Still with Canada, I live right across the river from Ottawa, Canada's capital.

The federal parliament is a 10-minute drive from my house.

Anyway, one of the biggest demonstrations in years there was after the Parkland, FL high school shooting. Thousands of people marched on Parliament Hill screaming "gun control now!".

Of course, this country already has gun control. Personally, I think it should be strengthened but that's not really what these marchers had in mind.

Though that protest was dwarfed by a BLM march last year. Admittedly BLM issues do have relevance in Canada, but obviously a lot of the oomph for that march came from events in the US (George Floyd, etc.).

MTC Briefing: May/June 2021

https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/a...a-16288049.php

I'm not sure I'm unhappy about this. If they won't get vaccinated, I WANT them to get covid and become immune that way to reduce the population where the virus can multiply. But maybe if the number of cases rises it'll cause a few more to get vaccinated too.

We have an incompetent Liberal/National (right wing) government.

You guys only had 4 years of this crap, we've had 8-9 years / 3 parliamentary terms of it.

I can't speak for others but riding Muni subway in rush hours to and from work you are packed in and I mean the kind of packed where you cannot stand and wear a backpack. You can not lift up your arm to look at your phone. You have absolutely no personal space and your pressed up against other bodies. Your face is inches away from many others. It is definitely a place were viruses spread.

Also, Muni busses are not air conditioned and have no mechanical ventilation and the only air flow comes if people open the windows or the driver opens the one vent on top of the bus which doesn't happen in winter or even often at other seasons because SF all year round can be COLD.

Ha that sounds like my commute pre covid on the trains

I'm back in Chicago for the first time since covid, and the changes are pretty apparent in just a few hours.
Much lower ridership on the cta, closed restaurants in the loop, less vehicular traffic in the loop than I've ever seen.
La salle was a ghost town at 630 pm. It's always been quiet after work hours, but not like that. There was still vehicular traffic going into river north and such. But not today.
It's just weird.

Is Manhattan still like this as well?

If you really had a liberal government (in the traditional sense, not the American sense) than you wouldn’t be going into lockdown because a handful of people got Covid. You’ve apparently got some kind of fascist government.

That’s kind of crazy. A bus full of people is never cold, and certainly not in SF (and yes I am very aware that it can get cold, but it’s not Moscow). They are always too hot.

There are signs on the tube now saying that the air is exchanged every 3 minutes. I’m not sure if this is true of all lines - I avoid some because they’re too hot and uncomfortable, and those probably have the worst air quality as well.

With regard to Muni busses, we aren’t talking about actually being cold inside. I’m talking about the outside air being cold enough people don’t want the windows open and blowing on them. It’s been in the 60s this week. That’s cold enough to keep the windows of a moving vehicle closed and people do.

Subway trains are different, more sophisticated things. I don’t know what kind of mechanical ventillation they have.

It's ridiculous and indefensible is what it is.

The problem is that the opposition government was hounding the Liberals for their "loose border measures" as their chosen point of criticism for months. The Liberals reacted by tightening border restrictions early in the year, and they kept hounding them anyway (ban flights from India!).

The feds are in an awkward position now where there is immense pressure to loosen border restrictions but they have to appear "strong" on border measures or the opposition will rip them apart, heading into a likely election this fall.

It's stupid and speaks to Canada's over willingness to trample on it's citizens rights over small risks.

I mean even today even if you are a Canadian citizen who is fully vaccinated (over 40% of the population now), you have to quarantine for at least 3 days in a government approved hotel upon returning from international destinations, and provide two negative covid tests, then continue to your home and quarantine for the remainder of the 14 day period regardless of vaccination status or two negative covid test results.

That changes on Monday to just two negative covid tests for *Canadians* that are fully vaccinated, but non-canadians still have to do the whole quarantine theatre. And even the two negative covid tests require at least one to be paid out of pocket and requires self isolation at your residence until the second test comes back negative. The whole thing is overkill. It should be show proof of vaccination, regardless of nationality, and go on your business.

It's all a giant crock of sh*t and everyone knows it.

^that is bizarre. What is being accomplished other than hurting the economy? We are going to Italy in a few weeks and all we have to do is show our CDC vaccine card.

At start covid affected very badly, as all the people started to live home. Live became so miserable, as we couldn't go out frequently as we used to go. I was so worried about my little baby because I didn't want him to get affected. He was also suffering from reflux, so I had to put him in a baby swing in the upright position after every meal. I couldn't take out my baby out in the park. But thank God, now everything is normal. I hope the pandemic gets over quickly.

