More Masks

December 3

 

Increased masking observed in Sundre today:

During my weekly grocery trip to Sundre I noticed that all the staff people in the IGA grocery store are now wearing masks, for the first time that I have seen.
I also see more customers wearing masks. From my perspective, as a 77 year old pensioner, that's a positive development.
One of the reasons why Asians have been so successful in keeping the bug in check is because they have been masking right from the get-go.
We are now in the middle of a replay of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic here in Alberta where masking became obligatory in October/November of that year in Calgary/Edmonton.
The reason why we have a first and second wave, in this pandemic, as well as the one 102 years ago, is not because the virus in question changed its behavior. It is just an opportunistic predator, not unlike Homo Sapiens.
Nay, it is our response to the virus that shapes the curves. And we did exactly what our forebears did in 1918: We thought we had it beat over the summer.
So now we are facing the music and the virus is happy.
What ultimately beat the virus in 1918 was a change in the behavior of people of the day and we are now re-learning what they learned back then: Decrease the volume of virus entering your lungs to give your immune system a chance to engage the virus on a level battle field.

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