario doctor subject of complaints after COVID-19 tweets
Ontario physician Kulvinder Kaur Gill has been criticized through other doctors and others after a series of tweets that, they say, spread false data about COVID-19. CBC reviewed two court cases by email about Gill’s tweets, and added one through a circle of medical relatives at the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons, which sets regulatory criteria for physicians in the province. One of his tweets, dated August 6, read: “Humanity’s effective defenses opposed to COVID19 to safely return to a general life now include: -Truth, -T mobile immunity, -Hydroxychloroquine.”
Since then, this tweet has been removed for violating Twitter regulations. Twitter does not verify the regulations that an express tweet would possibly have violated when it was deleted. Many doctors also responded critically to Gill’s tweet. Hydroxychloroquine is a medicine used to treat malaria and certain autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. It was presented through US President Donald Trump as a possible solution to COVID-19. However, the drug has been shown to be useless in controlling the virus, according to a primary study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Health Canada has no legal hydroxychloroquine to treat or cure COVID-19 and has warned Canadians to oppose products that make false and misleading claims.
On August 4, Gill tweeted Array: “If you haven’t realized we don’t want a vaccine yet, you’re not paying attention,” adding the hashtag #FactsNotFear. Gill identifies himself as Kulvinder Kaur on his Twitter profile. Gill operates a clinic in Brampton, Ontario, and has more than 22,000 followers on Twitter. She is also president and co-founder of Concerned Ontario Doctors, a self-proclaimed-based organization that has criticized the Ontario Medical Association, the organization that represents 34,000 doctors in the province. Alex Nataros, a physician in the circle of relatives in British Columbia and one of the other people who filed a complaint with OMCO, disagrees with Gill’s views. “This is a risk to me in my practice and my professional integrity here in British Columbia,” he said of Gill’s tweets about hydroxychloroquine.
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There are considerations about removing a hand sanitizer from the market, but the product remains and is effective when manufactured correctly, according to an expert
Hand sanitizers have been scru affected in recent years with more than 50 brands recalled through Health Canada, leading some to question the protection of the products they use on a daily basis. Colin Furness, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto who specializes in hand hygiene, said hand sanitizers are safe and effective when manufactured and used correctly.
Although quality ethanol is the element that makes hand sanitizers effective, there are two impurities that experts say are harmful substitutions: methanol and ethyl acetate. “Methanol and ethanol will look and behave the same way,” Furness said. “The difference is that one is harmful.” Health Canada has a developing list of recently recalled hand sanitizers. Friday’s edition includes 12 marks that are not legal for sale in Canada or that lack the required threat statements.
Earlier last week, the regulator reported that 51 brands include certain types of alcohol that are “not appropriate for use in hand sanitizers.” People deserve to avoid indexed products. Most of the products covered through this series of recalls involve ethyl acetate, which can be used in the manufacture of products such as nail polish removers or nail polishes. Others involve methanol, which produces fuel or antifreeze.
Furness and Kelly Grindrod, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy, said they are looking for a disinfectant containing at least 60% ethanol and avoiding home responses that can be accidentally diluted and therefore less effective. “They would probably have started with 60% ethanol, but as soon as they load all the other stuff, they can end up with 30% and have no idea,” Grindrod said.
Lane hockey nights and fun for neighbors in Kitsilano, British Columbia
Residents of Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighborhood head abroad to see Vancouver’s Canucks in the Stanley Cup playoffs, an example of how others seek to regain a sense of normalcy with the global pandemic by being in combination while physically staying away.
Aaron Andersen and his circle of relatives helped build an outdoor hockey observation area in an alley when the NHL resumed operations last July. “We were watching the first game with the family circle and we thought, yes, I know the neighbors are inside too, why don’t we all set up a place to get together,” he said. Andersen said he had spoken to the neighbors and arranged for them to watch the next game in the alley by joining their homes. He presented a sofa and a television, others brought their chairs and sofas, and the young men went out with their hockey sticks to a set of vans.
Finding unique tactics to socialize is not new in this neighborhood. In April, after weeks of being home, the neighbors made the decision to organize a concert in the alley. “We’ve organized six concerts and in fact we’ve tried to help local artists who wouldn’t have a different position to perform,” Andersen said. With neighbors hunting outdoors in their garages, Andersen says they welcomed an impersonator from Elvis, children’s musician Will Stroet and Neil Diamond in tribute to Nearly Neal, among others.
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