"Most Canadians say they would support or share some support for the return of face mask mandates this fall in indoor public space if deemed necessary by officials, according to a new survey conducted by Nanos Research.

The poll conducted for CTV News found seven in 10 Canadians said they would support the return of face masks mandates to some extent. Fifty-two per cent said they would support the return of such mandates, 17 per cent said they would "somewhat support" them, while 22 per cent would be against them. Eight per cent would be "somewhat" opposed to the idea."

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so can we please do this already?

tagging: @allthecanadianpolitics

Alberta Health Services says enhanced masking requirements are now in place at seven hospitals, including:

• Royal Alexandra Hospital (implemented October 13)

• University of Alberta Hospital and the Stollery Children’s Hospital

• Misericordia Community Hospital

• Grey Nuns Community Hospital

• Alberta Hospital Edmonton

• Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital

• Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

The requirements are also in place at the Central Alberta Cancer Centre, which is located at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre.

Staff, doctors, volunteers, and contracted workers must wear masks in all patient care areas, elevators, stairways, common areas, gift shops, cafeterias, and continuing care areas.

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Tagging: @politicsofcanada

Source

January 3rd 2024

it’s finally starting to settle in that christmas is in 3 fucking days

I am sure this important study will get fact checked and it will be ignored by the establishment because it wasn't blessed with the pro "trust the science™" regime.

im going to lose my fucking mind

Physicians and staff at one of the Bay Area’s largest hospitals are required to mask up again following a sizable COVID-19 outbreak.

Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center has reinstated a temporary mask mandate after more than a dozen hospital workers and patients at the medical center tested positive for the coronavirus this week, officials confirmed.

Kaiser officials issued a written statement stating that doctors and staff must wear masks while providing direct care to patients in the Santa Rosa hospital and emergency department. There are approximately 3,500 health care workers at the facility.

Visitors are also required to wear face coverings inside the hospital.

This policy change comes weeks after the California Department of Public Health lifted the last of the statewide mask mandates on April 3, which included rules for health care settings.

As the largest health care provider in Sonoma County, Kaiser Permanente said that its COVID-19 policies align with state and federal guidelines, including those for managing outbreaks.

“Kaiser Permanente Northern California is committed to protecting the safety of our members, patients, employees, physicians and visitors,” the hospital said in the statement.

It added that masks are recommended for residents and staff within its six medical office buildings in Santa Rosa.

The outbreak came as California tallied an average of 1,330 new daily COVID-19 cases, or about 3.3 per 100,000 residents on Thursday — roughly the same figures as a month earlier. The state’s seven-day rolling coronavirus test positivity rate, which tracks the percentage of lab test results that are positive for the virus, ticked up slightly to 5.4%, with an average of 10 people dying each day due to the virus.

Open Letter to Anyone in NY Government Who’s Listening

(Originally emailed to Representative Grace Meng. Feel free to borrow/adapt language as you see fit.)

I'm writing to express my horror at Governor Hochul's decision to lift the mask mandate on public transportation.

The current administration seems determined to pretend that the pandemic is over when two days ago, there were 7500 new Covid cases in New York--more than there were when the mask mandate first went into effect. The more we understand about Covid's long-term effects, the more dangerous even mild cases appear.

My wife and I both have respiratory disabilities, putting us at high risk for severe Covid complications. My wife is also currently six months pregnant, and our only way of getting to her prenatal appointments in midtown is the subway. The paradox of putting both our and our child-to-be's health and lives at risk to get essential healthcare is profoundly disheartening. We've looked into other options, but all are either prohibitively expensive, or--like paratransit--currently mask-optional.

This policy doesn't just put New Yorkers at large at risk; it effectively communicates that disabled and immunocompromised New Yorkers have no place in public life. It puts our lives at risk and cuts us off from our work, our school, our healthcare, our friends, our families; with no viable or accessible alternatives. The framing of the change--of public language that has literally gone from "we take care of each other" to "you do you"--only emphasizes that disregard for the lives of those of us who depend on that mutual care to survive.

Please, hear us; and please, to whatever extent is in your power, act. We're struggling to survive and live our lives, and our ability to do that depends on effective policy, not just gambling on the goodwill of every individual on any given train.

