Masking as a Revolutionary Act
COVID AWARE ORGANIZING
If we're going to build accessible, safe spaces to organize, that needs to include ways to reduce COVID transmissions amongst our comrades. Shira Lurie, a COVID aware activist with Protect our Province Nova Scotia (POPNS) and Mask for Mask Queers, joins host Jessa McLean to give easy, affordable precautions we can incorporate into our organizing and event planning.
Filling in the gaps where our governments have failed to protect us isn't new to progressives. Neither is having to buck popular trends, or create new ones. So why the resistance to masking and other initiatives around air quality? We unpack that and how we can start to bring more people along, even after five years.
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Transcript
Greetings, friends. My name is Jess McLean, and I'm here to provide you with some blueprints
Speaker:of disruption. This weekly podcast is dedicated to amplifying the work of activists, examining
Speaker:power structures, and sharing the success stories from the grassroots. Through these discussions,
Speaker:we hope to provide folks with the tools and the inspiration they need to start to dismantle
Speaker:capitalism, decolonize our spaces, and bring about the political revolution that we know
Speaker:we need. We talk a lot about creating spaces here on Blueprints of Disruption, how to bring
Speaker:people together, build a sense of community, how to keep each other safe. What we don't
Speaker:talk about enough is something that encompasses all of that, and that is reducing COVID transmissions,
Speaker:especially when we're organizing events and setting examples for people. So we brought
Speaker:on someone from the COVID aware community to provide accessible, undaunting ways we can
Speaker:better protect ourselves and our comrades. The idea here is to bridge any gaps that might
Speaker:exist in our movements that are clearly preventing people from incorporating COVID precautions
Speaker:into their events and their daily lives. Because we know everyone here listening understands
Speaker:the value of community care. We know we need to step it up when our governments have, you
Speaker:know, cast our collective well-being aside. And the pandemic is no exception. I know it's
Speaker:been exhausting, especially on top of everything else that we have on our plate right now. But
Speaker:I am telling you, if you can just sit tight for the next 45 minutes, hear from Shira just
Speaker:how easy it is to do better. and why masking for your community is a revolutionary act.
Speaker:Go ahead and introduce yourself for me, please. So I'm Shira Lurie. I use she, her pronouns,
Speaker:and I'm located in Chibuktu, Halifax, and I am part of two organizations, primarily, Protect
Speaker:Our Province Nova Scotia, which is a community care group focused on reducing COVID transmission
Speaker:through evidence-based mitigations. And the second group I'm a part of is called Mask for
Speaker:Mask Queers, which runs in-person COVID Safer events, um, based on building community. Um,
Speaker:it's focused on the queer community, but allies are welcome as well. You put a tweet out there
Speaker:and it was really like a one-liner. If you want to make your events or your organizations more
Speaker:COVID friendly, I'm here to help. Like I'm paraphrasing, but that was basically it. And I bookmarked
Speaker:that and I think immediately sent you a DM saying, I will take you up on that offer. Our audience
Speaker:are a lot of organizers or people who are in community spaces that I know need to be more
Speaker:COVID conscious. And I know that... I normally have guests on and I tell them, I prep them
Speaker:before we hit record and I tell them things like, you know, you're kind of preaching to
Speaker:the choir a little bit. You'll be talking to progressives. You don't have to explain why
Speaker:everyone deserves a roof over their head. You know, it's more how we get there. But unfortunately,
Speaker:you have an uphill battle on your hands, sometimes no matter what the political leanings are.
Speaker:So I'm going to encourage everybody listening right now, wherever you are on the spectrum
Speaker:of COVID consciousness, because it varies people's kind of commitment and where they are. We're
Speaker:hoping to bring as many of you along as possible to maybe bridge the knowledge gap that might
Speaker:exist, not so much in knowing the dangers of COVID. We will remind you, because there's
Speaker:some paradoxes here that would be quite astonishing, but practical ways where you can go back to
Speaker:making your spaces. much more safe for the people that are there, not just from COVID, but for
Speaker:all different reasons, especially when we're talking air quality and whatnot. So Shira,
Speaker:you mentioned two organizations there, and although they're both COVID related, if that's not very,
Speaker:it doesn't sound very nice. It sounds like a symptom, you know? COVID combative. But they
Speaker:have two completely different approaches. You wanna kind of... unpack that a little bit.
