The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - You Want To Thank Someone New? #ThankATrucker and Here's Why.

Episode Date: March 30, 2020

For good reason we are thanking front line health care workers as well as police, fire and paramedics for their amazing work during this crisis. But here's why we shouldn't forget truckers --- they are critical to how this story will play out over the next weeks and months.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here with the latest episode of The Bridge Daily. As we begin a week where in a couple of days we'll see the backside of March and the beginning of April. Won't miss March. Got a feeling I'm not going to much miss April either. News is still difficult. It will continue to be difficult for a while. But you know what? It will eventually get better.

We don't know how long it will be before it gets better, but it is going to get better. Hope you had a weekend that you found new challenges and new things to do with your likely isolation, as many of you I know have been in, as have I. One thing I did this last couple of days is I just took a break from news, from watching news, from the all-news channels, all of them, Canadian and American. I just, I needed a break. I needed to keep my sanity, if you will.

I watched maybe an hour on Saturday, an hour on Sunday, and that was it. I didn't miss anything. It's still an awful story. We know that. But, you know, I needed a break. Back at it to some degree today, but feeling better for having just backed off a bit on the weekend. And sometimes, you know, I get upset with my old profession, my still current profession, journalism. Sometimes I think in a situation like this where so many journalists are focused on what went wrong in the past, which is a story,

and there will be a time for real accountability on the part of a lot of people who made decisions in these last few months. But right now, to me, the focus is on what are you doing to make things safer for me, for my family, for my community? That's what I want to know. I want to know now.

I don't want to know yesterday. I want to know now. Give me hope for tomorrow. Anyway, maybe that's just me. But that's how I felt and was one of the reasons I kind of backed off for a bit over the weekend. You know, we did the program on Friday night that went through the weekend, and a lot of you listened to the podcast, listened to the Bridge Daily over the weekend, and have already received a lot of mail.

I'll be doing the same thing, you know, keeping mail until the end of the week and doing a podcast on Friday with some of your thoughts and questions. But there were quite a few comments about masks that was prompted by the discussion we had over the weekend about masks and who should use them and when. And there are some different thoughts out there. I was watching Dr. Tam today, Canada's chief medical health officer, who's been fantastic through all this. But she pretty well conceded, listen, if I had enough masks, I'd say everybody should wear them all the time. I'm putting words in her mouth, but that's clearly what she seemed to be suggesting. But her biggest concern right now is that there are enough masks for health care workers, and especially frontline health care workers. She wants to make sure of that before she's suggesting that the primary use for masks is for those who are sick to prevent others from

getting sick. Now, if you are sick, as she pointed out, you should be isolated. You should be at home. You shouldn't be out walking the streets or going to the grocery store or do anything like that infect others. So that's something to keep in mind. But at the same time, it was clear, at least it was clear to me, that she seemed to be suggesting if she had the luxury of an unlimited supply of masks, even with their faults, masks on everybody would be a good thing. Now, I was searching today to try and get some other thoughts on this question, and I ended up in an article that's just out in Science Magazine that has a short interview with the doctor who's been kind of leading the charge in China on trying to get things under control, George Gao.

Now, he's Harvard-trained, Oxford-trained, extremely well-respected around the world by other doctors on this, and who is spending his time, a lot of his time, dealing with other countries by other doctors on this and who is spending his time a lot of his time dealing with other countries and other doctors talking to them about how they dealt with the coronavirus and how they continue to deal with it but one of the questions he was asked was, what mistakes are other countries making? His answer, the big mistake in the U.S. and Europe, in my opinion, is that people aren't wearing masks. This virus is transmitted by droplets and close contact. Droplets play a very important role.

You've got to wear a mask because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out of your mouth. And you're going, okay, that's fine if you're sick. But listen, many people have asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic infections. In other words, they don't even know they have it. And there are a lot of people out there like that. If they're wearing face masks, it can prevent droplets that carry the virus from escaping and infecting others. So he's talking with, I guess in some sense, with the luxury of an unlimited supply of masks. And you see China's been sending masks everywhere, including to Canada and to the United States just in the last couple of days.

Which, you know, I mean, one of the criticisms in Canada of the Canadian government was that they sent away some supplies to China when China was in the midst of the worst of its crisis in February. And how could Canada do that? And who was responsible for allowing that to happen? This is one of these, you know, sort of past questions. Well, you know, they're sending back apparently, you know, five, ten times more equipment to us now that we're in need than we ever sent to them.

But you don't hear those same people who were criticizing the government before they knew China was already sending stuff back. You don't hear them anymore. Anyway, that's the masks issue. Now, I want to spend a minute on talking about, we spend a lot of time talking about frontline workers and how amazing they have been and continue to be and how we are desperately relying on them to continue their work over these next weeks and months. And they may be doctors or nurses or hospital workers of many different kinds. They may be paramedics, they may be firefighters, they may be police officers. They're all frontline

workers, healthcare workers. They are the frontline of the fight against this. And they've been incredible. I've mentioned some other professions, and I want to mention one in particular right now because I tell you, they are critical, and they are critical for basically our survival over these next weeks and months. It's one thing to have the health care

that we're desperately in need of. It's quite another thing to also, for those who are not infected, for those who are isolated, for those who are trying to live through this, to have the supplies to carry on. Now, there's much focus on toilet paper, but there's not enough focus on food.