Plus there is nothing about their policies that is backed by science

I mean you can probably scientifically prove that these measures will indeed lower case counts if that is your only policy goal. The question is what marginal increases in public safety are worth it at this point.

From CBS2/KCAL9 News:

LA County Reports 506 New COVID-19 Cases, Highest Number Since Mid-April

By CBSLA StaffJuly 1, 2021 at 4:48 pm

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Thursday reported 506 new COVID-19 infections, the highest daily number of new cases since mid-April and more than double the average daily number reported in mid-June.

The high number of cases continued the county’s upward trend that began after statewide lifting of health restrictions and could be driven in part by the spread of the highly-contagious Delta variant.

Health officials also said the county’s daily positivity rate held steady at 1.2% Thursday, but that was triple the 0.8% rate reported last Friday.

As of Thursday, there were 280 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, 74 of whom were being treated in intensive care units.

County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said the recent increases in both cases and hospitalizations appeared to be concentrated largely in the Black community, which also has the lowest rate of vaccination.

Ferrer said the disproportionate impact was a “cause for alarm,” that required “strategic actions.”

However, she also said the upward trend in cases and hospitalizations has thus far not led to a corresponding increase in deaths. On Thursday, public health reported six new deaths, bringing the countywide death toll to 22,489.

The increases come amid growing national concern about the Delta variant, first detected in India, which is believed to be far more contagious, though it was not immediately known if it caused more severe illness.

Locally, there have been 245 confirmed cases of the Delta variant, nearly double the number from last week, an increase that Ferrer said made clear there was “increasing circulation” in the community.

And while she again stressed that existing vaccines provided strong protection, including against the Delta variant, breakthrough infections do happen.

According to data released Thursday, there have been 2,190 documented breakthrough infections in the roughly 4.5 million county residents who are fully vaccinated, for an infection rate of 0.048%. Of the fully vaccinated people who got the virus, 192 were hospitalized and 20 died.

Link: https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2021...nce-mid-april/


Anyway, anecdotally...

Two and a half weeks since California lifted the COVID restrictions (more or less), we here in LA seem to be in a weird transitional period when it comes to the masking. It's still required on public transportation of course, I see masked people at bus stops and on the Metro Rail platforms, but stores and restaurants all have their own policies/no policy regarding masks. Hehe my partner and I have gotten stares when we were wearing masks as we entered one restaurant (which we didn't realize had no mask policy), and while shopping at our usual Target, which has signs that say that you only need to wear a mask if you are NOT fully vaccinated, we were not wearing masks but some masked people were staring at us.

Bizarre.

I can't wait until all of this starts leveling out. I personally don't stare at anyone (I don't stare at people anyway) whether or not they're masked.

The Chicago Loop today is a LOT better than anytime during the pandemic. . . there is much more traffic and places that had closed are back open bringing in a more typical summer load of tourists. . . at this time last year the only people who were in the Loop either a) lived there or b) were hood folk looking for trouble. . . traffic on the expressways to and from the 'burbs is starting to resemble pre-pandemic loads as well. . .

. . .

I've noticed that in NYC different parts of the city have adapted to different norms. A couple of weekends ago, about a week after the restrictions were lifted, I went to Flushing for the first time since the pandemic started and +90% of people walking on the streets were wearing masks, which is by far the highest outdoor mask usage I've seen in months. The very next day I was in Manhattan and stopped into the Whole Foods at Columbus Circle where it seemed like 10-20% of the people were wearing masks inside the store. That was by far the lowest percentage of indoor mask wearing I'd seen at any place that isn't a bar or restaurant since the mask mandates went into effect.

In my area of Brooklyn, indoor mask usage is still required at all of the grocery and retail stores, but is mostly not required in bars or restaurants.

My very anecdotal observation is that Outer Borough nonwhite neighborhoods, especially Asian and West Indian neighborhoods, still seem more masked than average. Of course East Asians have a higher propensity for masking and a large proportion of West Indians work in hospitals, the MTA and other masks-required environments.

The progressive/fancy/core neighborhoods are somewhat less masked, and the white ethnic and Orthodox neighborhoods and some Hispanic neighborhoods are least masked.

Sounds about right, but Flushing was on another level. I bike all over Brooklyn pretty regularly and have not seen that degree of mask usage anywhere in the borough in months. I haven't been through the Brooklyn Chinatown in a while though, so maybe it's similar there as it is to Flushing.