Speaker:And then I think we're really going to get into how you're holding events that are COVID safe.
Speaker:I mean, yeah, they are slightly different, though we do, you know, work in tandem pretty well.
Speaker:So protect our province, Nova Scotia, or like what we like to call pop or poppins. I like
Speaker:that. Yeah, poppins is cute. It was a seven year old came up with that. And we've really
Speaker:run with it since. But that was really in response to our provincial government here. removing
Speaker:COVID protections. And so we started as, you know, let us try and pressure the government
Speaker:as much as we can to, you know, understand that we need to reduce transmission and to make
Speaker:decisions based on scientific evidence and not, you know, political will. So we've done a lot
Speaker:of, you know, op-ed writing. We've done a lot of phone blasts to pressure our government
Speaker:and also the opposition parties. We've published reports and surveys and things, but we've also
Speaker:done some community care initiatives like we hand out N95s and rapid tests. We're trying
Speaker:to get air filters in schools, trying to do some education work. But recently we've also
Speaker:been doing some community building stuff. We had a COVID Safer Soccer Team for kids this
Speaker:summer. We've hosted some Halloween. events. This is our second year in a row that we've
Speaker:had a COVID Safer Halloween event for kids. And yeah, Masks for Masks Queers is really
Speaker:about creating and hosting spaces where people who are COVID aware and by that we typically,
Speaker:we don't turn anyone away, but we typically define it as people who are wearing masks in
Speaker:public indoor spaces where they can socialize, connect with people. build, maintain community.
Speaker:So we host all kinds of different events. We just recently hosted our Halloween dance. We're
Speaker:gonna have a New Year's Eve dance. We host game nights and movie nights, and we've done trivia.
Speaker:So we host all kinds of things. And people are surprised that you can hold an indoor dance
Speaker:party and call it COVID Safer. But to our knowledge, there has not been an instance of transmission
Speaker:at any of our events. And like just judging by what I'm seeing around me, There must have
Speaker:been such a dire need for creating these spaces because third spaces just stopped existing
Speaker:for the most part, especially in colder weather, which we all experience a lot of in Canada.
Speaker:And there were very few options for people to socialize. And we don't yet know the impact
Speaker:of that, right? We're starting to learn the impact of COVID and long COVID, but even that's
Speaker:just scratching the surface. But isolation is a huge factor as well. And when we're trying
Speaker:to build communities around all of these movements, you know, the queer community and so many other
Speaker:issues, we can't just be COVID conscious. We have to find ways to keep bringing people together
Speaker:as well. Please, like, yes, I am also surprised. So unsurprise me, like, make it easier for
Speaker:everyone to kind of look at the spaces that they're going to bring people into. And, you
Speaker:know, the resource is low as well. So there's degrees to which people can do this. But, you
Speaker:know, what can you share with us that is real hands on stuff that people can apply to their
Speaker:events right now? Yeah, absolutely. And I want to just begin. with a term that people may
Speaker:have heard in 2020, but it's sort of found by the wayside, which is layers of protection,
Speaker:right? There's no foolproof method at the moment, but layers of protection can do a lot of work.
Speaker:So the first thing is that all our events are mask required. And we ask people to wear a
Speaker:KN95 or an N95 mask, not cloth or surgical, and we provide masks. And if you... You know,
Speaker:don't have a local mask bank in your area. If you're in Canada, the charity Donate a Mask
Speaker:will send you free N95 masks. They have adult and children's size. So mask availability,
Speaker:at least for the moment, we're really lucky, should not be a problem. They'll cover shipping
Speaker:and everything. You just have to request through their website. So that's the first thing. The
Speaker:second thing is we think about air quality because COVID spreads through the air. So we think
Speaker:about the size of the space and the natural ventilation. Can we open doors? Can we open
Speaker:windows? Even if it's cold outside, even if you're just cracking a window, it makes a big
Speaker:difference. Some of our members are the folks who come to our events have CO2 monitors. So
Speaker:they'll be monitoring the CO2 to see how ventilation is in that space. And we actually learned from
Speaker:a recent study that, you know, CO2 we used to use as like a proxy for ventilation, but we
Speaker:also now know that in addition to serving as a proxy for ventilation, the higher the CO2
Speaker:in a space, actually the more sort of resilient COVID aerosols are. We have air filters. The
Speaker:ones we use are a bit more expensive. So we have PC fan, Corsair Rosenthal boxes. So the
Speaker:traditional Corsair Rosenthal boxes with a box fan, and that's inexpensive. You can make it
Speaker:for about a hundred dollars. Takes less than an hour to build, just with stuff from, you
Speaker:know, Canadian tire or whatever. The only downside to those, they're a bit bigger and they're
Speaker:louder. They are incredibly efficient. filtering the air. So if you had one or two in a space,
Speaker:that's you're outperforming commercial HEPA filters with just you know 100, 200 dollars.
