yukon254;
Good morning to you sir, I hope the day's a tad brighter/less smoky for you folks up north and all else is as it needs to be with you and yours.
When this entire beer flu thing started out, I - being what my wife calls a "data miner" - searched the net for what places like South Korea and Taiwan did, as they seemed to get a very fast handle on it.
There was a youtube channel which I believe was "Asian Boss" where the interviewer was talking to the lead virologist in South Korea about masks. Now to give background, this was at the time where the US Surgeon General and our own Dr. Tam were saying masks would not work with this virus.
In very kind and careful words, the Korean doctor said that if masks, properly worn, did not reduce incidents of spreading bacteria, it was news to him as that was precisely why the entire medical community had done it for years - well nearly a century I guess.
Then of course later the spokesfolks for the powers that be flipped and flopped a couple times on the subject of masks.
My personal issue with it is this - if they'll intentionally mislead us about something as straightforward as using a filter, then truly is not the sky the limit for them?
So for several reasons then, I'm not an "anti-masker" in that it might could work and I very much believe in being a grey man in times such as these as it's proven to be prudent for me to do so more than once. Before leaving this topic, no I do not believe I shall perish from beer flu - but - as an unusually healthy guy for most of my life, I'd be the poster child to have it and perhaps spread it unknowingly to very elderly friends and neighbors that I'm in weekly contact with.
None of this is to imply that I disagree one tiny iota with your concern that we've already lost and are continuing to lose our personal freedoms. Honestly it started - to my way of thinking - shortly after 9/11 and has continued at what you've aptly termed an alarming rate.
Lastly, I was absolutely dismayed to read that BC residents were not being good hosts to visitors from anywhere, for sure from our neighbors across the medicine line.
In my view, the media as a whole in Canada tends to be so anti-US anything that it's difficult to get a clear picture on anything stateside from them. I've pretty much stopped watching television, but will listen to the local valley news from the Kelowna station once in awhile and even they are affected by the bias. This is nettlesome and not constructive to say the least, you know?
All the best to you folks this fall.
Dwayne