Austin seems to have resumed most normal activities. Traffic is once again a real problem. You see very few people wearing masks in supermarkets or other shopping venues. Bars and clubs are packed. Restaurants are once again busy. Hotels are doing a brisk business, especially on weekends. Airport traffic is way up. Supposedly almost 50% of local workers have returned to offices, but everyone I know is opting to continue working from home. The most frequent excuse for doing so is a desire to avoid spending 45 minutes to an hour each way in rush hour traffic. Hospitalization numbers haven't been this low in over a year- 55 currently hospitalized with 21 in ICU and 10 on vents. That's about 10% of the hospitalization numbers from January of this year. New case numbers are still low, but the percentage of people testing positive has inched back up in the past week. 53% of Travis County residents are fully vaccinated (71% over age 65 fully vaccinated), so that leaves a lot of people who might be likely to catch the more contagious new variants. Right now, nobody seems very concerned about that possibility. Folks are very eager to resume normal activities. Since I am always a bit of a pessimist, I fear we might be headed into another spike in cases that will impact the under-vaccinated Hispanic and black communities hardest. Vaccination has been a particularly tough sell in the local black community, and there are probably a LOT of undocumented Hispanics who are reluctant to get vaccinated. And then there are the anti-vaccination crazy types out there who have so far avoided becoming infected in significant numbers. More will be revealed. I'm glad I got my Moderna back in the late winter, even though that second shot was a real doozy.

In LA, the masking seems more along ethnic and generational lines, not socio-economic. You see more Asians masked than not. Senior citizens seem to be less-masked than middle-aged people (probably because they were among the first to be vaccinated), and even among the middle-aged crowd, it's almost 50/50, or maybe more like 40/60, with non-masked being the larger number. The young crowd are more like 30/70, with the non-masked being the larger number.

Traffic is definitely way up in southern California. And, it's been my observation that traffic has been really heavy on the weekends, heavier than during the work week. My guess is that there are still some people working from home, but on the weekends, EVERYONE is out and about going every which way. That's how it is here. You have people going to the beaches, to Santa Barbara, to San Diego, to Palm Springs and beyond... EVERY direction.

In fact just this last weekend, my partner and I drove up to go hiking at the Carpinteria Bluffs (and to go drinking at one of our favorite meaderies hehe) and what we thought would be about an 80-90 minute drive or so ended up being well over 2 hours, maybe even close to 2 1/2 hours.

Funny, but, reading through the posts of the very 1st page of this thread... wow.

What a year it's been, huh guys? We've all been through so much.

Yeah, it's been a minute. We're all going to look back at this era of history with mixed emotions.

The sidewalks of some streets have disappeared in Paris

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...bdc982b0_c.jpg
Rue de la Gaité, 14e arrondissement by Minato ku, sur Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e9d1d152_c.jpg
Rue de la Gaité, 14e arrondissement by Minato ku, sur Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6104267f_c.jpg
Boulevard Raspail, 14e arrondissement by Minato ku, sur Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...583d3ab2_c.jpg
Rue de l'Odessa, 14e arrondissement by Minato ku, sur Flickr

It's the same in San Francisco:

http://www.noevalleyvoice.com/2010/S...ParkletSal.jpg

[img]https://miro.medium.com/focal/1200/675/55/52/1*sdfwMfnQac3hky5cdQYZjQ.jpeg[/img]

https://blog.resy.com/wp-content/upl...hu-scaled.jpeg

https://img.sfist.com/2021/06/nopa-parklet.jpg

https://goop-img.com/wp-content/uplo...-Cinema-1.jpeg
https://www.google.com/search?rls=en...FqeGuxx73KhRzM

I'm rather proud of my diverse county in Arizona. Sitting as it does on the border, it has a high percentage of Hispanic immigrants and it seems to be getting them vaxxed pretty well:

https://content.govdelivery.com/acco...letins/2e6996e

I totally disagree with temps in the 60s being cold enough to keep the windows closed. I don’t think I’ve ever ridden an SF Muni bus, and from the sound of things I never will.

I won’t even get in a handicapped accessible taxi in London (the Mercedes vans with automatic sliding doors), because unlike the normal cars the windows don’t open fully, and I can’t be in a non-air conditioned vehicle without the window open.


I see more ethnic east Asians wearing masks here than anyone else too. And I don’t even think they are from East Asia or recent immigrants. It’s like there’s a desire to signal some kind of superiority.

