The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Dumping On The NYTimes!

Episode Date: June 11, 2020

How dare they! One of the world's great newspapers assuming they know what fascinates us as Canadians!!And more on masks and schools.

and hello there peter mansbridge here with the latest episode of the bridge daily here we are thursday past the hump day, we're into Thursday. There's one more day left in week 13 of the Bridge Table. You know, I love the New York Times, right? You've heard me mention it and quote it more than a few times during these 13 weeks on stories that I find particularly interesting. But you know what? They're not perfect. And today's one of those days where they're not perfect. Have you heard about this piece in the New York Times today?

The headline is, Counting the Days Under Virus Lockdown by the Length of Trudeau's Hair. Okay, that's bad enough. The next line, the sub-headline. Justin Trudeau has not had a haircut during the pandemic. Canadians are fascinated. Well, thank you, New York Times, for telling us what exactly we're fascinated by.

Because apparently, we're fascinated by the length of Justin Trudeau's hair. You fascinated? Come on, are you, like, fascinated? You know, I'm looking out my window here in beautiful downtown Stratford. I should run out there and ask people as they go by from a physical distance, of course. I should ask, are you fascinated?

Because one of the world's great newspapers says we're fascinated. Hey, buddy, I'm fascinated by the length of my hair. I've been fascinated by the length of my hair for a number of years because there is no length in my hair. However, right now, there's a fair amount of length in my hair on the sides where it still grows. But I don't know. I just find this kind of stuff patronizing.

But you know what? It dovetails with what I was telling you the other day. When was it? A few days ago. I think it was last week. I told you that of all the places I've been to in the world, there are only two names of prime ministers that are ever brought up to me by people that I bump into from other countries.

They could be in the, in a cab or in a hotel lobby or any number of places, and when they hear you're Canadian, and the talk gets around the leaders, the only names they mention are Trudeau. It was Pierre Trudeau. Now it's Justin Trudeau. And it's because of stories like this in the New York Times,

it gets that kind of suggestion and question to Canadians. I mean, really, can you see, you know, if this had been another year, could you see that headline being, Stephen Harper has not had a haircut during the pandemic. Canadians are fascinated. Can you imagine that being a headline? Paul Martin has not had a haircut during the pandemic. Canadians are fascinated.

You put in whatever name you want. Jean Chrétien. Brian Mulroney. John Turner. Kim Campbell. I don't know. Okay, New York Times. Here's your reprieve.

Not for that story. Won't give's your reprieve. Not for that story. Won't give you a reprieve for that. But I will on another piece that's in the paper today in the New York Times. Because I'm going to read the first few sentences of it because I totally agree with this guy. David Leonhardt is the writer for the New York Times today. And his point is a good one in the sense that

writing and reporting and opining about the pandemic tends to lead towards negative coverage, the bad news, not necessarily the good news. Well, here's some good news. Okay? And it's not about the length of Justin Trudeau's hair. Let me read a couple of lines from this. We journalists don't always pay enough attention to good news. So I want to highlight some this morning.

Across much of the United States and Europe, and Canada, the coronavirus has been spreading less rapidly than many people feared. Yes, the caseload is growing in some places, and they're rightly getting a lot of attention, but the full story is more complex. Over the past six weeks, as communities have started to reopen, Americans have flocked to beaches and lakes, and European schools have reopened,

but the number of new cases has continued falling in many places. Across the northeast and midwest of the U.S., they're down more than 50 percent, and often much more since May 1st. Nationwide, weekly deaths have fallen for six weeks in a row, and Europe seems to have turned a corner, Caitlin Rivers of Johns Hopkins University says. How could this be? I put that question to public health experts and they gave two main answers. One, the virus spreads much less easily outdoors than indoors. Who's been telling you that repeatedly over the last two weeks? Summer, being outside, warmer weather, humidity, seems to help. And we may have underestimated how much it's helped, as Shish Jaha, the incoming dean of Brown University School of Public Health,

told me. And the me here is David Leonhardt from the New York Times. Just one more line. Well, two more. Second reason. Many people are taking more precautions than they were in February and March. They're wearing masks, remaining six feet apart and being careful about what they touch. Even absent top-down health interventions like lockdowns, people want to keep themselves safe. The combination appears to have eliminated most super spreader events like parties, concerts, and restaurant meals where multiple people get sick.

