My Friday column on the obsession with surface transmission of the coronavirus has earned me a lot of mail. As I wrote (1): The risks of contracting the virus by handling a doorknob or a can of tuna are microscopic, if not nonexistent.
Posted on 1is June 2021 at 7:00 am
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My column followed a report by Duty on the deprivations imposed on mental health patients because of the pandemic. Some of these deprivations are no doubt as heartbreaking as they are inevitable. But banning books and magazines in a psychiatric wing in the name of viral danger is as cruel as it is pseudoscientific.
At the start of the pandemic, we swam in quite understandable confusion over this unknown virus. We were washing the surfaces as if the song Wash, wash by Martine St-Clair (2) had become the new national anthem. We now know, supported by scientific studies, that the real danger lies in aerosols and droplets in the air.
No problem: we meticulously wash the grocery baskets – I am even told of stores that disinfect the rolling cart of cash registers between each customer – Pokémon cards are prohibited at school and even the sharing of balloons, I know that ‘until recently, citizens were told to leave their handbags in their car when they went to be vaccinated in the Laurentians, supposedly to counter the virus …
PHOTO SANDRA SANDERS, ARCHIVES REUTERS
“We now know, with scientific support, that the real danger lies in aerosols and droplets in the air,” writes our columnist.
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I was told in a cafe that the toilets were closed by order of Public Health, as if there was a higher risk in going to take a piss than buying a sandwich in said establishment …
And, Monday, new alert: Public Health warned (3) schools that each student who signs the graduation album must have their own pencil. No sharing, vade retro fomite!
I repeat: the risk of contracting the virus from fomite – per interposed surface – is almost zero. Given the disinfection efforts devoted to cleaning surfaces, we fall into what The Atlantic labeled in January as a form of “health theater” (4). We are not in the precautionary principle when the risks of contracting the virus by fomitis are lower than those of being struck by lightning.
This madness affects all kinds of institutions, private and public. Disinfecting in vain is a waste of time, confuses the public as to which measures are correct and which do not. Without forgetting the costs: the scientific journal Nature (5) recalled that the New York public transport authority will have spent, between February 2021 and 2023, more than 380 million US dollars in disinfection of surfaces … Immensely more than to control ventilation.
If I were paranoid, I would say that the obsession with transmitting Pokémon cards in schools and magazines in hospitals has the immense advantage of creating a diversion, while the ventilation systems of another century do not disperse infected aerosols. But I’m not paranoid, so I’m just going to blame the fomites’ obsession with poor public health communication.
But there is still something powerfully contradictory, scientifically speaking, about the obsession with fomites being present in vaccination centers. In these centers, vaccines are injected which constitute miracles of knowledge. There is no precedent for vaccines created so quickly, in the face of such a great threat …
And while we inject this miracle of science into the upper arm of Quebecers, we disinfect plastic chairs with chlorinated wipes, which is as effective against the virus as praying.
Speaking of stupidity
On Sunday, Minister Christian Dubé posed like thousands of Quebecers by receiving his vaccine. In her case, it was her second dose of AstraZeneca.
Mr. Dubé relays profusely the images of people who are vaccinated with a formula that he repeated dozens of times, on Twitter: “Another Quebecer happy to be vaccinated!” ”
Sunday, I was also informed that the CISSS des Laurentides prohibits photos of people who are immunized in its vaccination centers. I was told about the vaccination center located on boulevard Labelle, in Blainville.
Verification made with the CISSS Monday morning: “All our vaccination sites apply the ministerial orientation which asks us to no longer authorize this type of photography during the vaccination act …”
Me: “Uh, it’s because the minister did it yesterday …”
CISSS: “We validate and we come back to you. ”
Rechecking redone by the CISSS, there is no ministerial orientation that prohibits selfies, just the fear of being afraid of disturbing someone somewhere, because-the-private-life, because-cellars-make-lives-Facebook-antivax.
The Columnist (6) Health of Globe and Mail André Picard pointed out a few weeks ago that these selfies vaccination standardizes the act of getting the vaccine injected. Beautiful positive and civic publicity which supplants any possible inconvenience.
Speaking of stupidity, bis
Last Friday in this newspaper, I rubbed the ears of an employee of the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal who had declared to the Duty that books and magazines were banned at the Douglas Institute, so as not to take any risk with the virus …
I made fun of this gentleman who of course perpetuates a foolishness, but I found it a little boring that he pays to be the relay of a paranoia that he did not nevertheless create… Nothing which would not have been worth me a slap in the face of the Press Council, but still: I had his name deleted from the original column.
Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, when I flay someone in this column, I don’t regret it. I thought about it, I weighed my words, I write the review, worse… That’s what it is. In his case, by rereading me, well … I found myself cheap. Mea culpa, sir.
1. Read “Putting an end to the fomites”
2. Listen to the song Wash, wash by Martine St-Clair
3. Read the article in Journal of Montreal
4. Read the article by The Atlantic (in English)
5. Read the article by Nature (in English)
6. Read the article in Globe and Mail (in English)
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