The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Just How Effective Is Your Mask? Here's The Test Anyone Can Do To Find Out.

Episode Date: September 8, 2020

Plus, Doug Ford does the Dad thing as the numbers start to climb. And, some bizarre ideas airlines have to raise money.

and hello there Peter Mansbridge here with the latest episode of the bridge daily here we are on Tuesday of week 26 and Tuesday on this week because we just went through a long weekend, is kind of day one of the week. So what are we going to talk about? First of all, I hope you had a great long weekend. It was okay here in southwestern Ontario. Not summer weather. Certainly felt like fall weather. But nevertheless, it was a nice break. And I hope you enjoyed your break and stayed safe throughout it. I want to talk about COVID-19 for starters today. In fact, pretty much the whole podcast today is in one way related to it.

I think if you've witnessed the numbers, you know, across the country, certainly from Quebec West, Atlantic's still pretty good, but from Quebec West, we've seen spikes in almost every province, if not every province. Spikes that are big enough to concern health officials and political leaders, especially as it's all happening at the same time as today, parents have been sending their kids off to school. Parents, heroes, teachers, absolute heroes.

And students, man, those students, some of those pictures today were quite gripping that I saw on Instagram and, well, mainly on Instagram, of young kids heading off to school, in some cases day one of school, like first day ever of school. You know, their little backpacks on I guess for some of those kids I don't really realize what's happening around them but

it's gonna be a strange experience for them and a even stranger one for kids who've been at school before and suddenly are looking at a very different classroom and a very different teacher in the way people are dressed and prepped for school during a pandemic. It's a difficult time. So you couple that with numbers which are already showing a bump and we've seen this in Europe in the last week or two as well. with numbers which are already showing a bump.

And we've seen this in Europe in the last week or two as well. We've seen it in Spain and France, a little bit in Germany, a little bit in Italy, and countries like Denmark and others where the spike has not been much, but it's been enough for leaders to say, you know what? We're going to stop any more relaxation of the rules until we find out what exactly is going on here. Is this just a slight bump or is it the beginning of a second wave

and is it unpredictable and how much is it linked towards school and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. beginning of a second wave and is it unpredictable and how much is it linked towards school and etc etc etc so it was interesting today to see in canada some of that same kind of decision making taking place we saw it in ontario for sure where the the Ford government has introduced a four-week pause. They're not going back on any restrictions, but they are pausing the relaxation of restrictions. No more relaxation. There are other areas they could have pulled back on.

They're not going to. For four weeks, while they determine, A, are we looking at a serious spike here b how is this going to work with the schools and it was interesting watching doug ford that's the premier of ontario his daily news conference today because he you know he he said, I don't want to sound like a dad here, but he sounded like a dad here, talking to students, especially university students and college students.

He had a special message for them. I'm going to play it for you here. It's not that long. And it's kind of a clipped end to it. I'm sorry. It's sort of clipped in the middle of him saying the word party. So you know what this is about. But anyway, listen to this, because this is the message from the Premier of Ontario

to university and college students today. All right? One person told me a story today that their daughter's at university I'm not going to be a doctor. I'm going to be a doctor. I'm going to be a doctor. I'm going to be a doctor. I'm going to be a doctor. I'm going to be a doctor.

I'm going to be a doctor. I'm going to be a doctor. I'm going to be a doctor. I'm going to be a doctor. I'm going to be a doctor. I'm going to be a doctor. I'm going to be a it. Don't go to these big parties. I understand Queen's had to close down the pier over there. Guys, you're the best and the brightest in the world, in my opinion. Show it. No more parties. I just can't stress it enough. I don't want to

sound like, you know, some dad lecturing you. I'm just talking to you as a friend, as a premier. Don't go to these parties. Don't go to these parties. Well, he did sound like a dad. And that's okay. You know, he is a dad. And he's an uncle. And just like many of us, he's concerned about that kind of thing right now.

He's concerned about groups getting together. And he's not alone on this. All the public health officials are saying, don't do it. Don't do it. You're going to have a gathering, a small one, make it outdoors, make it with physical distancing, make it with masks when necessary, but stay away from the, you know, the block party, the party in somebody's room in residence. That can't happen. At least that's what Doug Ford is hoping, and I'm sure he's not alone in that. I'm sure that's the case for health officials and political leaders across the country.

So we are at a moment. I don't think there's any doubt about that. We're in a moment, yet another one, in this story. In this moment, there may very well determine what the fall is going to be like in Canada. Is this spike kind of nipped in the bud, or does it turn into something much more serious? That's a big question. We're going to know over these next couple of weeks.

By this time next month, we're going to know over these next couple of weeks. By this time next month, we're going to know. By week 30, we're in week 26. By week 30, we're going to know. All right? So in the meantime, we do what we have been doing pretty well for most of the last 26 weeks. You know, we're washing our hands, we're keeping distant, and we're wearing masks.

And I think somewhere around 75%, 80% of Canadians are wearing masks and don't even think about it anymore. They're wearing masks. There is a resistance to mask wearing on the part of some people. And, you know, if that's what they want to do, and as long as they don't get in my way, that's what I guess they're going to do. In the meantime, this about mask wearing today.

