COVID AWARE ORGANIZING

If we're going to build accessible, safe spaces to organize, that needs to include ways to reduce COVID transmissions amongst our comrades. Shira Lurie, a COVID aware activist with Protect our Province Nova Scotia (POPNS) and Mask for Mask Queers, joins host Jessa McLean to give easy, affordable precautions we can incorporate into our organizing and event planning.

Filling in the gaps where our governments have failed to protect us isn't new to progressives. Neither is having to buck popular trends, or create new ones. So why the resistance to masking and other initiatives around air quality? We unpack that and how we can start to bring more people along, even after five years.

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Resources:

• COVID Conscious Under Capitalism - Blueprints of Disruption
• Rabble Rants: Mask Bans (podcast episode)
• Need a Mask? Can you Donate a Mask? DonateMask.ca
• How to build your own Corsi-Rosenthal Box - Corsi-Rosenthal Foundation
• Guest: Shira Lurie

Greetings, friends. My name is Jess McLean, and I'm here to provide you with some blueprints

of disruption. This weekly podcast is dedicated to amplifying the work of activists, examining

power structures, and sharing the success stories from the grassroots. Through these discussions,

we hope to provide folks with the tools and the inspiration they need to start to dismantle

capitalism, decolonize our spaces, and bring about the political revolution that we know

we need. We talk a lot about creating spaces here on Blueprints of Disruption, how to bring

people together, build a sense of community, how to keep each other safe. What we don't

talk about enough is something that encompasses all of that, and that is reducing COVID transmissions,

especially when we're organizing events and setting examples for people. So we brought

on someone from the COVID aware community to provide accessible, undaunting ways we can

better protect ourselves and our comrades. The idea here is to bridge any gaps that might

exist in our movements that are clearly preventing people from incorporating COVID precautions

into their events and their daily lives. Because we know everyone here listening understands

the value of community care. We know we need to step it up when our governments have, you

know, cast our collective well-being aside. And the pandemic is no exception. I know it's

been exhausting, especially on top of everything else that we have on our plate right now. But

I am telling you, if you can just sit tight for the next 45 minutes, hear from Shira just

how easy it is to do better. and why masking for your community is a revolutionary act.

Go ahead and introduce yourself for me, please. So I'm Shira Lurie. I use she, her pronouns,

and I'm located in Chibuktu, Halifax, and I am part of two organizations, primarily, Protect

Our Province Nova Scotia, which is a community care group focused on reducing COVID transmission

through evidence-based mitigations. And the second group I'm a part of is called Mask for

Mask Queers, which runs in-person COVID Safer events, um, based on building community. Um,

it's focused on the queer community, but allies are welcome as well. You put a tweet out there

and it was really like a one-liner. If you want to make your events or your organizations more

COVID friendly, I'm here to help. Like I'm paraphrasing, but that was basically it. And I bookmarked

that and I think immediately sent you a DM saying, I will take you up on that offer. Our audience

are a lot of organizers or people who are in community spaces that I know need to be more

COVID conscious. And I know that... I normally have guests on and I tell them, I prep them

before we hit record and I tell them things like, you know, you're kind of preaching to

the choir a little bit. You'll be talking to progressives. You don't have to explain why

everyone deserves a roof over their head. You know, it's more how we get there. But unfortunately,

you have an uphill battle on your hands, sometimes no matter what the political leanings are.

So I'm going to encourage everybody listening right now, wherever you are on the spectrum

of COVID consciousness, because it varies people's kind of commitment and where they are. We're

hoping to bring as many of you along as possible to maybe bridge the knowledge gap that might

exist, not so much in knowing the dangers of COVID. We will remind you, because there's

some paradoxes here that would be quite astonishing, but practical ways where you can go back to

making your spaces. much more safe for the people that are there, not just from COVID, but for

all different reasons, especially when we're talking air quality and whatnot. So Shira,

you mentioned two organizations there, and although they're both COVID related, if that's not very,

it doesn't sound very nice. It sounds like a symptom, you know? COVID combative. But they

have two completely different approaches. You wanna kind of... unpack that a little bit.

And then I think we're really going to get into how you're holding events that are COVID safe.

I mean, yeah, they are slightly different, though we do, you know, work in tandem pretty well.