I’ve stopped wearing a mask except in very rare circumstances. More and more people are disregarding the rules (which remain in place) at this point, and I choose to go to businesses that don’t care/don’t enforce.

I wore a mask on my flight from O’hare to SFO 3 days ago.

Been to stores and a winery here and never wore one, plus I don’t see anyone else doing so (I’m visiting Livermore, CA at this moment)

Anyhow, the whole “I’m not wearing a mask much and hardly anyone else is either” topic is a dead horse getting beaten at this point. Suffice to say that masks are off for most but not all, but whoever chooses to still wear them all of the time, well, do whatever makes you happy

I'm in Upstate NY and other than the airports, no one here has worn a mask. Life is pretty much back to normal here.

I still wear one and at work everyone are required to. Only if you are in an office by yourself or outside moving around the campus and social distancing that we can take it off. Most of the juveniles are not yet vaccinated.

I also wear one when I go into a store, and I still see at least 75% of the people still wearing a masks indoors here in Los Angeles and this was last night at Costco. It’s usually majority older white men, and about half of the wifes/girlfriends with them. I’m actually surprised to see most 30 something and more men more than women still wearing them. Every Asian person I encountered are still wearing masks, along with a lot of white ethnic groups that live around here.

As I write, we are getting ready to take my 4 year old son to go get a Covid test this morning when an urgent care opens. He started coughing last night and woke up crying in the middle of the night, so we all had a sleepless night. He has thick heavy mucous and a cough.

I suspect it’s probably just a cold he picked up from one of the kids at summer school that just started this week. Regular school was much better organized, and summer school so far has been a nightmare checking into school each day this week. They have us standing in this line in the hot SFV son about 45 minutes just to get check our son in the gate. They haven’t given him his water or his food we pack, and school starts at 8am until 12pm and it’s been hot. I also noticed some parents don’t know the protocol required to get in, and they have let them in without the daily pass. Tuesday I had to pick up my son early from school so that my wife and I trade off at work as she had to go in to complete some grading. When they brought him to the office I noticed he had no mask on, and that was a concern because even if he lost it we pack plenty for him to replace it. There is no other place he’s been but we’re hoping it’s ’s just a cold. I guess we’ll be home all weekend, can’t even take him to the pool.

I was in LA for the last 2 weeks and it was really interesting so see mask usage vary so much by area. Even a couple of days after the mask mandate was lifted, I was in Westwood and shocked to find myself the ONLY person walking around and going in Starbucks without a mask. Maybe it's the influence of UVA Hospital/UCLA in that area? I feel like people were scowling at me a little bit, like I was a right-winter Covid-denier or something.

But then I went to WeHo, Fairfax District, etc., and it was about 60/40 maskless to masking. In Koreatown and more immigrant-oriented communities, I saw 80-90% of folks wearing masks.

In San Diego, which is much more white and a bit more moderate, it was more like 70/30 maskless to masking.

Off topic, but why do Canadians seem so religious about lockdowns? I've been following some reddit threads, and it seems like any time Canada is loosening restrictions people are up in arms upset and angry that it's happening...they want more restrictions in place! Comments like "I don't want the 50% Yankees coming in here and making it worse!"

It's really amazing how culturally similar and vastly different our cultures are at the same time.

I'm shattered. But for the record I watched a random assortment of busses go by today: Windows all closed.

Since the CDC announced vaccinated people don't need to wear them, the percentage of people doing so has declined dramatically in the Bay Area. But I'm not sure the near universal mask wearing of the city and inner Bay was ever the norm out there.

It is probably a cold. They are back with a vengeance. I have one right now and it has knocked me out for a few days. I hope he feels better soon.

Thanks for the well wishes, he’s feeling better today, no coughing, Only a slight fever and runny nose. We received the results back this morning and he tested negative, and so did the wife and I which I already suspected since we are both fully vaccinated. The medical staff also suspected my son only had a cold after examining him, but they still wanted to make sure he wasn’t positive. I hope you feel better soon as well.

I mean I'm in BC right now which has rescinded virtually all restrictions including masking. It's no different here than in the US now - it just happened a bit slower because the vaccination rollout was slower.

"50% Yankees"???

I come from an area where 82% of eligible people (over 12) have had at least one shot--like most most Canadians who've gotten anything so far--and that isn't unusual in either the 3 west coast states or New England, in other words much of the US adjacent to Canada.