And actually, we talked about mask wearing and especially about the washing of masks some time ago. But there are a couple of interesting things I saw in an article on the vox.com site, vox.com. And it's all about masks. And it's as a result of the question being asked by a lot of mask wearers, do I really have to wash my mask after every use? Every use. No matter how short. And the answer is, yes, you do,

according to the experts that Vox talked to. It's definitely recommended to wash that mask every day, said Dr. Ravina Kular to Vox. She's an infectious disease specialist. Kular points out that the purpose of the mask is to prevent the virus from spreading, so if there are virus particles on yours, wearing an unwashed mask is counterproductive. I think we can all understand that. Masks should be washed after each use. It's important to always

remove masks correctly and wash your hands after handling or touching a used mask. This is what's said on the CDC website, the Centers for Disease Control. According to the CDC, taking off your mask correctly means handling it only by the ear loops or ties, folding it to be placed in the washing machine and washing your hands immediately after. Now I'm sure you know all of this, but I'm going to read on a little more because I'm getting to a part that you may have heard about, I'd never heard about. It's a way of testing your mask. Cloth masks can be washed by hand or in a washing machine. Surgical masks, I think we know this, another popular option, cannot be washed and should be discarded after

one use. There's very little peer-reviewed information about how to wash an N95 mask. Those are the really, I was going to say fancy, they're not fancy, but they're the ones for professional use, like by nurses and doctors. Some potential options include vaporized hydrogen peroxide using dry heat or UV light methods that aren't really suitable for experimentation at home, I'll say. For cloth masks, and these are the kind of ones that most of us are using now, if you're using a washing machine, the CDC recommends regular detergent and the warmest appropriate water setting for the cloth used to make the mask. If you're washing your mask by hand, you should prepare a bleach solution and soak your mask in it for five minutes,

then rinse in cool or room temperature water. Patrick Richardson, he calls himself the laundry evangelist, says that a cloth mask can sustain around 100 washes if it isn't run through the dryer, and 50 if it is. Remember what we talked about, the best possible way to dry your mask after it's been washed? Put it in the sunlight. That's the best way to do it.

That'll have the best impact on it. Okay, here's the part I really found interesting, and I'm going to try it out here, right here on our podcast, right here on the Bridge Daily. This is a Bridge Daily exclusive. We are going to do something on this podcast that's never been done before, I think. Certainly never been done by me in addition

this is the Vox article in addition to maintaining good washing practices the type of face mask you use matters there's a way of testing different kinds of masks by attempting listening to blow out a lit match.

If you can blow out the match, the mask is ineffective. And if you can't, it works. All right, we're going to test that theory. Like you, I assume, I have more than a few masks. And you may recall, because I mentioned it on the podcast a couple of months ago, that I'd ordered some Toronto Raptors masks. A lot of good they did yesterday. Anyway, I'm putting it on right now. So I may sound a little muffled now. Okay.

Got the mask on. Now, that is, that's some matches. Some wooden matches. And we're going to test this theory out. Hopefully not start a fire here in the makeshift podcast studio. Okay, so there.

We have the flame going on the match. Isn't this impressive? Live on our podcast, we are going to test this Toronto Raptors mascot. All right, the flame is burning. I'm only a couple of inches away from it. Let's see what happens. Well, the Raptors may have lost last night, but they won in the mass department right there. So I'm impressed. And I tried it.

You heard me try it. I tried it four times. Couldn't blow through the mask. So the theory there is obvious, right? If you wear a mask to protect others from you, anything you may be carrying, obviously, if you're going to blow out from you, anything you may be carrying. Obviously, if you blow out a match, you can blow through that mask with any virus you may be carrying. Well, it didn't happen.

So there's one for the Raptors. We'll give them an A-plus on their masks, D-minus on the way they played last night. That's even generous. That was brutal. Okay. Okay. Last topic.

And this is more fun than anything else okay and it's my airline story for the day you know that i love airline stories and how airlines are trying to deal with this so this is interesting because airlines are desperate to try and figure out ways to make money because they're not making money with passengers because they just don't have enough passengers anymore. Airline traffic is still down a huge amount, 75%, 80% from where it was before the pandemic was the last number I saw. I'm taking a flight in a couple of weeks, going to Calgary.

I've got a speech there, and I'm going to test it out, and I'll make sure we talk about it. I may even do the podcast from on board the plane, like I did once during the election campaign last year. We'll see about that. Now, so how are they doing that? What different ways are different airlines using to try and generate revenue? Well, I've seen some interesting ways in an article on Bloomberg.

You know Qantas, the airline, Australia? Listen to this. With its international fleet grounded until at least mid-2021. So they're not even trying to fly anywhere outside of Australia right now. They are renting out one of their Boeing Dreamliners. That's a 787 is a Dreamliner. I'm not sure. I think that's it. For sightseeing trips over, you ready?

The southern ice cap. In other words, they'll rent it out to fly you over Antarctica. That's what they're doing. Antarctica Flights is chartering the plane from Qantas and crew from Qantas for seven trips between November and February. The flights last between 12 and 14 hours. These are long flights.