So protect our province, Nova Scotia, or like what we like to call pop or poppins. I like

that. Yeah, poppins is cute. It was a seven year old came up with that. And we've really

run with it since. But that was really in response to our provincial government here. removing

COVID protections. And so we started as, you know, let us try and pressure the government

as much as we can to, you know, understand that we need to reduce transmission and to make

decisions based on scientific evidence and not, you know, political will. So we've done a lot

of, you know, op-ed writing. We've done a lot of phone blasts to pressure our government

and also the opposition parties. We've published reports and surveys and things, but we've also

done some community care initiatives like we hand out N95s and rapid tests. We're trying

to get air filters in schools, trying to do some education work. But recently we've also

been doing some community building stuff. We had a COVID Safer Soccer Team for kids this

summer. We've hosted some Halloween. events. This is our second year in a row that we've

had a COVID Safer Halloween event for kids. And yeah, Masks for Masks Queers is really

about creating and hosting spaces where people who are COVID aware and by that we typically,

we don't turn anyone away, but we typically define it as people who are wearing masks in

public indoor spaces where they can socialize, connect with people. build, maintain community.

So we host all kinds of different events. We just recently hosted our Halloween dance. We're

gonna have a New Year's Eve dance. We host game nights and movie nights, and we've done trivia.

So we host all kinds of things. And people are surprised that you can hold an indoor dance

party and call it COVID Safer. But to our knowledge, there has not been an instance of transmission

at any of our events. And like just judging by what I'm seeing around me, There must have

been such a dire need for creating these spaces because third spaces just stopped existing

for the most part, especially in colder weather, which we all experience a lot of in Canada.

And there were very few options for people to socialize. And we don't yet know the impact

of that, right? We're starting to learn the impact of COVID and long COVID, but even that's

just scratching the surface. But isolation is a huge factor as well. And when we're trying

to build communities around all of these movements, you know, the queer community and so many other

issues, we can't just be COVID conscious. We have to find ways to keep bringing people together

as well. Please, like, yes, I am also surprised. So unsurprise me, like, make it easier for

everyone to kind of look at the spaces that they're going to bring people into. And, you

know, the resource is low as well. So there's degrees to which people can do this. But, you

know, what can you share with us that is real hands on stuff that people can apply to their

events right now? Yeah, absolutely. And I want to just begin. with a term that people may

have heard in 2020, but it's sort of found by the wayside, which is layers of protection,

right? There's no foolproof method at the moment, but layers of protection can do a lot of work.

So the first thing is that all our events are mask required. And we ask people to wear a

KN95 or an N95 mask, not cloth or surgical, and we provide masks. And if you... You know,

don't have a local mask bank in your area. If you're in Canada, the charity Donate a Mask

will send you free N95 masks. They have adult and children's size. So mask availability,

at least for the moment, we're really lucky, should not be a problem. They'll cover shipping

and everything. You just have to request through their website. So that's the first thing. The

second thing is we think about air quality because COVID spreads through the air. So we think

about the size of the space and the natural ventilation. Can we open doors? Can we open

windows? Even if it's cold outside, even if you're just cracking a window, it makes a big

difference. Some of our members are the folks who come to our events have CO2 monitors. So

they'll be monitoring the CO2 to see how ventilation is in that space. And we actually learned from

a recent study that, you know, CO2 we used to use as like a proxy for ventilation, but we

also now know that in addition to serving as a proxy for ventilation, the higher the CO2

in a space, actually the more sort of resilient COVID aerosols are. We have air filters. The

ones we use are a bit more expensive. So we have PC fan, Corsair Rosenthal boxes. So the

traditional Corsair Rosenthal boxes with a box fan, and that's inexpensive. You can make it

for about a hundred dollars. Takes less than an hour to build, just with stuff from, you

know, Canadian tire or whatever. The only downside to those, they're a bit bigger and they're

louder. They are incredibly efficient. filtering the air. So if you had one or two in a space,

that's you're outperforming commercial HEPA filters with just you know 100, 200 dollars.

