You elected her - now please listen to her: STAY HOME

News 100 redBy Pepper Parr

April 11th, 2020

BURLINGTON, ON

 

The Mayor is pushing the message again and again – she has been relentless, which at this point in time is the most important job she has.

In the photograph below people are milling about in Union Square in New York City. The photograph was taken March 21, a scant three weeks ago.

Union Sq markeet garden NY City

Photograph taken three weeks ago – the COVID-19 virus was in the air then – they didn’t know that.

Yesterday, the Governor of the State of New York announced that there were 799 deaths in one day in the city.

covid virus

This red spikes are the part of the virus that attaches itself to us. Fascinating article in the Saturday Globe and Mail that explains what we are up against in great detail.

The COVID-19 virus is literally in the air – we are transmitting it from person to person and in the process killing each other.

The way we stop this is to just stop going outside.

Difficult, yes. Very hard for some. Close to impossible for others.

But that is what we are up against.

We have to dig down deep and do what we are being asked to do. Stay inside; if you decide to go out – stay away from other people.

For those who would like to understand this disease we are fighting there is an excellent news feature in the Saturday Globe and Mail. It is complex, actually quite fascinating, to learn how this virus attaches itself to us and how the scientists are looking for way to combat it.

The Mayor’s message is clear – sure you may have heard it yesterday, and the day before. Listen to it again and pay attention – your life depends on it.

Mayor Meed Ward

Mayor Marianne Meed Ward

Please stay home and self-isolate, engage in physical distancing and only go outside for essentials, such as food and medical needs or appointments.

Residents with symptoms are to self-isolate at home for 14 days and ask family, friends or neighbours to safely drop off supplies to you.

This is required to keep each other safe and healthy and to “flatten the curve.”

The longer we stay apart now, the sooner we can come together again.

Look at those numbers out of New York City – 799 dead in a single day.

Return to the Front page
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

11 comments to You elected her – now please listen to her: STAY HOME

  • David

    Just looked to see if a ‘Contact Tracing’ App for smart phones will be rolling out soon in Canada, this App has been incredibly successful in some Asian countries and is being rolled out across Europe. According to an article in the ‘National Post’ the answer is no, Provinces have shown no interest in this technology, because of privacy concerns….Show me where to sign up is all I can say.

  • Eve St Clair

    Why show pictures of New York City on a Burlington story? Cant find any busy places in Burlington to fear monger residents who already stay home !!!!!!!!!!!

  • David

    I have started tipping essential workers. 10% of my purchase price. I don’t care if its’ allowable. They are at work.because they have to be. put your hands in your pockets and give.

  • Small note: I believe it’s understood that COVID virus actually stays active on surfaces that droplets contact – It’s not just airborne.

  • Don Fletcher

    I hope & pray that our government (federal & provincial principally) has more in its’ arsenal than this blunt force solution of physical separation to deal with this problem. Initially, they dismissed the threat as it was insidiously taking hold & are now hitting the panic button as it has started to subside. Being reactive is good, but being proactive is much better. Should we not at the municipal level be demanding a greater level of testing & surveillance and contact tracing now (vis-a-vis South Korea) so that we will be ready to exit this self-induced coma that our economy is now in, as soon as possible? Ontario’s levels of testing are the lowest on a per capita basis in all of Canada! We can do better than just reiterating the “stay at home” mantra, as important as it is, which is just wearing on all of us.. Much better.

    • I agree completely with the South Korea example. They worked down form 5,000 cases with contact tracing. They have a dense population of 51 million it should be easier for Canada to do this than South Korea.

  • Sally Hewitt

    I just went to pick up a part for my bike from Brant Cycle and I couldn’t believe the number of cars out there today!! Where is everyone going? It almost looks like a “normal” Saturday out there , traffic wise !!!8

  • Tom Muir

    I want to keep hearing the Mayor again and again.

    Then I can hear myself providing some science based information that can provide support here for the Mayor.

    The following is a copied 7 tweet thread for anyone interested in some science and sources. Source is at the bottom

    “In many ways, this should be entirely obvious, but we now have strong evidence that social distancing results in decreased #COVID19 transmission rates.

    1/7 Modeling analyses can estimate changes in transmission over time based on case counts. Here we look at estimates of the “effective reproductive number” Re (the number of secondary infections caused by a primary infection) over time in different locations.

    2/7 mentions and colleagues at @MRC_Outbreak estimate that Re went from ~3.5 to just greater than 1 in many European countries over the span of March as social distancing increased.

    Report 13 – Estimating the number of infections and the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on COVID-19 in 11 European countries Report 13 – Estimating the number of infections and the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on COVID-19 in 11 European countries https://www.imperial.ac.uk/mrc-global-infectious-disease-analysis/covid-19/report-13-europe-npi-impact/

    3/7 mentions and colleagues at @cmmid_lshtm have an amazing live dashboard that estimates changes in effective reproductive number through time. They estimate decreases across many European countries as well.

    4/7 cmmid.github.io/topics/covid19… mentions and colleagues at @IDMOD_ORG estimate that Re decreased significantly in King County, Washington, from ~3.5 to just over 1 from late-Feb to mid-March. covid.idmod.org/#/ResearchandR…

    5/7 Also as expected, but helpful to see, is a tight connection between people’s mobility patterns (as estimated by aggregated data from Facebook in the @IDMOD_ORG example) and the transmission of the virus, again suggesting that social distancing works.

    6/7 It is entirely decreases in Re through social distancing that have resulted in a slowdown in the rate of increase in daily case counts (figure from @jburnmurdoch ). 7/7″

    https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1248096622010978304

  • Joe Pyche

    Great tribute to the Front line workers by the Essential workers from the City of Burlington yesterday.Where the members of town council invited by the Mayor and asked to show their support.Will the members of town council be invited to the virtual town hall meetings?