With only 0.9% of Ontarians testing positive for Covid-19 on July 7, 2020, the infection case rate continues its steady decline since the peak in April. Heading into the heat of summer months, where respiratory viruses succumb to increased heat and UV exposure and flu seasons typically end, Ontario municipalities are inexplicably mandating mask orders in indoor public spaces and on transit systems.
The timing of these orders is especially questionable as masks were once deemed unnecessary and, more tellingly, not used during the start, peak and for the vast majority of Covid-19’s decline.
Why are mandatory mask orders spreading across municipalities in Ontario almost four months after the pandemic was called March 11, 2020?
And why are they esp. being mandated in areas where outbreaks were and/or are currently limited?
No new cases were reported by the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit for the second day in a row on Wednesday, yet masks will be mandatory starting July 13 in all indoor public spaces. Middlesex-London enjoyed three days without a new case with two new cases being reported Wednesday, yet there is a mandatory mask order on public transit.
Ontario governments also continue to change the requirements for easing their lockdown measures. The initial goal was to avoid overwhelming hospitals, and this target was easily met as Ontario hospitals never came close to being at full-capacity during the outbreak. Next came a target number of new daily cases. Goal met. Now, inexplicably, at the tail end of the outbreak, we are being warned of a possible second wave, as the goalpost has once again been shifted to now eradicate every single last case of the virus.
With Doug Ford unwilling to identify his Covid-19 Command Table and some municipalities mandating mask orders based on public opinion polls and not science, as exposed by Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston MPP, Randy Hillier, a political agenda has reared its conspicuously ugly head and overtaken our landscape with no logical or scientific end in sight.
It must be asked again, why mandatory masks now?
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