We use the PC fan ones though because they're smaller and quieter and so we have you know

folks who have their own that bring them to events. Jess, I don't know if you can see on

my screen, I have one of mine next to me. Now I know to say it was blending in with the bookshelf

quite nicely. Ah there you go. Yeah so I have them running in my home and then when I go

to events I bring them with me. So that's air filtration wise. And then of course, when the

weather's good, we try to have some events outside. We ask folks to, if they're able, and now this

is becoming harder as availability is becoming worse, but to rapid test the day of, and to

stay home if they feel sick, if anyone in their household feels sick, or if anyone in their

household has a known COVID exposure in the past week. It astonishes me that we were ever

any other way. I know there's still some people that are going out there with these death coughs

and looking around with no shame. Like if I cough in public, I am just instantly, and I

have a mask on, I have a mask on, I'm still going, no, I swear, it was just a dry, I have

no water. But some people have absolutely no shame. But to think that we, at one point,

nobody, almost nobody was checking us for dragging ourselves into work. Because we could, like

if we could stand, if we had a shitty boss, like you just went no matter what, like you

didn't think a lot about making your co-workers sick. But I would like to think that at least

floats across people's mind at a much higher rate than it did before. Because yeah, like

my kids, I have the luxury that they can stay home with me if they need to, but the idea

of, you know. just sending them to go make other children sick and then their family sick, even

if it's not COVID. Who wants to lose two weeks a week with this awful cough and all of the

stuff that goes around? So not to mention, this is five years into an airborne pandemic. When

I heard you say that on, I was listening to an interview of yours, that was really daunting.

I mean, the math is there, you're not lying. But it didn't feel right to hear that we have

not really adapted our behavior all that much. It's gotten worse actually. Now you're less

likely to have people masking in healthcare, for instance, than you were before the pandemic

because it's become so stigmatized. Just as one example, you know, there's more resistance

in healthcare to masking. There's more vaccine hesitancy has increased, not even just for

COVID vaccines, for other vaccines. So in some respects, we're tragically in a worse place

than we were in 2019. That's really messed up, especially if you consider some of the parallels

that you were drawing on Twitter there about death toll. You know, if we look at how many

people that we've lost to COVID and we compare it with things like World War Two and World

War One combined. Is that is that the math? More? Yeah. So more Canadians have died from

COVID and again, are continuing to die than were lost in World War I and World War II combined.

It's a, and that's just, you know, the acute COVID. We know of course that many people are

dying from heart attacks, strokes, disease, et cetera, caused by COVID. That's not going

to be counted in the official COVID death toll. So yeah, the numbers are... so alarming. I

mean, just COVID still the third, according to Statistics Canada, COVID still the third

leading cause of death in Canada, right this moment. I don't know what to call them. COVID

deniers. Is that a term? It is a term. Oh yeah. COVID deniers, COVID minimizers. We got them

all. Well, we got them all. They come in layers as well, right? It's a spectrum on that side,

I suppose. 100%. It's right across there, but that is astonishing that people get away with

denying these deaths or giving them the weight that they deserve. We see that all the time,

where there's tremendous loss and we don't react in the way that we should, but to deny that

these deaths can be attributed to COVID and to really know that these are underplayed numbers

that we have for all the reasons you've listed and more, the amount of people that just go

under the radar in terms of healthcare and the fact that... they're not tracking the numbers

in the way that they were before. It's we, we don't even know what we don't know. Exactly.

And I mean, I think, you know, this idea that helped power the quote unquote return to normalcy

is that, yeah, people are going to die, but you know, they're vulnerable people. I mean,

Dr. Fauci said this in 2023, in an interview with the BBC, he said, the vulnerable will

fall by the wayside. They'll get sick. they'll be hospitalized and then some of them will

die. And he said that not as a bad thing, he said that as a way to reassure people that

COVID wasn't that serious anymore. So part of the problem I think, even though absolutely

everyone is at risk from COVID, for long COVID, et cetera, there's still this idea out there

that, you know, vulnerable people are at the highest risk and they should just stay home

and they're sick anyway. And what were their underlying conditions, all the people who die

from COVID, right? So there's like a fundamental, to be frank, eugenic logic to this return to

normalcy that says vulnerable people are expendable. And I think people have this false idea of

who is vulnerable. You know, forget the- Let's shelve the ableism just for a moment. I guess

this is another form of ableism, but this idea that you aren't vulnerable because you don't

have, like, Diabetes, asthma, I mean, there's all kinds of conditions, some conditions you

