DrJames @YorkU (he/him/il)
@jasmith_yorku
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Engineering professor at York University. Not an HVAC, PPE or Air Quality expert. Mastodon: @jasmith_yorku @mastodon .social & @jasmith_yorku @zeroes .ca
Toronto, Canada
Joined July 2015
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Last Seen Profiles
lots of people blaming their symptoms on a cold, allergic reactions or just “being under the weather.”
it’s COVID.
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Shopping this morning. Most customers and employees were maskless.
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I don't care if my students are smiling. I care that they don't get sick and die while attending my class.
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They dropped COVID protections.
Not restrictions.
Protections.
Just like removing seatbelt requirements would be removing protections against collisions.
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Masking in indoor locations during a pandemic is a sign of respect and good social graces.
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Hello, I’m James, I live in Canada and I, also, refuse to be an accomplice in the death and injury of my fellow citizens.
Hello I'm Ultrogotha, I live in France and I'm wearing a mask because I refuse to be an accomplice of the mass murdering of my fellow vulnerable and high risk citizens.
What about you ?
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All universities, colleges and public schools should provide free masks to students in 2023. Like
@mcgillu
does.
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I wear my mask to and at work because COVID isn’t over and my employer is removing protections.
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Dear school principals and university presidents
Wear a mask.
Wear it all week. Wear it next week. Wear it in January.
Show your community that you actually care about the paediatric units overflowing with little children.
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It’s time for resignations.
The sixth wave was predictable. The evidence is clear. Cases are rising.
And leadership shrugged their shoulders and said « We’re done caring. COVID is getting in the way of our pet projects »
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Masked person walks into an indoor space.
Goes up to another person, takes off mask and starts to talk.
This is why we keep hearing "masks don't work." They work. It's just that people have been conditioned to use them in ways that nullifies their effectiveness.
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Dear school boards
It's time to step up and let parents, teachers and staff bring HEPA air cleaners into your schools.
You don't even need to pay for them. Just let people do it.
(1/2)
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Everybody who has minimized the pandemic has been wrong.
Each and every time.
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If your kid can be maskless at school during the pandemic, then mine can eat her peanut butter sandwich and chase it with a Bud.
Because personal choice. Because rights without responsibilities.
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Public Health has given up. Their toolkit is exhausted.
It's time to let the Engineers take over. Engineers are used to working in the background, unnoticed. Just give them the resources to make things right.
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You can always tell when COVID is picking up steam by what is flying off the shelves in the pharmacy.
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Masks work.
Clean air is good for you.
Getting sick is not good for you.
Public Health isn’t about the individual, it’s about collective actions at scale.
It’s not hard. Any HCW, manager or politician saying otherwise is compromised.
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Security incident on subway. They cut power. Ventilation is off. My respirator is on.
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Masking effectiveness doesn't wane over time.
Because physics.
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It's time for the World Health Organization to formally retract this tweet.
Retract it.
Act like an adult. Say that you're sorry. Say that you made a mistake.
Say "We were wrong. The evidence is now clear to us that it is, in fact, airborne."
FACT:
#COVID19
is NOT airborne.
The
#coronavirus
is mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks.
To protect yourself:
-keep 1m distance from others
-disinfect surfaces frequently
-wash/rub your 👐
-avoid touching your 👀👃👄
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You know what would really help students this exam season? HEPA filters in the exam rooms.
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There was a lot of sneezing and coughing in class.
After class, student came up to me to ask me some questions, sneezed, coughed and said "sorry, I'm sick."
By not addressing this from the top, we are encouraging students to come to the university sick. This is not good.
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To everyone hearing from their employer that "it's time to mask -- for the children":
Tell your employer: supply the masks, for free, to all employees, in multiple sizes. Not surgical masks. Not cloth masks. Real masks. N95, CAN99, KN95.
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Dear teachers:
If the principal tells you to have students remove their masks for a school-wide activity for the sake of « mental health » or « because COVID is over », please note that my kid is wearing an N95. Not because it’s fun. Because we’re still in a fucking pandemic.
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Stopped at the Dragon comic book store in Guelph. Staff masked. All customers except for some out-of-towners
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Teaching with a respirator and mic’d up for both the lecture hall and simultaneous Zoom broadcast. (AirPods and Shure mic)
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The choice to spread measles.
We need to talk about this. Out loud.
Because some people are okay with spreading measles. Just like some people are okay with drunk driving.
They will frame it as a choice about vaccines. A choice about masks.
But it doesn’t end there.
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Those that followed the precautionary principle & stayed firmly on the side of Science have been right for each wave of the pandemic.
Those that followed bureaucracy & political expediency have been wrong. Every single time.
Science before politics. Humility before arrogance.
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When the hybrid meeting starts and you can hear the coughing from the in-person attendees from the safety of your remote location.
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Does you office have a HEPA air cleaner in it?
It should. Because the next wave is coming.
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Dear school boards, daycares, colleges and universities:
What are you waiting for? For Public Health to tell you to wear a mask?
