study

• Covid is not airborne, instead it is transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks. The droplets are heavy to hang in the air, they fall on floors or surface quickly
• You can be infected by breathing the virus if you are within 1 metre of person who has COVID or by touching a contaminated surface and then touching your eyes, nose or mouth before washing hands
• Protecting yourself


  1. Keep at least 1 metre distance from others

  2. Disinfect surfaces that are touched frequently

  3. Regularly clean hands thoroughly

  4. Avoid touching eyes, mouth and nose
• Masks


  Reduce the range of droplet spread
• The WHO didn't acknowledge the possibility of aerosol transmission until Oct 2020 - Public officials in CA and US followed
• The change was done by "stealth editing"
• Two policy problems demonstrated by the debate over transmission mechanism

  • Being slow to change your mind
  • Being reluctant to publicize that your mind has been changed
• Canada quietly updated COVID-19 guidelines on risk of airborne spread
• Case for mask


  • A mask can help you from getting COVID
  • A mask can help you from giving someone else COVID
• Case against masks


  • The virus is smaller than the openings in the mask
  • Most mask don't fit well- virus can go around masks
  • Masks get dirty and can spread virus
  • CO2 build up behind mask
  • Increased accidents from visibility impairments, etc
  • Interference with communication and social cues
  • Shoplifting went up during mask-mandate periods
  • Inconsistent wearing- restaurant, etc
• The result wa there are more new cases during mask mandates than no mandate
• Range of gov't policy options on masking

  • Provide information on effectiveness of masking
  • Urge people to wear or not wear masks
  • Make mask wearing compulsory in some circumstances
  • Make mask wearing compulsory in public places where people gather
  • Make mask wearing compulsory everywhere
• Vaccines


  Boost the strength of the body's immunological response to a virus by pre-exposure
• Smallpox has now been eradicated
• Problems with vaccines


  • Safety of those getting vaccinated
  • Danger of giving vaccine recipient the disease
  • Danger of other side effects (from active ing. or other things in vaccine)
  • Strength and duration of immunity increase
• Successful Vaccination (safe and effective)

  • Smallpox - 1796
  • Typhoid - 1872
  • Diphtheria - 1894
  • Yellow fever- 1937
  • Pertussis (whooping cough)- 1939
  • Polio- 1952/54
  • MMR- 1971 (Measles- 1963; Mumps- 1967; Rubella- 1969)
  • Rotavirus- 1999- withdrawn from safety reasons and reintroduced in 2006
• When COVID appeared, science was ready to develop a vaccine remarkably quickly
• Bottlenecks for COVID vaccines

  • Testing to assess safety and effectiveness (emergency approval processes established)
  • Gearing up for production at scale (ensures quality control while ramping up volume)
• In Canada, about 80% of population got vaccinated quickly and about 20% were hesitant
• Cascading Promises of COVID vaccine

  • Getting vaccinated can keep you from getting or spreading COVID
  • Getting vaccinated can keep you from covid (it can lessen the symptoms and mortality from COVID)
  • If enough people are vaccinated, even unvaccinated can be protected by disrupting transmission chain (herd immunity)
• Summer of 2020, official (Dr. Fauci) said herd immunity would reached at 60-70% vaccination rates
• In Nov he changed the number to 70-75%
• In early Dec, he said the number was 75-80% plus and late dec the number was over 90%
• Why the changing numbers

  "When polls said only about half of all americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent," Dr. Fauci said. "Then, when newer surveys said 60% or more would take it, i thought, 'I can nudge this up a bit,' so it went to 80, 85"
• Though much of 2021, the problem with vaccination program was meeting demand from those who wanted it
• Trudeau warns COVID vaccine passports raise 'questions of fairness'
• PM announces mandatory vaccination for federal workforce and federally regulated transportation sectors
• Facts of human nature

  • We are pattern-seeking creatures
  • We are Boundary-establishing creature
• Racism


  • We see a pattern and create categories based on observable patterns traits that is, in reality, essentially meaningless (such as skin colour)
  • We practice Attribute substitution which believes that one characteristics is automatically accompanied by other characteristics (skin colour is attached to other characteristics)
  • We attach conceptions of intellectual , physical, spiritual or character in hierarchical ranking of these attributes (skin colours is believed to mean "better than" or "worse than" for a range of characteristics that leads to conception of overall superiority or inferiority)
  • We treat people different based on our ranking of imputed characteristics (perception of inferiority or superiority justifies differential treatments)
• The Federal Department of Justice conducted a massive investigation on the Michael Brown shooting
• The forensic evidence supported the police version of the story
• Ferguson police force operated in an extremely racist fashion
• Young black men are most likely to be shot by police because they have the most contact with police and are most likely to be stopped, searched and given tickets
• Drug Abuse


  The excessive or inappropriate use of a drug can result into physical, mental or social impairment
• Drug Addiction


  A psychological or physiological need for a drug to maintain a sense of well-being and avoid withdrawal symptoms
• Four harms: Drug use and alcohol


  • It comes from the use of the substance itself
  • Comes from the need to acquire the substance - Spin-off harms
  • Comes from the effort to prevent the use of the substance
  • It comes from efforts to overcome the efforts to prevent the use of the substance
• Addicts turn to irregular means of getting the resources they need to support their addictions
• Estimates that at least half of all burglaries and robberies are committed to support drug addictions
• In the fifteen-pear period from 2005-2006 to 2020-2021, 201,252 canadians were criminally charged with simple possession of illegal drugs – 97,737 were convicted
• Of the guilty cases, the most serious sentence received: 13,458 were sent to jail or prison - 2,028 got a conditional discharge - 29,363 got probation - 42,010 got a fine