don't even know you have because you don't go to the doctor enough because you don't have

a family doctor because our healthcare is underfunded. Like they all, I think they're picturing like

specifically people in hospice that are going, these are vulnerable people who are already

on their way out. No, these are your parents. These are your neighbors. These are, could

be you and your children. And the fact that you're willing to roll the dice there and just

think it might be somebody else is, to me, a real disconnect from reality. But we get that

a lot. Like people don't realize how close they are to being disabled if they're not really

already. And they just tell themselves they're not. And I mean, yeah, again, shelving the

ableism for a second. People at highest risk from COVID include children under five years

old. Children under two, especially, are incredibly likely to be hospitalized, like much more likely

to be hospitalized from COVID. People over 65. And guess what? If you've had at least one

COVID infection, you're now immune compromised. You're at higher risk. So yeah, the idea that

it's some sort of small sliver of the population that is on death's door is, yeah, fundamentally

false, even if it... weren't ableist, it would still, you know, it's just like, it's just

actually factually false. Yeah. And I think that you can chalk that up to the fact that

there's just a really a lack of information too. So the people filling the gaps on information

are not the people you want to be filling the gaps. And you add the stigma that anybody who's

worn a mask in public these days can feel, right? You instantly feel uncomfortable, if only for

the fact that you feel alone. Right? You are definitely part of the minority in the place

that you're at for, unless you're, of course, at Mask for Mask queers events in Nova Scotia,

you would feel a whole lot different. I would love to be in a room with masked people again.

I cannot remember the last time I didn't feel like that in my mask. I'm either in my home

or outside. Or I am feeling like some, I don't know, I go between feeling like a real weirdo

because you're the only person there and you're getting looks to like a revolutionary going

like, put the shoulders back and going, why the fuck aren't you all in masks? Like getting,

and you said something too, said something. I feel like I talked to you on Twitter, but

like that's how it goes. Something about, I don't know if it was anti-fascist or revolutionary,

but that like masking and being. COVID safe at your events that you are doing to mobilize

a revolution, you know, even if you don't want to admit it, that's what you're working for.

That

that act in itself is that is part of it. And let's try to unpack together. I'm sure you've

done this a lot. Why aren't all progressives? Covid conscious. I know we're not a homogenous

group. Lord knows we're seeing that on display many times that we thought some people had

our values and they do not. But inherently socialism and a lot of the isms, the good ones, that

we rally around are built on the idea of community. That, you know, it's not just the greater good

as in the majority, it's the whole good. you know, as much as humanly possible to bring

everybody along. So I understand that people, when they want to make events mask mandatory,

for example, they worry about people not coming because of it. I have to assume or they just

hate masking themselves. Maybe I'm not understanding, but I'd like to I'm going to give. progressive

organizers a little benefit of the doubt, that they know inherently that they probably should

be masking, that they probably shouldn't be accumulating people in one room without masks,

that has risks. Then they start hearing the coughing, and I know that they're thinking,

ugh, these people should be in masks. So why aren't they doing it? Like, do you think I'm

correct? There's probably lots of reasons, but I'm wondering, they think people would scoff

and think they were being silly. What is? What is holding people back from doing the right

thing? Yeah, it's definitely the answer I hear the most is we're worried people won't attend.

And so I think I have a few sort of problem solves for that I have seen work. And one is

to not use the words mass mandatory. Say something like, masks are required and then put in brackets

and will be provided. And you can sometimes people choose to have a little blurb about,

you know, to keep this an accessible and inclusive space, we are requiring masks. to ensure that

our disabled and chronically ill comrades are included. We are requiring masks at this event,

something like that. Again, having masks, different kinds of masks at the front of the room, at

the entrance, having everybody present already mask, that's like organizing and setting up,

et cetera. And I think that most people, as you kind of implied, would be more willing

to mask if they weren't the only ones, right? So there is a kind of barrier reduction. when

you're going to a mask-required event and you see other people already masked when you walk

in. I mean, I have had success encouraging other groups, like for instance, pro-Palestine groups

to require masking at their events. And I've seen people walk in and say, where's my mask?