Speaker:We use the PC fan ones though because they're smaller and quieter and so we have you know
Speaker:folks who have their own that bring them to events. Jess, I don't know if you can see on
Speaker:my screen, I have one of mine next to me. Now I know to say it was blending in with the bookshelf
Speaker:quite nicely. Ah there you go. Yeah so I have them running in my home and then when I go
Speaker:to events I bring them with me. So that's air filtration wise. And then of course, when the
Speaker:weather's good, we try to have some events outside. We ask folks to, if they're able, and now this
Speaker:is becoming harder as availability is becoming worse, but to rapid test the day of, and to
Speaker:stay home if they feel sick, if anyone in their household feels sick, or if anyone in their
Speaker:household has a known COVID exposure in the past week. It astonishes me that we were ever
Speaker:any other way. I know there's still some people that are going out there with these death coughs
Speaker:and looking around with no shame. Like if I cough in public, I am just instantly, and I
Speaker:have a mask on, I have a mask on, I'm still going, no, I swear, it was just a dry, I have
Speaker:no water. But some people have absolutely no shame. But to think that we, at one point,
Speaker:nobody, almost nobody was checking us for dragging ourselves into work. Because we could, like
Speaker:if we could stand, if we had a shitty boss, like you just went no matter what, like you
Speaker:didn't think a lot about making your co-workers sick. But I would like to think that at least
Speaker:floats across people's mind at a much higher rate than it did before. Because yeah, like
Speaker:my kids, I have the luxury that they can stay home with me if they need to, but the idea
Speaker:of, you know. just sending them to go make other children sick and then their family sick, even
Speaker:if it's not COVID. Who wants to lose two weeks a week with this awful cough and all of the
Speaker:stuff that goes around? So not to mention, this is five years into an airborne pandemic. When
Speaker:I heard you say that on, I was listening to an interview of yours, that was really daunting.
Speaker:I mean, the math is there, you're not lying. But it didn't feel right to hear that we have
Speaker:not really adapted our behavior all that much. It's gotten worse actually. Now you're less
Speaker:likely to have people masking in healthcare, for instance, than you were before the pandemic
Speaker:because it's become so stigmatized. Just as one example, you know, there's more resistance
Speaker:in healthcare to masking. There's more vaccine hesitancy has increased, not even just for
Speaker:COVID vaccines, for other vaccines. So in some respects, we're tragically in a worse place
Speaker:than we were in 2019. That's really messed up, especially if you consider some of the parallels
Speaker:that you were drawing on Twitter there about death toll. You know, if we look at how many
Speaker:people that we've lost to COVID and we compare it with things like World War Two and World
Speaker:War One combined. Is that is that the math? More? Yeah. So more Canadians have died from
Speaker:COVID and again, are continuing to die than were lost in World War I and World War II combined.
Speaker:It's a, and that's just, you know, the acute COVID. We know of course that many people are
Speaker:dying from heart attacks, strokes, disease, et cetera, caused by COVID. That's not going
Speaker:to be counted in the official COVID death toll. So yeah, the numbers are... so alarming. I
Speaker:mean, just COVID still the third, according to Statistics Canada, COVID still the third
Speaker:leading cause of death in Canada, right this moment. I don't know what to call them. COVID
Speaker:deniers. Is that a term? It is a term. Oh yeah. COVID deniers, COVID minimizers. We got them
Speaker:all. Well, we got them all. They come in layers as well, right? It's a spectrum on that side,
Speaker:I suppose. 100%. It's right across there, but that is astonishing that people get away with
Speaker:denying these deaths or giving them the weight that they deserve. We see that all the time,
Speaker:where there's tremendous loss and we don't react in the way that we should, but to deny that
Speaker:these deaths can be attributed to COVID and to really know that these are underplayed numbers
Speaker:that we have for all the reasons you've listed and more, the amount of people that just go
Speaker:under the radar in terms of healthcare and the fact that... they're not tracking the numbers
Speaker:in the way that they were before. It's we, we don't even know what we don't know. Exactly.