If they're afraid of Mississippians coming north, I think they're afraid of their own shadows. But if they want to demand people crossing into Canada show proof of immunization, that would be fine. Certainly a lot of Canadians who own US homes near me in Arizona would be grateful to be able to move back and forth.

Pretty much Ontario is the only place in Canada with major restrictions left at this point. Which, granted, is nearly 40% of Canada's population.

Even Ontario will essentially enter "post lockdown" in 1-2 weeks, with only minor capacity limits remaining and the mask mandate still in place.

Canada will be ramping down it's vaccination program in 1-2 weeks as well. Ontario is doing about 2% of the population a day for vaccinations right now, total second shots will start to equal the number of first shots administered in about 10 days at current rates. We already have enough vaccines in the county to complete the program, it's just a matter of getting them into people's arms.

I've discussed on this thread already the ridiculous border restrictions still in place, but I would be surprised if they aren't loosened on July 21.

It's mostly just Ontario that is being ridiculously conservative on restrictions, but as it's 38% of Canada, as goes Ontario, as goes the whole country.

Well Ontario's restrictions just delayed a September business deal that had been previously rescheduled four times. The American side basically gave up, for now. Guess I won't be visiting Canada till 2022.

^ That’s because they are “saving lives” :haha:

This was my subway ride coming home, this evening.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a7f7a292_c.jpg
Paris metro by Minato ku, sur Flickr

Actually almost every of my subway rides has been crowded or packed since the end of june.

In streets, its a mix of masked and unmasked people, as wearing masks is mandatory in enclosed spaces but not anymore in the streets.
Personnaly, I keep my mask outside because it's annoying to have to put it on and take it off constantly.

All of Canada reported just 8 deaths today and less than 400 cases.
I know you think saving lives is not important but Canada has done a great job reducing cases and death.
Cases are increasing in almost every other industrialised country except Canada right now.

here are the the R values of a few western countries in the last month
and r value more than 1.0 means cases are increasing by the way and below 1.0 it means cases are falling.
https://i.postimg.cc/4y8GyrSb/corona...xplorer-31.png

I'm pretty sure that banning fully vaccinated foreigners from entering Canada isn't saving one Canadian life.

Canada is either very lucky or just very isolated. According to Bloomberg, it has given less than 20% of its population 2 doses of vaccine and in the case of the delta variant, which is the reason for the increase in cases where that is occurring, it has been shown that having 2 doses is critically important (the Premier of Luxemberg, who had only 1 dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, is currently hospitalized with covid). 47% of Americans have had 2 doses (that would be well over half of those eligible by being older than 12, probably around 60%).

But to the degree the delta variant isn't there yet, it will likely come. You better get those second shots into people quickly or you are whistling past the graveyard.

In the US, it's all about vaccine hesitancy and there is a huge range. In the medically unsophisticated rural areas and Gulf Coast South, the full vaccination rate is very low (though still higher than Canada for 2 doses) at around 33%. That is pulling down the national averages but in urban areas, especially on the east and west coasts, it's more like ⅔ are fully vaccinated and well over 70% have had at least 1 dose. The increasing number of cases you see will be primarily in those areas with the low full vaccination rates (like Canada).

Israel is currently seeing an outbreak in their vaccinated population

"Many new Covid-19 cases are among vaccinated people, according to Ynet news service. Last Friday, 55% of the newly infected had been vaccinated, the website said."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...rate-ynet-says

the most uptodate stats for Canada as of July 5th are

Total Population
1st Dose
68.0%

2nd Dose
36.1%

for the eligible population (over 12)
1st Dose
78.1%

2nd Dose
41.4%

https://covid19tracker.ca/vaccinationtracker.html

70% of cases in Ontario are the delta variant and it has been the dominates strain since June 16. In the US overall it's only at 25%
so it is the US which has not face the full force of the delta variant yet actually.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ic/7862108002/

As for why Canada seems to be the only western country not seeing cases rise, it down to our first dose strategy which prioritize vaccinated everyone as fast as possible with 1 shot before moving to the second shot.
also Canada has been slower to remove restrictions and allow non-Canadian travellers than other western countries.

Percentage mean nothing. If a population is fully vaccinated, ALL cases will be among the vaccinated. And according to the vaccine trials, that will ultimately be about 5% of the population. What's happening in Israel is consistent with that.

But when people have received only one dose like a very large number of Canadians, the "breakthrough" rate is much higher.