Where do I get a mask? Or I've seen people walking without a mask, literally notice everyone else

masking and go get up and get a mask. So I think there's just like, in the same way that there's

social pressure to unmask. the majority aren't. There's social pressure to mask when the majority

are. So I think it might be potentially a bigger barrier in our imagination than it is in reality.

And if you just, I say, you know, just try one. Try having one event where you require masking

and see how it goes. You don't have to commit to everything long term. Or, you know, there

are theoretically other options. Like you could have hybrid options or you could have... Say

this event will be masked and this event will not be, etc. But yeah, I would encourage everyone

to take the basic step of requiring masks, make it easy and friendly and feel like a positive

thing and not this like enforced requirement. And have people lean into, as you said, that

feeling of being a revolutionary, that feeling of saying, I know the government is not protecting

my community, I'm gonna protect my community. I know that the government is not protecting

our healthcare system, I'm going to protect our healthcare system. I'm going to make sure

this space is inclusive and accessible to everyone. So it doesn't need to be a sort of downer,

you know? And at your event you can thank people for masking and you can reiterate why it's

important. And the more we normalize masking just in our own spaces, hopefully the more

people will feel, as you said, like a revolutionary when they go out and they're the only person

masked on the subway or something. And maybe the next time they'll be. another person masking.

And I think that's how that's how we'll win. Yeah, we absolutely don't have to be at this

deficit where we've fallen behind because we know how to create safe spaces. We know how

to fill in gaps and lead the way in making accessible spaces. And I want to assure anybody listening

that's like on the fence, you are absolutely driving people away if you do not have COVID

safe events. That's the other thing. I won't attend them. That's the other thing. It's and

I won't promote them at all. Like if I see people's organizations, even ones that I love holding

indoor events with no language on their posters as to it requiring masks in any form, we will

not share it here on Blueprints of Disruption. I do appreciate that you are still trying to

build community, but I won't send people into unsafe spaces in the same way I won't send

them into the NDP. Right. You can go to conferences for unions and Workers Action Center and there's

daycare provided. There are other places where we've gone above and beyond ramps when it comes

to accessibility, right? Finding ways that as many people can participate as possible. And

it's really shameful that we haven't acted with that urgency when it comes to the pandemic.

Five years in and it's not just like, oh, we'll bring some people along so they have the time

and we'll make the space for them. It's like, I want to make a space so I am not killing

anyone or anyone they go home to. Exactly. I think we're in an even more dire place where

in addition to wanting to take care of each other and create safe spaces, we are also in

a place now where masking has not only become stigmatized, but in certain places illegal.

So the best thing you can do, again, for your community, including those at high risk, but

highest risk, but for everyone, is to normalize masking. It's a thing that you don't just do

at protests, though you should do it at protests. It's a thing you do everywhere. You're not

using it just to hide your identity. You're using it to protect your community and yourself.

And I think that's so important, especially at this moment where we see, you know, quote-unquote

democratic state cities in the U.S. and I'm sure that there are some here to follow in

Canada. pushing through these mask bands. So even if you don't believe COVID is a threat

to you or your community, you know that there will be disabled and high-risk people literally

criminalized from existing in community with these mask bands. Just what people call ugly

laws, what used to exist to keep disabled people out of community 100 years ago, or out of society

100 years ago. So it's just, it's so important to show up in this way. right now for so many

reasons and that's one of them. I actually just thought of another potential barrier for folks

is food. Yes. Food and drinks, right? They want to offer food and drinks at their events. One

thing we recommend is to-go bags. So say, you know, people can take a goodie bag to go and

then you're still offering stuff. At Mask for Mask, sometimes if we want to have food and

drink available, then we just ask people to step outside. Or if you need to unmask for

any reason, just step outside. We're keeping our airspace safe. At other groups that are

COVID aware in the ways that I am encouraging them, but not in and of themselves, necessarily

COVID aware, I have arranged sort of instances where there will be places to eat outdoors

for folks who would choose to, like an outdoor space to eat. And then rejoining the group

that will then remask after they're done eating, that type of thing. None of this sounds very

daunting, just so you know. Like I'm sitting there going, yeah, OK, I'm waiting. Like the

air filter's even. At first, I was thinking, you know, those are expensive. But you're right,