Such events may account for 80% of all transmissions, research suggests. And finally, I recognize that this is somewhat dangerous as a message. Transmission rates in the U.S. are higher than they need to be, and they have begun rising again in parts of the South and West. But many other places are showing what a responsible and effective reopening looks like. Okay, so that's like good news. And it's encouraging to hear it. It doesn't mean we take our foot off the pedal of staying safe and doing the right things. And we have to keep

reminding ourselves of that because it's tough. It's tough when the weather's beautiful outside. It's tough when you go to the grocery store or you're in downtown or wherever you happen to be be to keep reminding yourself, wear a mask, stay socially distant, six feet, two meters at least, more when you can, wash your hands immediately after touching something, you know, like a doorknob or whatever. Now, I think we're getting pretty good at that. I have to keep reminding myself in the early weeks and months to wash my hands. I don't even think about it anymore. I just do it.

And in those first couple of months, because I was so not used to washing my hands that frequently, they'd get raw. They don't anymore. I have nice, soft, delicate hands. Okay, here's a piece from Reuters. The headline, I keep saying this to you, widespread mask wearing could prevent COVID-19 second waves.

This is a new study from Britain's Cambridge and Greenwich University, so this is not some Mickey Mouse. This isn't Trump University. This is the real deal. Reuters, population-wide face mask use could push COVID-19 transmission down to controllable levels for national epidemics and could prevent further waves of the pandemic disease when combined suggests lockdowns alone will not stop the resurgence of the new coronavirus, but that even homemade masks can dramatically reduce transmission rates if enough people wear them in public. Wearing masks, combined with social distancing and some lockdown measures, could be an acceptable way of managing the pandemic and reopening economic activity

before the development of an effective vaccine against COVID-19. Okay? So those who are still, you know, I don't know what it is about masks that has so many people freaked out and not wanting to wear them, wear them. You know, they're for your neighbor's health, they're for your neighbor's health, they're for your grandparents' health, they're for your kids' health, and they're for your health. And they're available everywhere. Or you can make them yourself.

And lots of people look pretty good in them in the way they're being made right now. So we've got to get over this. And if we're going to get past this, which we seem to be doing a pretty good job of, we can ensure we will by wearing a mask. Right? Right. More thoughts about masks?

I know the message has been, it's been a poorly constructed message on masks for the last six months. At first they said, no, no, no, you don't need to wear a mask. And they said that for quite a while. And the they being the authorities, the healthcare people. They told us you don't need to. Then they told you what for the most part is true is that the mask is really to

help others, is to prevent you from spreading the disease. And that's true. But it doesn't hurt you to wear a mask. The odds are it also helps you, if there are kind of droplets out there or what have you. There's no downside to wearing a mask other than the, for some, the uncomfortable nature of it or you get overheated or what have you. So all that means is you've got to get a better mask or you've got to get a different mask. You've got to try out a few of these things. But proper mask and proper mask maintenance.

I mean, don't wear these things. If they're the disposable masks, dispose of them after you've used them once. You don't sort of carry them around and keep using them. And if they're masks which can be washed, wash them. Like, wash them right away. It's not a big deal. You can wash them, wash them. Like, wash them right away. It's not a big deal. You can wash them in your sink. You can wash them with just soap and rub them down under the

tap water. Hang them out to dry on days like this. It's gorgeous out there. Alright. I know I'm getting preachy en masse. But, listen, I believe in him, and I slap my wrist when I forget to put it on. Okay, here's the final point.

And this one is, this is really just a caution, okay? And I know a lot of people, a lot of parents, are fixated on the school issue, and I don't blame them. Now, here's a caution. This is, where was this today? It's a magazine called Education Week. It's an American magazine. So these are American statistics. But I would guess that these are cause for some concern and questions to be asked

in schools and school boards across our country as well. So I'll read a couple of sentences from this. At a time when, you know, in some cases, daycares have been opened up, I think, in Ontario this week. Schools have been reopened in some parts of the country, and many assume that they will be in others by the fall. So with that as kind of a background, listen to this from Education Week.

