Driveway chats? No problem, says city medical officer
However, people urged not to get too lax as we continue adjusting to ‘new normal’
There’s nothing wrong with having a chat on your driveway with a friend or over the fence with a neighbour, says Ottawa’s medical officer of health — as long as you keep a two-metre distance.
“Have those interactions at a distance and avoid creating a gathering. We are asking you to use your best judgment when connecting with others,” Dr. Vera Etches said Wednesday.
Etches said she was clarifying earlier comments by associate medical officer of health Dr. Brent Moloughney, who said Tuesday that public health officials were concerned about people looking for “loopholes” on physical-distancing guidelines.
Moloughney set off a firestorm about freedoms and responsibility after he suggested that two people chatting can attract other people, tipping a small group of people into a party.
“It’s really unprecedented what is being asked of all of us,” Moloughney said. “So people are finding, ‘Well, what if I just do this or what if I just do that.’ And the challenge is that it just starts like that and a couple of people add on, and before you know it you have a parking lot party or backyard party.”
On Wednesday, Etches noted it has been a month since people were asked to limit contact. Talking over a fence is not a risk, as long as people maintain that two-metre distance, she said.
Etches urged people to use technology to connect. Unless you have been asked to self-isolate, you can still go for a walk, run or ride a bike.
The province’s Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, which prohibits gatherings of more than five people, and City of Ottawa bylaw officers have been responding to reports of people congregating and are handing out fines if warranted.
Anthony Di Monte, the city’s general manager of emergency and protective services, said that of the 2,205 requests for service about gatherings between April 2 and 14, only 76 resulted in fines.
Last weekend, for example, there was a complaint about a representative from a landscaping company going door-to-door to solicit business. On Monday, 20 vehicles tried to park at Dick Bell Park.
Of the 76 fines, only three were for behaviour in private residences, and these were very large gatherings. The first priority for bylaw officers is to educate people about gatherings, Di Monte said. “We need to stick together in this battle to flatten the curve.”
Etches thanked residents for staying home and maintaining physical distancing.
“You are the reason we are able to manage our health-care system,” she said. “We have been able to limit the number of infections. We’re not at the other side of the curve yet.”
Mayor Jim Watson urged residents who see gatherings in parks not to be confrontational.
“We need to practise kindness because we’re all in this together,” he said.
There appears to be “panic fatigue” in the population, with more people showing a relaxed approach to being around others, notes Samuel Veissière, an assistant professor of psychiatry and co-director of the culture, mind and brain program at McGill University in Montreal.
The relative success of hospitals and public health authorities in dealing with the crisis may have led to a growing sense of collective reassurance, he said, and decreasing anxiety in the face of “the new normal” was inevitably going to happen.
Humans are a highly resilient and adaptive species, said Veissière, who is both an anthropologist and a cognitive scientist. Once the novelty of a new threat wears off, the level of stress goes down, and people revert to what humans have always done — seeking connection with others.
“On a deep, primitive level, humans are motivated by two contradictory urges: fear of danger and conformism,” he said.
“In times of pandemics this creates a strange inner conflict. People feel compelled to avoid others and follow others’ behaviour at the same time. Panic can spread very quickly in person and online through social contagion. But so can trust.
“The more people see others congregating and appearing relaxed, the more likely they are to relax and congregate.”
The best way to motivate or nudge behaviour change is by appealing to our unconscious biases, Veissière said. Fear-mongering tends to be effective in getting people to comply, but it costs in terms of mental health and democratic freedom. Appealing to a sense of civic duty can be just as effective.
“Good policy must provide nudges grounded in the public’s needs. It’s hard to know at this point what the public wants, and how our officials will respond to these needs.”