And if you look at a map, you'll understand why. Antarctica is no little tiny spot. It's big. A business class seat with full in-flight service costs roughly, Canadian, about $8,000. So the kind of cost of a cruise ship, and nobody's going on cruise ships. So you want to be able to say, I've seen Antarctica.

Hopefully it's a clear day. I imagine they'll probably go down quite low as well at different points. So you get a real $8,000 view of Antarctica. But I look at that and I go, here's an idea. You know, why doesn't Air Canada think of that? You could say, we'll take you through the Northwest Passage by air. Here's an idea. You know, why doesn't Air Canada think of that? You could say, we'll take you through the Northwest Passage by air. We'll fly from east to west.

We'll fly over the Northwest Passage. We'll take the route that Franklin tried to find. That would be probably somewhat in that same kind of range in terms of time, because you'd have to leave from wherever, Toronto or Montreal or Halifax, and fly the route and end up in either Edmonton or Calgary or Vancouver. Now, that could be an interesting idea. Here's something else Qantas is doing to try and raise money, and this will give you some indication of just how desperate they are.

If you've ever been business class on an overseas flight, they give you stuff. They give you little packages of shaving kit, toothpaste, slippers, that kind of stuff. So Qantas is trying to raise money. They don't have any international flights anymore for another year, another six months at least. So they're selling that stuff. They've got 10,000 sets of pajamas they sell people

for long overseas flights. And they apparently were snapped up in a matter of hours. They sold their amenity packs, those kind of things that I was talking about, for $25 each. They also contained smoked almonds. So there you go. They're also selling what they can salvage

from their old Boeing 747s. Some of the cabin interiors, such as first class tray tables, sold as memorabilia. What are Canadian Airlines doing? Well, I can't find anything from Air Canada or WestJet, but have you ever heard of Air North? Well, obviously, you've got to be in the north to have heard of Air North.

It's been around for a while, 43 years. Connects Yukon with hubs such as Vancouver. Has branched into home-delivered airline meals. Who would have thought that? Gee, I feel like an airline meal right now. Menu offerings include beef pot pie for $9. A selection of cheese pie for $9, a selection of cheesecakes for $14.

You can order as many as 20 of the pre-cooked frozen meals at a time, and they'll drop them off by a driver the next business day. Now, the meals are only available in neighborhoods in Whitehorse, and the delivery charge is $10. So there you go. Thai Airways. I've been on Thai Airways. I flew to Bangkok on Thai Airways.

Thai Airways, meanwhile, has opened a restaurant, fitted out with airplane seats and paraphernalia in its headquarters in Bangkok. This is really original. Japan's ANA Holdings, and some other airlines are doing the same thing here, they're offering flights to nowhere. So the Japanese airline sold tickets for a charter flight to nowhere. About 300 passengers paid for a so-called Hawaiian resort experience on an Airbus 380.

It typically flies the Tokyo-Honolulu route. The passengers were picked through a lottery. The crew wore masks and Hawaiian shirts and served cocktails during what was just a 90-minute flight. Takeoff from Tokyo, I guess, and 90 minutes later they landed Tokyo, but they've had an experience. I don't know. I think that's pretty good. All right.

Whoever said you wouldn't hear something new and different by listening to a podcast? Look what you've had today. I know what you're doing. I can see you. I know what you're doing right now. You're wearing your mask, and you're trying to blow out a match. Be careful.

Stay safe. Don't have that match too close to the mask. Right? Okay, tomorrow is the race next door. Tomorrow's Wednesday. Bruce Anderson joins us, and as promised last week, I think we're going to try and do a,

an answer. Some of you, there've been lots of questions and lots of ideas from many of you. What we're going to do for this first one is I'll probably take five. I'll take five of, of, I mean, there's a lot of good questions

so I'll just take five and we'll bounce them around and see what we come up with for thoughts and ideas and comments and answers for you on those five points that have been sent in by you, the listeners

I think this is a good moment to take it a lot of things have been happening in the last couple of days and I think this is a good moment to take it. A lot of things have been happening in the last couple of days, and I think some of them will find their way into the conversation as we try to answer your questions. One other thing that I mentioned,

I think it was on Friday's podcast, that we were looking at for today with these numbers starting to go off on COVID-19 that we might have an expert on today. I decided to wait a week because the people that I talked to and the experts that I talked to over the weekend were saying, you know what, give us a moment here to get an understanding of how things play out on the school front in the first week.

We want to see how that works because that's going to have an impact. And that's fair enough. So we'll hold off and get some thoughts next week from at least one of our pandemic experts. Okay? In the meantime, tomorrow, the race next door, Bruce Anderson joins us. We look forward to talking to you about some of your thoughts

on that. Hope you've enjoyed today's podcast. You want to do that Antarctic trip, right? Think Northwest Passage. That would be fun. I'll just figure out how to come up with the eight grand. Okay. That would be fun. I'll just figure out how to come up with the $8,000. Okay.

That's the Bridge Daily for this Tuesday of Week 26. It's been fun. Look forward to tomorrow. I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks for listening. We'll talk to you again in 24 hours.