A federal watchdog, and keep in mind this is federal being the U.S., right? And that watchdog is the Government Accountability Office, the GAO. A federal watchdog estimates that 41% of school districts need to update or replace heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems in at least half their schools, underscoring a significant infrastructure need for schools even as they prepare for the coronavirus when they reopen. In a report published today,

the Government Accountability Office said that several schools it visited had HVAC systems that leaked and caused damage, and that if not addressed, such problems can lead to indoor air quality problems, and even force schools to temporarily close while the issues are fixed. In all, the GAO estimated that 36,000 schools need HVAC updates. Once again, this is American schools. But there are an estimate of 36,000 schools across the United States. The GAO report does not deal directly with the specific challenges posed by COVID-19. The report says that the hazardous conditions it refers to that can lead to school closures don't include the virus. Well, obviously, if you have an air ventilation system and you're concerned about droplets or the spread of a virus,

you'd be concerned about the ventilation system, at least to some degree. What does 36,000 schools in the U.S. mean in terms of our schools? I don't know. Perhaps we look after the ventilation systems and the air conditioning and the heating in our schools in a much better way than they do in the States. Maybe the regulations are much tougher in Canadian schools

than they are south of the border. But assuming they're the same, I mean, the usual model you take is a kind of 10 to 1 ratio between the U.S. and Canada. And if you took that 10 to 1 ratio on this issue, you're going from 36,000 schools in the United States to 3,600 schools in Canada. Could it be that? I don't know. But I think it's a legitimate question for parents to ask at the next, you know, school meeting.

When's the last time we had our ventilation systems checked? And how did they respond to the check that was done on them? Probably not a bad question to be asking. All right. As I said at the top of the podcast today, this is the Thursday podcast, and that means tomorrow is the weekend special. And I'll be honest, there haven't been a lot of, there have actually been more listeners

and more downloads this week than I think any of the other 13 weeks of the podcast. There have been a lot. We're approaching, by the way, a half million downloads of the Bridge Daily, which is a pretty significant number in the podcasting business. I'm pretty proud of that. Usually get a fair amount of mail each week,

given some of the topics that we've had. But it's been kind of, in spite of the spike in listeners and downloads, there haven't been a lot of letters this week. There have been a few, but there haven't been a lot. You usually get around 50. So if there's anything on your mind that you want mentioned, and, you know, I really encourage new letter writers. I mean, we have some, as you've probably noticed, who are frequent letter writers.

I'm looking forward to seeing you once this week. The ratio is usually, I don't know, 60-40, new to repeat. I would certainly like to see that continue or even go up. But nevertheless, if you've got some thoughts, questions, comments you want to make on any of the things you've heard this week, or just generally, don't be shy. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com.

That's where you can get my attention. I'm going to head into Toronto today, so I'll probably do the podcast from Toronto tomorrow, if I'm not back. I may be back here in Stratford. And at any time, you can also go to my website, thebetermansbridge.com, and get up to date that way as well on podcasts.

Apparently there's a new book coming out later in the year that's mentioned there as well i saw the first draft the first look of what the cover is gonna could be like it's really good it's a great cover extraordinary canadians is the name of the book mark bulgich and i have put it together and uh we look forward to getting your reactions. It's not published until November, so you've got a bit of a lead time. But you can get your order in now if you want

with Simon & Schuster. All the details are there on the website. Okay, that's it for now. Mark was reminding me the other day that when I started this version of the podcast, The Bridge Daily, 13 weeks ago when COVID-19 first kind of came to our attention that it was going to be as dramatic a story as it has become. He said on that first podcast, he said, you know, I'll just be doing like five or six minutes a day. I don't think we've ever done that.

And this one's looking around the 23-minute range, so I guess that's about average. Anyway, look forward to hearing your questions, comments, thoughts. Drop me a line, themansbridgepodcast at gmail.com. That's it for this day. Thanks for listening, and we will be back in 24 hours. Thank you.