Speaker:And I mean, I think, you know, this idea that helped power the quote unquote return to normalcy
Speaker:is that, yeah, people are going to die, but you know, they're vulnerable people. I mean,
Speaker:Dr. Fauci said this in 2023, in an interview with the BBC, he said, the vulnerable will
Speaker:fall by the wayside. They'll get sick. they'll be hospitalized and then some of them will
Speaker:die. And he said that not as a bad thing, he said that as a way to reassure people that
Speaker:COVID wasn't that serious anymore. So part of the problem I think, even though absolutely
Speaker:everyone is at risk from COVID, for long COVID, et cetera, there's still this idea out there
Speaker:that, you know, vulnerable people are at the highest risk and they should just stay home
Speaker:and they're sick anyway. And what were their underlying conditions, all the people who die
Speaker:from COVID, right? So there's like a fundamental, to be frank, eugenic logic to this return to
Speaker:normalcy that says vulnerable people are expendable. And I think people have this false idea of
Speaker:who is vulnerable. You know, forget the- Let's shelve the ableism just for a moment. I guess
Speaker:this is another form of ableism, but this idea that you aren't vulnerable because you don't
Speaker:have, like, Diabetes, asthma, I mean, there's all kinds of conditions, some conditions you
Speaker:don't even know you have because you don't go to the doctor enough because you don't have
Speaker:a family doctor because our healthcare is underfunded. Like they all, I think they're picturing like
Speaker:specifically people in hospice that are going, these are vulnerable people who are already
Speaker:on their way out. No, these are your parents. These are your neighbors. These are, could
Speaker:be you and your children. And the fact that you're willing to roll the dice there and just
Speaker:think it might be somebody else is, to me, a real disconnect from reality. But we get that
Speaker:a lot. Like people don't realize how close they are to being disabled if they're not really
Speaker:already. And they just tell themselves they're not. And I mean, yeah, again, shelving the
Speaker:ableism for a second. People at highest risk from COVID include children under five years
Speaker:old. Children under two, especially, are incredibly likely to be hospitalized, like much more likely
Speaker:to be hospitalized from COVID. People over 65. And guess what? If you've had at least one
Speaker:COVID infection, you're now immune compromised. You're at higher risk. So yeah, the idea that
Speaker:it's some sort of small sliver of the population that is on death's door is, yeah, fundamentally
Speaker:false, even if it... weren't ableist, it would still, you know, it's just like, it's just
Speaker:actually factually false. Yeah. And I think that you can chalk that up to the fact that
Speaker:there's just a really a lack of information too. So the people filling the gaps on information
Speaker:are not the people you want to be filling the gaps. And you add the stigma that anybody who's
Speaker:worn a mask in public these days can feel, right? You instantly feel uncomfortable, if only for
Speaker:the fact that you feel alone. Right? You are definitely part of the minority in the place
Speaker:that you're at for, unless you're, of course, at Mask for Mask queers events in Nova Scotia,
Speaker:you would feel a whole lot different. I would love to be in a room with masked people again.
Speaker:I cannot remember the last time I didn't feel like that in my mask. I'm either in my home
Speaker:or outside. Or I am feeling like some, I don't know, I go between feeling like a real weirdo
Speaker:because you're the only person there and you're getting looks to like a revolutionary going
Speaker:like, put the shoulders back and going, why the fuck aren't you all in masks? Like getting,
Speaker:and you said something too, said something. I feel like I talked to you on Twitter, but
Speaker:like that's how it goes. Something about, I don't know if it was anti-fascist or revolutionary,
Speaker:but that like masking and being. COVID safe at your events that you are doing to mobilize
Speaker:a revolution, you know, even if you don't want to admit it, that's what you're working for.
