[Translated from French]
The author identifies several weak points in the discourse of Quebec Public Health regarding the prevention of COVID, particularly with regard to vaccination and the spread of the virus.
Grandmother Germaine liked to tell stories. I often fell asleep next to her, lulled by the adventures of Tom Thumb. She also liked to sprinkle our days with a lot of advice, and it was only later that I realized they were also grandmother’s stories. How many times has she repeated to me: “Put your hat on, you’re going to catch a cold!” While studying medicine, I quickly understood that wearing my hat wouldn’t prevent me from catching a virus!
My grandmother passed away a long time ago, but others have taken over and in turn tell a grandmother’s stories. Take, for example, Quebec Public Health: in 2025, it continues to repeat to us to wash our hands to avoid catching COVID. While it is true that washing the hands helps prevent other infections (such as gastroenteritis), this measure is not effective in protecting oneself from COVID.
Unfortunately, currently I am spending a lot of time in the hospital, and everywhere I go, I come across beautiful colourful posters, many hand sanitizer dispensers, and very few real respirators (N95).
It is strange when, despite all these clean hands, during the week of September 7–13, one in four hospitalized patients with COVID in Canada was infected during their stay at the hospital1. Not very effective, this hand washing… and yet, we are asked again to redouble our efforts.
It has already been four years since the World Health Organization finally recognized that the virus behind COVID is spread by infectious aerosols (fine airborne particles) that we produce during an infection simply by breathing. No need to sneeze or cough droplets, it suffices to breathe to spread these bioaerosols. This explains why, even without symptoms, we can transmit COVID. We also understand why outdoor gatherings remain safer. Outside, contaminated aerosols are diluted or they are carried away by the wind, while indoors, they accumulate over time, especially if the ventilation is poor.
Remember the carnage at CHSLD Vigi Mont-Royal, where faulty ventilation led to the infection of 148 employees and all 226 residents2. Tragically, 70 of them died. If transmission was occurring via droplets, ventilation would have had no effect. Infectious aerosols, like cigarette smoke, float in the air, carried by currents over distances that are not limited to the “magical” two metres. In Quebec, Public Health has replaced my Grandmother Germaine. If you don’t want to catch COVID, it’s the air that needs to be cleaned… not your hands.