Sincerely, Jay Edidin

it's like man guys like we're still in a pandemic guys and even if we weren't masks are really fucking cool, anyway, especially now as cold and flu season kicks off. even if people aren't catching covid, they're catching one of a bajillion other infectious diseases floating around right now. it isn't that hard to be courteous to people and keep them from getting sick and-slash-or dying of an otherwise-preventable disease

im reading an article about how vitriolic people visiting the national parks have gotten, and it is SO cathartic to see my exact experiences in grocery retail be restated by the customer service reps working in the parks.

like its awful, obvious. the average customer has gotten so nasty, and the employees Do Not deserve the treatment they’re receiving. but during 2020/2021, people seemed to think that those viral Nasty Customer videos were 1) not common and 2) relegated just to grocery/retail. and i cant speak for every single hospitality and customer service sector and store, but i can say that at my store that sort of vitriolic outbreak became VERY common. not constant, but common enough to bump the baseline up.

my manager and i had a conversation where she said a lot of her friends-- some of whom had been in the hospitality or customer service industry for over a decade-- were considering a career change because it was SO BAD and no one could even fathom how to move forward. none of us could imagine it ever getting better. our New Normal was people screaming at and berating us every day, blaming us for mask mandates and vaccines and supply shortages. threatening legal action and physical violence. of people intentionally trying to get us sick and terrorizing us. everything was an argument with no hope of de-escalation; it genuinely wouldve been less inciting to tell some of those customers “go fuck yourself” than it was to tell them “im so sorry, but.” and all that while we were surrounded by the extremely smothering reality that no one cared if we died and everyone considered us sub-human.

everyone i know who gave a fuck quit shortly after i did, because none of us could handle it anymore. this includes people who’d worked at that store since it opened, some of our most decorated and knowledgeable coworkers.

like. i dunno yall. its kind of like how you cant describe how things just Make Sense as you near the latter half of your 20s; i cant put into words just how horrifically awful customer service was at that time. if you didnt personally experience it, everything we say sounds like an exaggeration and hyperbole.

and i cannot stress this enough: its still that bad. i would imagine most customer service and hospitality places had the same thing happen: a mass exodus of everyone who knew what they were doing because they could not stand the abuse anymore, and a rotating door of new hires that Refuse (rightfully so!!!) to tolerate the abuse. there is a new breed of customer that genuinely Does Not Care about employees and see pleas of humanity and kindness as a challenge to see how quickly they can break the employee at the desk.

this is especially relevant now, with it being the holidays. employees are more short staffed and overworked than ever, and customers some how have even less patience. customers dont plan literally five minutes out, and then blame employees for not materializing their needs before them on a silver platter.

anyways. i dont know how this article ends, but i have a pretty good guess.

today has been a lot. going to bed now gnight

The Ontario Ministry of Education will not mandate mask-wearing when students return to class this fall, Education Minister Stephen Lecce has confirmed.

“As is the case with every jurisdiction in Canada, masks will not be required in Ontario schools,” he said in an emailed statement to CP24. “We have taken significant action to improve ventilation in every single school, deploying 100,000 HEPA filter units and improving mechanical ventilation using the highest MERV-13 quality filters.”

[...]

Lecce’s statement comes as Ontario enters a possible new wave of the coronavirus pandemic, due in large part to BA.2.86, a highly mutated new variant of the virus. As well, recent wastewater monitoring shows an uptick in the virus compared to an all-time low in Ontario in June of this year.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

April 28th 2023

actually can i complain about my boss again.

apparently he only wants to have one experienced person on a training shift from now on. one person to train the entirely new worker how to work at our cafe. because "labor costs are through the roof." are you

are you fucking with meeee FUCK WITH MEEEEEE YOU PAY US MINIMUM WAGE YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS

hes just simply not going to have people who know what to do then!!!!! bitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

that’s a choice…

around the neighborhood // toronto, canada

june 24, 2022 // 2:36 PM \ july 8, 2022 \\ 3:25 PM / august 1, 2022 // 8:15 PM \ october 5, 2022 \\ 3:01 PM / october 24, 2022 // 5:52 PM

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