Speaker:That
Speaker:that act in itself is that is part of it. And let's try to unpack together. I'm sure you've
Speaker:done this a lot. Why aren't all progressives? Covid conscious. I know we're not a homogenous
Speaker:group. Lord knows we're seeing that on display many times that we thought some people had
Speaker:our values and they do not. But inherently socialism and a lot of the isms, the good ones, that
Speaker:we rally around are built on the idea of community. That, you know, it's not just the greater good
Speaker:as in the majority, it's the whole good. you know, as much as humanly possible to bring
Speaker:everybody along. So I understand that people, when they want to make events mask mandatory,
Speaker:for example, they worry about people not coming because of it. I have to assume or they just
Speaker:hate masking themselves. Maybe I'm not understanding, but I'd like to I'm going to give. progressive
Speaker:organizers a little benefit of the doubt, that they know inherently that they probably should
Speaker:be masking, that they probably shouldn't be accumulating people in one room without masks,
Speaker:that has risks. Then they start hearing the coughing, and I know that they're thinking,
Speaker:ugh, these people should be in masks. So why aren't they doing it? Like, do you think I'm
Speaker:correct? There's probably lots of reasons, but I'm wondering, they think people would scoff
Speaker:and think they were being silly. What is? What is holding people back from doing the right
Speaker:thing? Yeah, it's definitely the answer I hear the most is we're worried people won't attend.
Speaker:And so I think I have a few sort of problem solves for that I have seen work. And one is
Speaker:to not use the words mass mandatory. Say something like, masks are required and then put in brackets
Speaker:and will be provided. And you can sometimes people choose to have a little blurb about,
Speaker:you know, to keep this an accessible and inclusive space, we are requiring masks. to ensure that
Speaker:our disabled and chronically ill comrades are included. We are requiring masks at this event,
Speaker:something like that. Again, having masks, different kinds of masks at the front of the room, at
Speaker:the entrance, having everybody present already mask, that's like organizing and setting up,
Speaker:et cetera. And I think that most people, as you kind of implied, would be more willing
Speaker:to mask if they weren't the only ones, right? So there is a kind of barrier reduction. when
Speaker:you're going to a mask-required event and you see other people already masked when you walk
Speaker:in. I mean, I have had success encouraging other groups, like for instance, pro-Palestine groups
Speaker:to require masking at their events. And I've seen people walk in and say, where's my mask?
Speaker:Where do I get a mask? Or I've seen people walking without a mask, literally notice everyone else
Speaker:masking and go get up and get a mask. So I think there's just like, in the same way that there's
Speaker:social pressure to unmask. the majority aren't. There's social pressure to mask when the majority
Speaker:are. So I think it might be potentially a bigger barrier in our imagination than it is in reality.
Speaker:And if you just, I say, you know, just try one. Try having one event where you require masking
Speaker:and see how it goes. You don't have to commit to everything long term. Or, you know, there
Speaker:are theoretically other options. Like you could have hybrid options or you could have... Say
Speaker:this event will be masked and this event will not be, etc. But yeah, I would encourage everyone
Speaker:to take the basic step of requiring masks, make it easy and friendly and feel like a positive
Speaker:thing and not this like enforced requirement. And have people lean into, as you said, that
Speaker:feeling of being a revolutionary, that feeling of saying, I know the government is not protecting
Speaker:my community, I'm gonna protect my community. I know that the government is not protecting
Speaker:our healthcare system, I'm going to protect our healthcare system. I'm going to make sure
Speaker:this space is inclusive and accessible to everyone. So it doesn't need to be a sort of downer,
Speaker:you know? And at your event you can thank people for masking and you can reiterate why it's
Speaker:important. And the more we normalize masking just in our own spaces, hopefully the more
Speaker:people will feel, as you said, like a revolutionary when they go out and they're the only person
Speaker:masked on the subway or something. And maybe the next time they'll be. another person masking.
Speaker:And I think that's how that's how we'll win. Yeah, we absolutely don't have to be at this
Speaker:deficit where we've fallen behind because we know how to create safe spaces. We know how
Speaker:to fill in gaps and lead the way in making accessible spaces. And I want to assure anybody listening
Speaker:that's like on the fence, you are absolutely driving people away if you do not have COVID
Speaker:safe events. That's the other thing. I won't attend them. That's the other thing. It's and
Speaker:I won't promote them at all. Like if I see people's organizations, even ones that I love holding
Speaker:indoor events with no language on their posters as to it requiring masks in any form, we will
Speaker:not share it here on Blueprints of Disruption. I do appreciate that you are still trying to
Speaker:build community, but I won't send people into unsafe spaces in the same way I won't send
Speaker:them into the NDP. Right. You can go to conferences for unions and Workers Action Center and there's
Speaker:daycare provided. There are other places where we've gone above and beyond ramps when it comes
Speaker:to accessibility, right? Finding ways that as many people can participate as possible. And
Speaker:it's really shameful that we haven't acted with that urgency when it comes to the pandemic.
