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home / 世界杯决赛2022

as ottawa is hit with summer covid-19 surge, who's wearing a mask?

ottawa public health has advised people to wear a mask in indoor public spaces as well as outdoors in crowds when two metres of distance can't be maintained.

by jacquie miller, hafsatou balde
published jul 22, 2022
read time 7 minute read
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read time 7 minute read
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as the city is hit with a summer surge of covid-19, ottawa public health says wearing a mask both indoors and in crowded outdoor places will protect people from being infected. how many people are aware of that advice or follow it is another question.
it’s been four months since ontario dropped the requirement to wear a mask indoors in most public spaces.
anecdotal evidence suggests that people are increasingly less likely to don a mask when they drop into the grocery store, pharmacy or other public indoor spaces.
this newspaper visited 18 stores across the city in an informal survey and found a substantial majority of customers did not wear masks.
the only exceptions were at kowloon market in chinatown, where 27 of 28 customers were wearing masks on the day we visited, a whole foods outlet where 20 of 32 customers wore masks and a shopper’s drug mart on bank street, where there was an even split.
as for outdoor crowded events, consider the scene at bluesfest, the city’s largest summer festival earlier this month. headline concerts attracted as many as 30,000 fans.
a smattering of folks wore masks, but they were far from the majority.
public health authorities say that wearing a mask is one of the simplest, most effective ways to prevent the virus from spreading.
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the omicron subvariant that is fuelling the latest wave is the most contagious one yet and ottawa is experiencing a “significant covid-19 resurgence,” according to a statement from ottawa public health.
a variety of factors appear to contribute to people keeping masks off even as covid-19 risk increases, including a lack of mandates, mixed messages from public health officials, social conformity and a pervasive desire for the pandemic to be over.
colin furness, an epidemiologist at the university of toronto, says he sees the same trend in toronto.
“i know smart, responsible people who want to be safe who are not masking,” he said. “and they are not driving trucks to ottawa. these are not people who are saying, ‘stop the oppression!’ these are people who have just internalized the idea that covid was a problem, and now it really isn’t.
“we don’t have evidence to support that narrative. all we have is the narrative.”
the ontario government has fed that narrative by ending daily reporting of covid-19 statistics and restricting laboratory testing, furness said. ontario’s chief medical officer of health, dr. kieran moore, has stopped holding regular media conferences and the mainstream media has reduced its reporting on the topic.
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that makes it hard to get a clear idea of the level of transmission, while at the same time people are being told by moore and other public health authorities to assess their personal risk when deciding whether to wear a mask, furness said.
“we desperately want the pandemic to be over, so we really attach ourselves to any intimation that that is correct, and we will seek evidence for that and selectively ignore evidence. and the government has been helping that.”
social conformity is also a big factor, furness said.
“when you are a majority, the behaviour is likely to increase because the minority who are not masked look around and say, ‘maybe i should.’ but, once you cross this tipping point and you are in the minority, then the social conformity starts to come the other way and more and more people take off their masks.”
messages from public health authorities are also mixed.
a report from public health ontario said additional public health measures would help minimize death, disease and social disruption during the current wave. it suggested people wear well-fitting, high-quality masks whenever feasible in indoor spaces, crowded spaces, including outdoors and in “close-contact” settings like public transit.
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moore, at a media conference last week, said he would not recommend re-introducing mask mandates or other public health measures now, instead stressing the role of vaccination and anti-viral treatments for covid-19.
people could “consider” wearing a mask in indoor crowded spaces “if it’s right for them, particularly if they’re spending time with older and more vulnerable ontarians,” he said. moore  strongly recommended mask use in indoor public spaces for those at highest risk or in places where they may encounter vulnerable people.
ottawa public health has advised people to wear a mask in indoor public spaces as well as outdoors in crowds when two metres of distance can’t be maintained.
the focus on mask wearing as a personal choice is frustrating for furness and others who have been trying to get the message across to the public that the virus is spread through shared air.
“you can’t rely (solely) on personal responsibility when you have a very infectious airborne pathogen,” said dr. kashif pirzada, an emergency room physician in toronto and co-founder of masks4canada, a group of experts that has educated the public and promoted mask use during the pandemic. “even if 20 per cent or 30 per cent of the population doesn’t care about being infected over and over again, that decision to accommodate their wishes and not have a mandate affects the 70 per cent of the population that doesn’t want to get infected by covid.”
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pirzada also said he recognized there was some resistance to mandates.
“i recognize there are a bunch of people who don’t want to (wear a mask) and maybe feel they are not at risk. maybe they are young people. and it’s true that covid is very mild most of the time when you are very young.
“they can do as they like. some candles burn brighter and shorter, i guess. some people smoke four packs a day, and they are free to do that. but their actions shouldn’t affect other people who have much more consequences.”
he suggests that mask mandates be implemented at essential services, such as grocery stores and medical clinics and on public transit.
“these are places you have to go,” pirzada said. “you have to eat, you have to see doctors.”
furness says there is also a need for clear and widespread messaging that the virus spreads through the air and that n95 style masks provide the best protection.
attitudes toward masking across canada were explored in a recent poll released earlier this week by the angus reid institute. it found that most canadians realized that masking was effective, but fewer people were wearing them in public and support for mandating masking was dropping.
the survey found that 74 per cent of canadians recognized the effectiveness of wearing masks to reduce the spread of covid-19. however, only 51 per cent of respondents supported mandating masks in public spaces, down from a high of 86 per cent in november 2020.
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(in ontario, 55 per cent of respondents supported bringing back mask mandates.)
across the country, three in 10 people said they wore masks inside places like grocery stores, banks and movie theatres “most” or “all of the time,” while 53 per cent said they were doing it “rarely” or “never.”
there were variations depending on gender and age. men younger than 55 pushed back against the need for public health measures, angus reid said. “just one in three would implement a mask mandate in their community compared to a majority of all other age and gender combinations.”
here’s what a few people in ottawa told us about mask wearing during an informal random survey:
lindsey hollet, 48
“i did not stop completely, but i started to take it off in the spring. the seventh wave picked up and with the summer we’re hoping to do some travel, so, whatever we can do to keep others and ourselves safe, cause we hate to cancel our travel.
“i mostly wear them now in public places where i’m going to be for an extended period of time, like the mall or really crowded places”
kaycee pearson, 29
“i don’t wear masks since the restrictions were removed because, while the restriction were in place, it was very uncomfortable. i personally have very sensitive skin, so that made every situation worse, with rashes and everything on my face. and even breathing on itself was very difficult. i find it a lot more comfortable, a lot more natural to breathe air the way we’re supposed to”
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taryn feheley, 21
“i often don’t mask anymore because my office is fully vaccinated. i know everybody in my office and i feel comfortable around them. i also do testing three times a week in my office. there is a new variant, so i will most likely in the next coming week start masking outside (the office), like grocery shopping and stuff”
jeff cortez, 35
“i don’t feel the need to wear a mask since the (restrictions) were lifted.”
julie mathison, 22
“i did a little experiment at my work. the first day the mandate was lifted, i wore a mask for one day. the next day i didn’t wear a mask and customers were a lot nicer to me; it was easier to sell to people and i didn’t feel as threatened as much. when i wore a mask, people were more aggressive, people were more rude to me and so i just found it was better to not wear a mask.”
“sometimes i do, depending on how crowded it is.”
sev swafford, 24
“(i wear a mask) to protect myself and the people i spend time with. i also know a few people who have got covid recently and it doesn’t sound fun.”

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