The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Has Anything Really Changed? A Remarkable Story From The 1918 Pandemic

Episode Date: August 10, 2020

Plus -- Did you listen to the July 23rd "bridge daily"? Told you so!

and hello there peter mansbridge here with the latest episode of the bridge daily for this day one of week 22 of the Bridge Daily. Glad to have you with us. Hope you had a nice weekend. Hope you were able to enjoy it a bit, while at the same time keeping in mind of what we're in, what we're going through, and how we're dealing with it. And it appears that for the most part, we here in Canada are dealing with it pretty well. Well, how are we going to start this week?

We're going to start by reminding you of July 23rd. Remember what happened on July 23rd? Specifically, do you remember what happened on July 23rd on this podcast? Well, on July 23rd on this podcast, it was headlined Rumors of the Day. And the cover art was a picture of a guy, and the headline for the picture was kind of looking for a job. And who was that guy? That guy was Mark Carney, who had just left his position as governor of the Bank of England. Before that, he'd been governor of the Bank of Canada. That's right, Mark Carney, the Canadian guy. The guy who it was rumored years ago wanted to be prime minister one day. It was rumored not too long ago that he wanted to seek the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada.

But we know what happened there. Justin Trudeau became the leader. Mark Carney went off to England, governor of the Bank of England. He did a great job, apparently, as governor of the Bank of Canada, and he did a pretty good job as governor of the Bank of England. He made some enemies, but he also made some friends. And he guided Britain through a number of crises, including Brexit, which he was not in favor of. So the buzz has been Mark Carney's coming back. Where could he fit in? Gee, is there a, say, finance minister in trouble? I don't know.

Does Justin Trudeau want to stay forever as leader of the Liberal Party? I don't know. Well, we floated these rumors on July 23rd. If you don't believe me, go back and listen to the podcast from that day. Now, the rumors have been around, but we actually broadcast them or podcast them. And so today comes news that the government has asked Mark Carney to come on board as a senior special advisor on the COVID situation, given the billions and billions of dollars trouble, at least in some controversy, controversy is the word, Peter, around the WE scandal. So, this is like one foot in the door.

That's the door. Squeaking open. One foot in. There's an advisor. Next foot would be, gee, maybe we could have a special cabinet shuffle. And we can bring somebody in from the inside who has to promise that they're going to run in a by-election. And put that person in the cabinet. Wonder who that could be.

Well, who knows? Isn't it fun? Isn't moral politics fun? Trying to figure out next moves? Well, let's see. Just remember where you may have heard it first, on July 23rd. Okay, I've got something fun for you today. Now, this came to me as kind of a circuitous route. Came in an email today from my sister. I've talked about my sister before. She's always sending me stuff, most of which I don't trouble you with. But every once in a while,

there's some really good stuff in the email she sends. And today was a good one. And basically what she did was flip me an email from a friend of hers who she went to school with, whose son had sent it to him. Anyway, it eventually wound up to me. And I'm going to tell you what it is in a minute, but first of all, the background. You know, sometimes you kind of wonder about the advice we've had on the pandemic. You know, you don't need to wear masks. Well, actually, you know you should wear masks.

You should wipe down everything in sight. Always. To, well, maybe you don't have to wipe down everything in sight. Maybe those germs don't stay there forever. Maybe they go away after a little bit. Then there was the whole hydroxychloroquine business. Anyway, we seem to have it all figured out now. We think about what to do to deal with the pandemic. The kind of do's and don'ts list, right?

Well, should it have been much easier, much clearer, much sooner? Well, maybe. And here we go. This is what I got today. And I did a little research, a little more research into it than my sister had done, but that's okay.

I wouldn't have had this if it wasn't for her. This is a do's and don'ts for influenza prevention. It's from the Douglas Island News. Ever heard of that? It was a newspaper in Alaska for about 25 years. Near the end of the 1800s, I think it was around 1898, something like that, until the early 1920s, 1921, 22, somewhere in there.

Well, on the front page of the Douglas Island News in Alaska, it's not far from, Douglas Island is not far from Juneau, Alaska. On the front page, right down the center of the front page, in November, November 15th, 1918. Okay, this is just four days after the armistice was signed to end First World War. But news traveled slowly in those days. On the front page of the Douglas Island News on November 15th, one of the side stories still didn't acknowledge that the war was over. It was

a story about the draft and who was eligible and who had to report because of the draft because they desperately still needed soldiers to fight in Europe. But they were also fighting something else. They were fighting the early going with the pandemic that was hitting the world at that time. Kind of started mid-1918, and by the fall of 1918, it was going fairly strong. First wave.

So here's November 15th, and this is probably the first do's and don'ts list for influenza prevention. Okay, this is the first time. Somebody's like, put it all together, put it right there on the front page so you couldn't miss it. And then in that area, everyone read the Douglas Island News because there was no television. Radio was still extremely primitive. But the papers, man, they read the papers. So you can just imagine, people clipped this out.

They pinned it on their icebox. They pinned it on the wall. They pinned it or taped it on the blackboard at school. The do's and don'ts for influenza prevention. You ready? Now you tell me whether this list sounds familiar to you. There's about 20 things on here. Wear a mask.

That's number one. Right out of the gate. Wear a mask. Live a clean, healthy life. Well, we all do that. Keep the pores open. That is, bathe frequently. Now, that's one you don't hear very often around these days.