I've seen the instructions. I will find them and link them in the show notes to make fans

that you can bring as an organizer. You've got your megaphone back there. You probably have

a camera and your laptop bag and whatever you use to kind of go to your event. These are

not. big, huge steps, but they are important ones. They're quite easy. They're easy and

they work. Like it's not performative. We have so many studies that show- We had enough of

that. Yeah, that show that air filters, especially coarsely Rosenthal boxes, reduce the transmission

of all airborne illnesses. RSV, the flu, colds, God knows bird flus, you know, seems to be

on the horizon. And yeah, as you said, they're not hard to build. I mean, kids do them in

schools as like a project, you know, like grade five kids. So it's definitely doable. And actually

one thing that Protect Our Promise and Mask for Mask is collaborating on right now is a

clean air library. So we've got some funding from some community wellness grants and we're

gonna be building Corcy Rosenthal boxes and then lending them out to organizers or just

anyone hosting an event. So you can check out if there's... Making it as easy as possible.

So... I will spoozie you too. So maybe in your area, there is a clean air club or something

like that, that has, or maybe, you know, your organization wants to crowdfund a couple for,

you know, your group or to lend out to other groups. Like it's really not super expensive.

They last a long time. They use very little energy. I just leave mine plugged in my home.

There's no downside to clean air. as I always tell people. Boost mood, boost concentration,

it's healthy. I think a lot of the part of making these adjustments and sticking with them feels

a little bit like defeat, perhaps. Perhaps, I think the pushback I get maybe closer to

home is that like, how long are we gonna do this? You know, like, oh my God, still. And

yes, yes people. We've learned how to keep our air cleaner. We've learned how to not infect

each other with all kinds of stuff. Yeah. Protect anonymity for folks without looking sus. Like

you're the one person in a bandana covering their face. Like no. Yeah. There's not a lot

of downside to any of... There's not a lot of inconvenience to the things Shira is proposing

here. We do a lot more to protect ourselves from pigs, to protect ourselves from doxing.

to protect ourselves from fucking rain sometimes, honestly. So it's astonishing. Like when you

read those numbers, you tell Americans, more if you died in 2024 than. in 9-11. Oh no, more

Americans died in August of 2024 than in 9-11. I'm so sorry. Yeah. Every time you correct

my numbers, it's so much worse. Yeah. I wish I could get it wrong the other way, but that's

why denialism is creeping in. It's not even close. So yeah, you're absolutely right. I

mean, people ask me, you know, are you going to mass forever? You know, we all get that.

But... I mean, I have a few answers to that. And one is I can't predict the future any more

than you can. I don't know how the pandemic is gonna end, if it's gonna end, when it's

gonna end, how it's gonna end. I know it's not over now. I know me not wearing a mask and

taking protections is not gonna end it any sooner. I'm not the one prolonging it, asshole. Yeah,

exactly. So why don't we just do what we know how to do now to reduce transmission? The key

thing is to reduce transmission. Everything is safer if we reduce transmission. And we

knew that in 2020. when we talked about bending the curve. We can still do it now. We know

more now about how to do it than we did then. But the other thing is, I mask in all public

indoor spaces. I haven't had, and I'm immunocompromised, I haven't had a sniffle, not a cold, nothing,

since I've started doing that. Now I am privileged in terms of I, you know, live alone, don't

have kids and whatever, but I interact with a lot of kids. I interact, you know, with a

lot of people and masking works, clean air. works. It works to keep you healthy in a variety

of ways. So it's again, it's not like a net negative. It's not defeat. It's I'm recognizing

the situation. I am empowered by the knowledge that I have. Other people don't have this knowledge

or they have fewer resources than I do. So I'm going to be part of the solution and not the

problem. Just like we're part of the solution in so many other respects with regards to capitalism

and racism and climate change and all these sort of like extractive damaging elements of

our society. COVID is one of them. And we know that the government has abandoned us on this.

But we also have real tools that work that will protect people. Every time you break a train

of transmission, you are potentially saving a life. That's what I tell people. Every time

you wear a mask and you don't catch COVID in a room where there was a mask, you just broke

a train of transmission. You just helped reduce transmission. That's a big thing. Yeah, people

need to understand it's not a zero sum game that although yes, maybe you have been masking

and you caught COVID, perhaps, you know, we know it's not a hundred percent foolproof.

