The anti-mask/COVID-19-denier crowd doesn't think we should be listening to health officials.
They’ve been saying this since way back in March, which feels like five years ago. One reason is that some of the health messaging has changed during the past few months.
The messaging has changed because health officials have been learning more about more about COVID-19 and so they improvise and adapt.
But to the tinfoil hat crowd, it’s just a sign of a massive conspiracy to “brainwash us.”
They seize on every change in messaging.
“Masks are again MANDATORY in British Columbia yet everyone forgets that 7 months ago these same self-serving idiots told us masks were completely ineffective and NOT to wear them under penalty of social harassment for putting the lives of health workers at risk,” writes Ken in Burnaby. “Remember that, masks protect us but not you?”
Well, for one thing, health officials weren’t saying that masks were “completely ineffective” but why let that fact get in the way.
COVID deniers also lost their minds back in late November, when B.C.’s cases were revised after a mistake in provincial data. In a joint statement, the province’s top health officials revealed the error. What appeared to be a record high of 941 new cases reported on one particular day — 678 in the Fraser Health region — was actually a mistake.
One solitary mistake in months of data releases, but that has been enough to convince some that there is a conspiracy at play here.
And now that the plans for a vaccine rollout in B.C. have been revealed for next week, someone I called “Guy in Burnaby” says that’s another reason not to wear a mask.
“They made us all suffer with the recent mask mandate and all the time they knew this vaccine was coming,” he wrote. “Why bother?”
Well, there’s good reason to bother. For one, the vaccine will take a long time to roll out. Secondly, it’s still unclear if the vaccine prevents transmission of COVID-19.
So, yeah, you’re going to have to keep wearing a mask.
About 380,000 of the province's most at-risk people are expected to be immunized by the end of March, followed by a more widespread distribution to the rest of the population.
“It probably takes about 60 to 70 per cent of the population [to be vaccinated] ... and then the virus has a very hard time finding a new person to infect that isn't already protected,” Dr. Bonnie Henry said Wednesday.
“In my experience with past pandemics, once we reach that place, transmission goes down very rapidly ... In terms of timing, that means we're looking at the summer, into the fall of next year is my best guess.”
Henry added that many of the restrictions currently in place to reduce the spread of the virus will likely be gone by next summer.
“I think we're going to have a very different and much more social summer, and I think into next fall we'll get back to some semblance of our normal ways of interacting with each other and being able to see each other again safely. And the pandemic, I hope, will be on its last legs,” she said.
“We probably won't need to wear masks anymore, we won't need to keep those distances. We will of course still need to stay home and stay away from others when we're not feeling well and always wash our hands.”
Then again, “Guy in Burnaby” also says he won’t be getting the vaccine because he doesn’t trust it.
Of course he doesn’t.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
