by Raywat Deonandan, PhD
Epidemiologist & Associate Professor
University of Ottawa
(I add my credentials to these COVID-19 blog posts in case they get shared. I want readers to know that my opinion is supposedly an educated and informed one)
As I write this, much of the Northern hemisphere has been struck with a wave of multiple childhood respiratory diseases, COVID-19, RSV, and influenza prime among them. Pediatric hospitals are being overrun. Right now in Ontario, we are beyond 100% capacity, with (I’m told) some ICU beds doubling up kids:
One proposal to help slow the traffic into the ERs is to reinstate masking in most, if not all, public indoor settings. This possibility has triggered that tired debate of (a) whether masks work at all, and (b) whether they are harmful at all. (more…)