We knew the vaccines would not stop you from getting COVID, but a lot of people, yes, they

just think no matter what I do, I'm going to end up with it anyway. But that idea that no

matter... what precautions you take, you're definitely reducing transmission. And to think

that you can be a passive resistor to this is bullshit. Right. You can't just understand

that it's around and hope it doesn't affect you and be like, yeah, that really sucks. That's

not us, people. You're not listening to this show because you are a passive spectator in

the downfall of fucking humanity. No, no, no. you may not all be Shira and be able to, you

know, start making these and handing them out and spearheading these initiatives, but you

sure as hell can make your spaces a little bit more COVID safe with some of these instructions.

And I want to go to that, you know, the fact that you have to fill in these gaps, the fact

that the governments have left us on our own, which they do for the most part. Right. But

when you compare it to what, say, the response is to 9-11 especially. I mean we all know the

response was wholly problematic in terms of heightened security, national security, anti-Arab

races. I'm not saying we need that kind of response. Preferably not. But I mean they did not hold

back. There was no shortage of funds. There were no shortage of charter rights to be infringed

on or anything. It was we will do anything possible to not have that situation again. But to think

that we can expect the same from them during a pandemic, we were wrong. We were really,

really wrong. All those mountains, they could have moved, they refused to. And I think I'm

only able to look back at that in this way as a failure, because I think when we were living

in the first set of lockdowns and the government was sending out money, and they were shutting

down the border, and we were like, oh, so you fuckers can move. Yes. There's a crisis, so

you absolutely can manufacture shit really quickly and make all these huge changes that you told

us were impossible and would destroy the economy forever, and you told us you didn't have any

money for disabled people at all, and you still didn't, but you just had firing out cash when

we... well, we still need it, you know what I'm saying? Everyone knows what I'm saying.

But now when you look back at it, they didn't do shit. Yeah, absolutely. Especially in Ontario,

I mean, we had, well, I don't know actually, we had a very bad lockdown. It had so many

exceptions, it might as well have not even existed. I know, I remember. It was really just reduced

to the schools and even that didn't last very long at all. People really need to understand

the eugenics at play when you look at that imbalance, that their willingness to... move on certain

items or pretend to be moving on certain items and who they looked at saving quote unquote

from covid and the ableism and eugenics is so apparent and obvious because when were covid

protections lifted they were lifted when the quote unquote general public was less at risk

and felt safer right so now that we have vaccines and it's less likely that um you know a person

that's not at highest risk is going to be hospitalized or die from acute COVID. That's when the protections

were gone and we were told, oh, it only really affects vulnerable people. Oh, they can just

stay home or yeah, be careful around old people, but this and that. And yeah, of course, the

lockdowns and so on failed because we didn't spend that time investing in, for instance,

indoor air quality. And instead we just locked down with just hoping that this would burn

itself out. Right? For me and I think for progressives, what we need to understand is that the COVID

response has been one of individualism and that's why it's failed. And we know that individualism

is not the way forward. Right? That's why there was what we call in the COVID aware community,

droplet dogma for so long. Remember we were told to stay six feet apart because supposedly

COVID spreads through droplets when you like cough and sneeze and they're heavy and they

fall to the ground. So if you're six feet apart, it'll be fine. And you should wash your hands.

and disinfect surfaces. We were washing our groceries. Washing our groceries, exactly.

Those are all things individuals can do. And it's easy for an employer or the government

or whatever to provide hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes, right? What we know now, of course,

is that COVID spreads through the air and aerosols that do not fall to the ground and stay airborne

for hours if the air isn't cleaned. But it's much more expensive and difficult and requires

a community-based, collective-based approach to implement cleaner indoor air standards and

CO2 monitoring and so on. And so we know that that's what we need to combat an airborne pandemic

because it's not gonna be in an individual's control of the air that they're breathing.

No, I wanna just mention here that pretty much anywhere you are in Canada right now, there

is probably a group organizing around your school board. pressuring your school board to do better

in terms of air quality standards and reporting and whatnot. So if this is something you want

to get into, a quick Google search or Facebook search there, you will likely find a local

group doing that because that is a battle in itself. Huge battle. You know, the educators

unions, if they're listening, they could do also a lot more in this regard in terms of

keeping their workers safe and making this part of the bargaining agreement. that their air

quality should be of a certain.