The food supply is critical. And how do we get our food? We get it at the grocery store, but how does it get to the grocery store? It gets to the grocery store on trucks. And I think sometimes we forget the importance of those big semis we see roaring down the highway. You know, I watch them sometimes in awe about what those truckers are able to do. Sometimes I'm mad at them because they, you know,

splashed mud or whatever on my car when I was behind them. But right now, as in all the time, but right now we realize it or should realize it, that they're critical. You see a truck, you think about a truck, thank a trucker. Thank a trucker. Try hashtag thank a truck, you think about a truck, thank a trucker. Thank a trucker. Try hashtag thank a trucker.

Because we wouldn't be getting the supplies if it wasn't for them. Two-thirds of what is the trade between Canada and the U.S., and we get so many of our supplies from the United States, two-thirds of that trade comes by truck. There's a truck crossing the border between Canada and the United States every two and a half seconds. There are 4,500 trucking companies in Canada, 200,000 men and women who are 4,500 trucking companies in Canada, 200,000 men and women who are drivers.

That's a lot of people to keep in mind right now because if we didn't have them, if they weren't risking their protection by doing what they do, including going into the states to pick up supplies. If they weren't doing what they were doing, things would grind to a halt here. So we have to remember truckers.

We shouldn't forget what they're doing, what part they're playing in this story of looking after each other, of doing something for your fellow Canadians. So I'm not kidding. Try that hashtag. You're sending tweets or you're sending Instagram pictures, throw it in there anyway. Hashtag thank a trucker.

All right. I want to try and end on... I want to try and end a little bit on an up note. Listen, we're in a difficult situation. The numbers keep going the wrong way. And they probably will continue to do that for a while. But eventually it will turn around. And part of the reason they'll turn around

is not only that we're doing our part by staying home, healthcare workers are doing their part, healthcare workers are doing their part, truckers are doing their part, and the grocery workers are doing their part. And then there's this other group that we don't see or hear, the researchers and the scientists who were embedded in institutions and universities around the world, racing to try and find the vaccine, the cure, the drugs

that are going to slow this down and defeat it? It could be tonight. It may be another month. It may be six months. It may be another year. But they are desperately trying to find the answer to this question. You know, I heard the other day, well, actually, I saw it, University of Toronto.

And listen, believe me, they're not alone. University of Saskatchewan, UBC. I mean, there are universities across our country where researchers and scientists are working at this thanks to the grants and donations that have been made to them, trying to find answers. But, you know, U of T put out a note the other day that they sent to me. And they just listed, you know, they listed four or five.

I'll mention them. U of T medicine virologists, Samira Mubareka and Robert Kozak, based at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center. That's in Toronto. Together with the McMaster University scientists, have isolated and reproduced the virus. It's the coronavirus. Of benefit to teams around the world,

working on its genomic profile and on vaccine development. That's critical, critical to coming up with the answer. Pharmacy professor Keith Pardee is working on tools to make it faster and cheaper to carry out widespread tests for COVID-19, particularly in remote parts of the world, a WHO global priority. U of T alumni brothers Paul and John Lim, founders of Spartan Bioscience, are developing a mobile handheld testing kit, the world's smallest DNA analyzer, for production in the next few weeks. Dallalana School of Public Health epidemiologists. I have trouble with that word, David Fissman and Ashley Tweet are modeling data to forecast the spread of disease

and answer three fundamental questions we all have. When will it peak? How big will it be? When will it end? Yep, those are all fundamental questions we have. And these are remarkable people, scientists and innovators, trying to find solutions. And they're not alone.

As I said, you could point to every university in the country that has some form of research going on by its researchers and scientists and students in labs across the country. They're working late into the night. They're working from their labs. They're working from their homes. They're trying to find a way out. And they're duplicated by people around the world who are doing the same thing. But don't be surprised if it's a Canadian. We've got a history. You know it.

We've got a history of being ahead of the curve on trying to come up with solutions to these kind of terrible problems. All right, so when I say try to think positive, I'm trying to think of those people who are doing amazing work as well. I'm talking about the companies. Somebody told me the other day there are 1,000 Canadian companies who are looking at ways of adapting their production lines to create other things to help. They too are all over the country. They're doing

this not for financial gain, they're doing it because they know this is a team effort. So we're all trying to pitch in in our way. And I know you are too, in your way. One of those ways is we stay at home. You know, I did, I volunteered for a number of public service announcements over this weekend, and I think one of them is coming up tonight. And its focus is on the staying at home. But there are others too.

So we're all, you know, trying to do our part. I know you're trying to do your part. Alright. That's Monday night's Bridge Daily. March 30th. We're getting close to April.

And that's when, you know, it's going to rain a lot. Sun's going to come out. Flowers are going to come up. And we're into May get warmer there are going to be nice things to look at now we need a nice story to celebrate around that while never forgetting

what and who we've lost and who we can be grateful for helping us through all this. All right, that is the Bridge Daily for this day. I'm Peter Mansbridge. You can always drop a line, themansbridgepodcast at gmail.com, themansbridgepodcast at gmail.com.

Take care of yourself. Stay well. And we'll talk again in 24 hours. I just have to do the math there. Yes. 24 hours. And we'll see you then. Thank you.