Speaker:Five years in and it's not just like, oh, we'll bring some people along so they have the time
Speaker:and we'll make the space for them. It's like, I want to make a space so I am not killing
Speaker:anyone or anyone they go home to. Exactly. I think we're in an even more dire place where
Speaker:in addition to wanting to take care of each other and create safe spaces, we are also in
Speaker:a place now where masking has not only become stigmatized, but in certain places illegal.
Speaker:So the best thing you can do, again, for your community, including those at high risk, but
Speaker:highest risk, but for everyone, is to normalize masking. It's a thing that you don't just do
Speaker:at protests, though you should do it at protests. It's a thing you do everywhere. You're not
Speaker:using it just to hide your identity. You're using it to protect your community and yourself.
Speaker:And I think that's so important, especially at this moment where we see, you know, quote-unquote
Speaker:democratic state cities in the U.S. and I'm sure that there are some here to follow in
Speaker:Canada. pushing through these mask bands. So even if you don't believe COVID is a threat
Speaker:to you or your community, you know that there will be disabled and high-risk people literally
Speaker:criminalized from existing in community with these mask bands. Just what people call ugly
Speaker:laws, what used to exist to keep disabled people out of community 100 years ago, or out of society
Speaker:100 years ago. So it's just, it's so important to show up in this way. right now for so many
Speaker:reasons and that's one of them. I actually just thought of another potential barrier for folks
Speaker:is food. Yes. Food and drinks, right? They want to offer food and drinks at their events. One
Speaker:thing we recommend is to-go bags. So say, you know, people can take a goodie bag to go and
Speaker:then you're still offering stuff. At Mask for Mask, sometimes if we want to have food and
Speaker:drink available, then we just ask people to step outside. Or if you need to unmask for
Speaker:any reason, just step outside. We're keeping our airspace safe. At other groups that are
Speaker:COVID aware in the ways that I am encouraging them, but not in and of themselves, necessarily
Speaker:COVID aware, I have arranged sort of instances where there will be places to eat outdoors
Speaker:for folks who would choose to, like an outdoor space to eat. And then rejoining the group
Speaker:that will then remask after they're done eating, that type of thing. None of this sounds very
Speaker:daunting, just so you know. Like I'm sitting there going, yeah, OK, I'm waiting. Like the
Speaker:air filter's even. At first, I was thinking, you know, those are expensive. But you're right,
Speaker:I've seen the instructions. I will find them and link them in the show notes to make fans
Speaker:that you can bring as an organizer. You've got your megaphone back there. You probably have
Speaker:a camera and your laptop bag and whatever you use to kind of go to your event. These are
Speaker:not. big, huge steps, but they are important ones. They're quite easy. They're easy and
Speaker:they work. Like it's not performative. We have so many studies that show- We had enough of
Speaker:that. Yeah, that show that air filters, especially coarsely Rosenthal boxes, reduce the transmission
Speaker:of all airborne illnesses. RSV, the flu, colds, God knows bird flus, you know, seems to be
Speaker:on the horizon. And yeah, as you said, they're not hard to build. I mean, kids do them in
Speaker:schools as like a project, you know, like grade five kids. So it's definitely doable. And actually
Speaker:one thing that Protect Our Promise and Mask for Mask is collaborating on right now is a
Speaker:clean air library. So we've got some funding from some community wellness grants and we're
Speaker:gonna be building Corcy Rosenthal boxes and then lending them out to organizers or just
Speaker:anyone hosting an event. So you can check out if there's... Making it as easy as possible.
Speaker:So... I will spoozie you too. So maybe in your area, there is a clean air club or something
Speaker:like that, that has, or maybe, you know, your organization wants to crowdfund a couple for,
Speaker:you know, your group or to lend out to other groups. Like it's really not super expensive.
Speaker:They last a long time. They use very little energy. I just leave mine plugged in my home.
