Health Notes

Northern Health Authority draws online disgust by insisting that handwashing is top tool to fight COVID-19

by Charlie Smith on April 12th, 2022 at 7:39 AM
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      For nearly two years, some scientists have been arguing that COVID-19 is an airborne disease like measles and tuberculosis.

      It took a while, but eventually, the World Health Organization, the White House, and Canada's chief public health officer came around to that view.

      Because airborne transmission is the dominant way that people contract COVID-19, scientists urge people to wear high-quality masks.

      But here in B.C., Premier John Horgan recently suggested that carrying hand sanitizer would be a good way to ease anxiety about his government lifting a provincewide indoor mask mandate.

      For that, he was roundly ridiculed on social media.

      In fact, Horgan was merely repeating the types of messages that continue being sent out by health authorities in B.C.

      The latest is Northern Health, which claimed on April 11 that handwashing is the Number 1 tool to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

      In a column earlier today, I suggested that it's only a matter of time before Horgan and Health Minister Adrian Dix bring back a provincial indoor mask mandate in recognition of the fact that COVID-19 is airborne.

      Some have gone further. One of B.C.'s most persistent critics of the government's handling of the pandemic, Rob DuMont, recently tweeted that it's time to get rid of the health authorities. This came in response to another of my columns, which you can read in the tweet below.

       

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