Uh…
Public Health just said that it’s time to wear a mask.
Now hand out the N95s.
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Universities and colleges should provide masks, for free, to all students. And staff. Like McGill does.
The science says they work. Workplace health and safety rules says it’s important. Your equity boilerplate says your should. The expense is minimal. Just do it.
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Wear a mask to get takeout ice-cream. It tastes better without a COVID topping.
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Back to school and COVID aware parents are dreading the “but nobody else masks at school — why do I have to?!”
Peer pressure is real. If only teachers and principals would step up and set the example.
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Dear school principals,
Put on a mask today.
For the children.
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Went to loblaws grocery store in the east end of Toronto. CO2 was 871ppm. Got lots of looks from many unmasked clients.
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Convocation covered up.
We need to normalise attending special occasions in a mask.
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It turns out that society, in general, doesn’t really care about the children at all.
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Privilege: a university administrator who Zooms in to every meeting but refuses to allow a course be done online.
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The upcoming school year will be another pandemic year. We need to make sure that HEPA is in each classroom and that all students are provided with high quality N95-class respirators.
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School principals should not be threatening parents with « calling social services » when parents keep kids home due to COVID or COVID risk.
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Am I going to wear my seatbelt for the rest of my life? Yup.
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It’s not a question of _if_ we go back to required masking protections, it’s a question of _when_.
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Yesterday, in class, one of my students whispered to one seated beside him: “he looks like Bane” (A masked evildoer in the Batman movies), while pointing his cell phone at me.
Of course, he wasn’t masked.
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My N95 keeps your sneeze out of my lungs.
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Can nerdy, awkward, average men with slight paunches get in on this, too? My kids even made up a sweat shirt to go along with our masks!
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If it's good enough for a film studio to implement masking requirements (without consulting with Public Health), it's good enough for schools, colleges and universities.
In response to rising COVID cases, hospitals, schools, and now Hollywood are bringing back mandates to protect their workers and communities. Great job everyone! Who’s next?
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For all those in leadership at post-secondaries who are refusing to implement COVID risk mitigation strategies: show us your literature survey.
Show us what research you are using to make these decisions. We'd ask the same of our undergrads in any basic assignment.
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The reality is that the pandemic will continue for the foreseeable future.
For public schools, colleges and universities: this means planning for 2022-23 being another pandemic year.
What does this mean? Well, if you want to do it right you need to...
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As COVID cases mount… we told you to mask. We told you to clean the air. We told you to provide remote options for work and learning.
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There is a simple test to see if your school is doing all it can to protect children from COVID:
Are the principal, vice-principal and front office staff wearing masks?
If the answer is no, then your school has no desire to protect the children in its care.
It’s that simple.
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The COVID paradox: the more you push for "post-pandemic", the less achievable that it becomes.
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The trolls are out in force.
Today I went to Home Depot and wore another respirator. The two employees who helped me cut a blind thanked me for wearing this mask and protecting them.
@jonkay
and the others can stuff it.
#CovidIsNotOver
Shopping this morning. Most customers and employees were maskless.
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Yup. Still masking. On skates.
Hello, is there anybody out there?
I am so fed up of being the only mask wearer everywhere I go. 1)Are you still masking?
2)Where do you live?
3)Why are you still masking?
I could do with some encouragement!
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Spread kindness, not COVID.
Wear a mask.
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If we took COVID as seriously in our schools as we do lice and peanuts...
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“Living with COVID” is different for different people. But in every case, it boils down to an individual response to public officials giving up.
For me, it means masking in indoor spaces. For many others, it means trying to treat a mystery summer cold with off the shelf meds.
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Grocery shopping. Three quarters of the clients were masked. Only one employee was masked.
Among the clients, only men were unmasked.
Masked grandmother looked terrified whenever an unmasked man passed her.
Grocery stores should have masked-only hours.
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Maskless people complaining about long lines in airports, passport offices and hospitals are the new leather-shoed vegans.
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Crime underway in the meat section at Costco!
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Dear school board and university managers:
Your "we're following public health guidelines and we won't do anything more" are unacceptable.
You are putting children and other vulnerable community members in danger.
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Mask up.
The pharmacy shelves are empty.
The hospitals are full.
#WeNotMe
#COVIDIsAirborne
#CovidIsNotOver
#flu
#influenza
#RSV
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Easily 90% of ppl are masked in the grocery store. Have a feeling that this correlates to 7:30 am
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I just heard Dr Kieran Moore say, on
@metromorning
, that someone was coughing on public transit beside him and that he asked the cougher to put on a mask.
If our CMOH can ask a random stranger to mask then it means the rest of us can, too, right?
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Anybody who is in a position to maintain COVID protections in post-secondaries and in public schools, but did not do so: the sixth wave is here. It is growing. And it is your fault.
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Look at all these air cleaners on sale at IKEA!