I guess everybody just assumes we all do that. We keep our pores open. Wash your hands before each meal. Not every 10 minutes. Wash your hands before each meal. And not for 20 minutes or showing you how to do it. It just says, wash your hands before each meal. But you had the drift here already, right? These are all things. There's nothing new here. Live in an abundance of fresh air, day and night.

Took everybody a while to tell us that. Get outside when you can. At the beginning, they wanted us all to stay inside. And we understand why. They were shutting it down. That was a lockdown. But back in 1918, they were telling you it's important to get fresh air.

And it is. And still is. Keep warm. Okay, I haven't heard that one, but it was Alaska. Get plenty of sleep. I haven't heard that one either. If you're like me, you're probably getting less sleep than you used to because you keep waking up in the middle of the night wondering, is this gone yet, or am I just dreaming?

Can we get back to whatever it was we used to have? I like this one, and I do this one. Gargle frequently and always after having been out with a solution of salt in water, half a teaspoon of salt to one glass, eight ounces of water. You do that? I do it.

I gargle with salt water every once in a while. Fairly often, actually. You usually have hot water. Certainly warm water. Report early symptoms to the doctor at once. Yes. Respect the quarantine regulations. Yes.

Does this sound familiar, right? Are these the same things that we're being told now, a hundred years later? This is how far things have advanced, that we've got the same list. Avoid crowds. Gee, we never heard that before. You can get the influenza only by being near someone who's infected.

Check. Avoid persons who sneeze or cough. Check. Do not neglect your mask. Check. Do not disregard the advice of a specialist just because you do not understand that advice. You've got to think about that one.

Which specialist advice have we been avoiding? Dr. Fauci? Fauci? Do not disregard the rights of a community. Obey cheerfully the rules issued by the authorities. Well, we all do that. You don't have anybody challenging the rules of the community, do you? Right.

But that's what we hope for, that we don't disregard the rights or the the rights of a community and we cheerfully obey the rules do not think you are entitled to special privileges do not go near other people if you have a cold or a fever you may expose them to the influenza and death see the the doctor. Do not think it's impossible for you to get or transmit influenza. Keep your hands out of your mouth. Good advice. Do not cough or sneeze in the open.

Do not use a public towel or drinking cup. Really? I'm glad they wrote it down. But can you imagine anybody using a public drinking cup right now? Do not visit the sick or handle articles from the sick room. Well, they won't let us visit the sick, much to the consternation of some of the sick's relatives. And we've heard terrible, painful, emotional stories about the fact that people have not been able to visit their loved ones who are sick. All right, there's one more on the list. But isn't this amazing?

This is the list from 100 years ago, 102 years ago to be specific, at the beginning of the fight in that pandemic of the 1918-19 flu. That was the list. What can we add to that list today? I'm not sure it's anything.

This is kind of the same list as we've got right now. You know, the basics, wear a mask, wash your hands, avoid crowds, stay distant. Well, it actually never has anywhere the six-foot rule, the two meters rule. But it might as well by saying avoid crowds, avoid being close to others, and certainly avoid being close to anybody who's coughing or sneezing. But, you know, for all the advances in science, medicine, technology, the do's and don'ts for influenza prevention sound pretty much the same as they were 100 years ago. I told you there was one more thing.

And there is one more thing on the list. Two words. Don't worry. Don't worry. Boy, we could all use that advice, right? Have there not been times in these last 22 weeks where you stayed awake at night worried about your family, about your friends,

about your colleagues, about yourself? But there's the advice. Don't worry. Don't worry. Well, my thanks to the Douglas Island News. Long ago. A dead local newspaper. Early 20s.

It wrapped up. But you can still find it. Just Google Douglas Island News, and it won't take you long to find that list. Pretty amazing, eh? Well, thanks to Sister Wendy for passing it along. And to her friends who passed it to her. Quite the list.

All right. One thing to give you a heads up about. I told you last week we were going to start a new segment to the Bridge Daily. We're calling it the Race Next Door. And we're going to focus at least once a week a chunk of the podcast on the race next door, the U.S. election. And that's along with Bruce Anderson, chairman of Abagastata. Bruce, who has been on this podcast a couple of times in the past few months,

dealing with various issues. And now we're going to focus just on the U.S. election from that perspective of watching from next door. Right? So we're going to try and add what knowledge we have as bystanders, as kind of watching from the outside. And so that's what we're going to do. And we're going to start it, we'll probably pick a day that we'll do it each week, but this week we're going to do it tomorrow.

And the focus tomorrow is going to be on the vice president's part of this campaign. And that's as a result of the fact that the Democrats, Joe Biden, is likely to pick his vice presidential nominee within the next couple of days. So we're not going to play the game of who's it going to be, although I'm sure that'll come up somewhere. But more of, is it really that important? Can it make a difference? Where can it make a difference?

Why can it make a difference? And if not, why not? Is this just too much of the media playing its normal game of trying to hype a story as it's coming along and it turns into the, you know, kind of two- or three-day wonder? Well, we'll see. It's good fodder for a little discussion, a little back and forth with Bruce.

And as I said, the race next door, a part of the Bridge Daily, will come your way in its first edition tomorrow. So for now, that's the Bridge Daily for this day one of week 22. Is it week 22. Is it week 22? Or is it week 21?

It's week 22. Gosh, the time flies by when you're having fun. Okay, I'm Peter Mansbridge. It's been great to have you with us. So thank you for listening. And we'll talk to you again in 24 hours. Thank you.