Speaker:There's no downside to clean air. as I always tell people. Boost mood, boost concentration,
Speaker:it's healthy. I think a lot of the part of making these adjustments and sticking with them feels
Speaker:a little bit like defeat, perhaps. Perhaps, I think the pushback I get maybe closer to
Speaker:home is that like, how long are we gonna do this? You know, like, oh my God, still. And
Speaker:yes, yes people. We've learned how to keep our air cleaner. We've learned how to not infect
Speaker:each other with all kinds of stuff. Yeah. Protect anonymity for folks without looking sus. Like
Speaker:you're the one person in a bandana covering their face. Like no. Yeah. There's not a lot
Speaker:of downside to any of... There's not a lot of inconvenience to the things Shira is proposing
Speaker:here. We do a lot more to protect ourselves from pigs, to protect ourselves from doxing.
Speaker:to protect ourselves from fucking rain sometimes, honestly. So it's astonishing. Like when you
Speaker:read those numbers, you tell Americans, more if you died in 2024 than. in 9-11. Oh no, more
Speaker:Americans died in August of 2024 than in 9-11. I'm so sorry. Yeah. Every time you correct
Speaker:my numbers, it's so much worse. Yeah. I wish I could get it wrong the other way, but that's
Speaker:why denialism is creeping in. It's not even close. So yeah, you're absolutely right. I
Speaker:mean, people ask me, you know, are you going to mass forever? You know, we all get that.
Speaker:But... I mean, I have a few answers to that. And one is I can't predict the future any more
Speaker:than you can. I don't know how the pandemic is gonna end, if it's gonna end, when it's
Speaker:gonna end, how it's gonna end. I know it's not over now. I know me not wearing a mask and
Speaker:taking protections is not gonna end it any sooner. I'm not the one prolonging it, asshole. Yeah,
Speaker:exactly. So why don't we just do what we know how to do now to reduce transmission? The key
Speaker:thing is to reduce transmission. Everything is safer if we reduce transmission. And we
Speaker:knew that in 2020. when we talked about bending the curve. We can still do it now. We know
Speaker:more now about how to do it than we did then. But the other thing is, I mask in all public
Speaker:indoor spaces. I haven't had, and I'm immunocompromised, I haven't had a sniffle, not a cold, nothing,
Speaker:since I've started doing that. Now I am privileged in terms of I, you know, live alone, don't
Speaker:have kids and whatever, but I interact with a lot of kids. I interact, you know, with a
Speaker:lot of people and masking works, clean air. works. It works to keep you healthy in a variety
Speaker:of ways. So it's again, it's not like a net negative. It's not defeat. It's I'm recognizing
Speaker:the situation. I am empowered by the knowledge that I have. Other people don't have this knowledge
Speaker:or they have fewer resources than I do. So I'm going to be part of the solution and not the
Speaker:problem. Just like we're part of the solution in so many other respects with regards to capitalism
Speaker:and racism and climate change and all these sort of like extractive damaging elements of
Speaker:our society. COVID is one of them. And we know that the government has abandoned us on this.
Speaker:But we also have real tools that work that will protect people. Every time you break a train
Speaker:of transmission, you are potentially saving a life. That's what I tell people. Every time
Speaker:you wear a mask and you don't catch COVID in a room where there was a mask, you just broke
Speaker:a train of transmission. You just helped reduce transmission. That's a big thing. Yeah, people
Speaker:need to understand it's not a zero sum game that although yes, maybe you have been masking
Speaker:and you caught COVID, perhaps, you know, we know it's not a hundred percent foolproof.
Speaker:We knew the vaccines would not stop you from getting COVID, but a lot of people, yes, they
Speaker:just think no matter what I do, I'm going to end up with it anyway. But that idea that no
Speaker:matter... what precautions you take, you're definitely reducing transmission. And to think
Speaker:that you can be a passive resistor to this is bullshit. Right. You can't just understand
Speaker:that it's around and hope it doesn't affect you and be like, yeah, that really sucks. That's
Speaker:not us, people. You're not listening to this show because you are a passive spectator in
Speaker:the downfall of fucking humanity. No, no, no. you may not all be Shira and be able to, you
Speaker:know, start making these and handing them out and spearheading these initiatives, but you
Speaker:sure as hell can make your spaces a little bit more COVID safe with some of these instructions.