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Stop signs. Why bother? They work on an individual car basis, but for a whole population of cars? Naw. Cars don't always stop for them. They don't stop 100% of traffic accidents. They're visually distracting, expensive...
Oh wait. You mean they work _most_ of the time?
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Wife: “James, stop triggering conservatives with your Twitter posts”
Me:
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Hearing parents with one COVID-positive kid sending their other kids to school. I really wish they wouldn't.
Just because you _can_ do it doesn't mean you _should_ do it.
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On
@RadioCanadaInfo
(radio, Toronto) we're hearing about the massive overflow in Québec hospitals.
COVID is singled out as a primary driver.
On the radio. Right now.
Public Health officials knew this was coming and did nothing.
It's time for N95s and air cleaning. Now.
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You’ll go to hell and back to keep peanuts out of your kid’s school but can’t be bothered to ask the principal to turn on the HEPA units because “COVID is over.”
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I teach engineering.
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“Everyone will get hit by a car, so why bother looking before crossing the road?” is such a stupid take.
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Dear employers:
Stock up on N95s.
Give them out for free to your employees.
And get some portable air cleaners for the office.
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Conservative trigger alert! Man on bicycle, in a bike lane, wearing a P100 respirator and a high visibility bike helmet.
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School acquired COVID is preventable.
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Last class today!
My course has no exams. Because I don’t want to expose my 400+ students to a COVID superspreader event.
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Now that our universities have dropped masking protections on campus, I'm noticing that the gender split on masking is showing up in the classroom, too.
In the last engineering class I visited, none of the men were masked (except for the prof and me), but nearly all women were.
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The pandemic has demonstrated in unequivocal terms that most people don’t give a shit about children.
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News on CBC radio: this COVID wave will "peak in January".
Let me guess why. Because it's going to spread like crazy because of things like
1. Pick up COVID during unmasked final exam
2. Travelling home after exams for holidays
3. Infecting parents
4. Infecting gr.parents
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Dear school principals and university presidents
Wear a mask this week.
All week.
In front of students, in meetings and in photo ops.
Because your unwillingness to do so up to now has led to this. You are complicit.
Due to an ongoing surge in young patients suffering from respiratory viruses, an Ontario children's hospital has been so overwhelmed that they have called in the Red Cross...to help with staffing.
This is heartbreaking. 💔
Where is the Ontario government and what is their plan?
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It's time for Management to admit that the "all is well" approach is a failure. COVID is rampant even though we're told that there isn't sufficient evidence to "prove" it. "You do you" public health has shown how much peer pressure kicks risk mitigation to the pavement.
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If infections lead to immunity then why are people still getting sick?
Seriously. People need to stop drinking the "infection is health" Kool-Aid. It's nasty.
Everyone calling into cbc radio show reports having been infected 3-4 times.
@DrFahadRazak
says.that people who have been infected multiple times have heightened immunity. He agrees that immunity is higher because of frequent infection in the general population. We are so fucked.
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All of my kids came home today with stories of how unmasked kids were desperately looking for masks at school.
Clearly schools schools be pulling their boxes of masks out of storage and distributing to kids.
Wildfire smoke is causing diminished air quality. We know what to do.
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Glad to see so many people joining in here. Of course it could be a cold. Or hay fever.
But we should take the precautionary approach and default to COVID until you are clear of symptoms.
Mask. Ventilate. Stay clear of vulnerable ppl.
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Engineering schools don’t defer to Public Health when it comes to bridges and airplanes. And they shouldn’t when it comes to HVAC, air quality and PPE.
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Sharing masked selfies because representation matters.
Thank you to all the nurses and other staff in the MGH recovery room who were masked.
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I am aware of the stares and whispers.
I have seen my teacher reviews … that criticize me for mask wearing, either directly or indirectly.
But I will mask. I will post photos. I will roll my air cleaner to class.
Because someone has to set the right example.
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First day back at work.
Good to see my students again. Too bad about the coughing and the weather.
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"To curb infection, we should have focused on indoor air systems."
But improved indoor air systems costs employers and governments money.
Hence the continued need to make it seem like it's not airborne.
Because.
They.
Don't.
Want.
To.
Pay.
When COVID-19 surfaced in 2020, the medical field missed something, and it cost lives.
Airborne viruses can travel much further than originally thought. To curb infection, we should have focused on indoor air systems.
@DrLaPook
reports, Sunday.
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Mandates work to keep people safe.
Perfection isn’t the goal. They don’t eliminate injury. But they do reduce frequency and severity.
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This all sucks. A lot.
But you know what sucks more? Flip-flopping decision making that has nothing to do with Science.
This past year has prioritized anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers. It let your legal and comms teams to control policy. Enough.
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Listen.
Hear all that coughing?
It's not a "summer cold".
Turn on your air cleaners. Put on your mask.
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Coughing on the subway. You do those cough drops, Mr Subway Rider. They aren’t doing anything to make your coughs less frequent.
Meanwhile I’ll do Science.
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Measles.
They're back.
Because adults refuse to take their responsibilities seriously.
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