Speaker:And I want to go to that, you know, the fact that you have to fill in these gaps, the fact
Speaker:that the governments have left us on our own, which they do for the most part. Right. But
Speaker:when you compare it to what, say, the response is to 9-11 especially. I mean we all know the
Speaker:response was wholly problematic in terms of heightened security, national security, anti-Arab
Speaker:races. I'm not saying we need that kind of response. Preferably not. But I mean they did not hold
Speaker:back. There was no shortage of funds. There were no shortage of charter rights to be infringed
Speaker:on or anything. It was we will do anything possible to not have that situation again. But to think
Speaker:that we can expect the same from them during a pandemic, we were wrong. We were really,
Speaker:really wrong. All those mountains, they could have moved, they refused to. And I think I'm
Speaker:only able to look back at that in this way as a failure, because I think when we were living
Speaker:in the first set of lockdowns and the government was sending out money, and they were shutting
Speaker:down the border, and we were like, oh, so you fuckers can move. Yes. There's a crisis, so
Speaker:you absolutely can manufacture shit really quickly and make all these huge changes that you told
Speaker:us were impossible and would destroy the economy forever, and you told us you didn't have any
Speaker:money for disabled people at all, and you still didn't, but you just had firing out cash when
Speaker:we... well, we still need it, you know what I'm saying? Everyone knows what I'm saying.
Speaker:But now when you look back at it, they didn't do shit. Yeah, absolutely. Especially in Ontario,
Speaker:I mean, we had, well, I don't know actually, we had a very bad lockdown. It had so many
Speaker:exceptions, it might as well have not even existed. I know, I remember. It was really just reduced
Speaker:to the schools and even that didn't last very long at all. People really need to understand
Speaker:the eugenics at play when you look at that imbalance, that their willingness to... move on certain
Speaker:items or pretend to be moving on certain items and who they looked at saving quote unquote
Speaker:from covid and the ableism and eugenics is so apparent and obvious because when were covid
Speaker:protections lifted they were lifted when the quote unquote general public was less at risk
Speaker:and felt safer right so now that we have vaccines and it's less likely that um you know a person
Speaker:that's not at highest risk is going to be hospitalized or die from acute COVID. That's when the protections
Speaker:were gone and we were told, oh, it only really affects vulnerable people. Oh, they can just
Speaker:stay home or yeah, be careful around old people, but this and that. And yeah, of course, the
Speaker:lockdowns and so on failed because we didn't spend that time investing in, for instance,
Speaker:indoor air quality. And instead we just locked down with just hoping that this would burn
Speaker:itself out. Right? For me and I think for progressives, what we need to understand is that the COVID
Speaker:response has been one of individualism and that's why it's failed. And we know that individualism
Speaker:is not the way forward. Right? That's why there was what we call in the COVID aware community,
Speaker:droplet dogma for so long. Remember we were told to stay six feet apart because supposedly
Speaker:COVID spreads through droplets when you like cough and sneeze and they're heavy and they
Speaker:fall to the ground. So if you're six feet apart, it'll be fine. And you should wash your hands.
Speaker:and disinfect surfaces. We were washing our groceries. Washing our groceries, exactly.
Speaker:Those are all things individuals can do. And it's easy for an employer or the government
Speaker:or whatever to provide hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes, right? What we know now, of course,
Speaker:is that COVID spreads through the air and aerosols that do not fall to the ground and stay airborne
Speaker:for hours if the air isn't cleaned. But it's much more expensive and difficult and requires
Speaker:a community-based, collective-based approach to implement cleaner indoor air standards and
Speaker:CO2 monitoring and so on. And so we know that that's what we need to combat an airborne pandemic
Speaker:because it's not gonna be in an individual's control of the air that they're breathing.
Speaker:No, I wanna just mention here that pretty much anywhere you are in Canada right now, there
Speaker:is probably a group organizing around your school board. pressuring your school board to do better
Speaker:in terms of air quality standards and reporting and whatnot. So if this is something you want
Speaker:to get into, a quick Google search or Facebook search there, you will likely find a local
Speaker:group doing that because that is a battle in itself. Huge battle. You know, the educators
Speaker:unions, if they're listening, they could do also a lot more in this regard in terms of
Speaker:keeping their workers safe and making this part of the bargaining agreement. that their air
Speaker:quality should be of a certain.
