Pandemic: Safety Barriers at Shoppers Drug Mart Removed

[dewline]

And I found that out today on my way back from a trip to a long-term care facility.

How am I supposed to trust pharmacies of any affiliation during a Pandemic that's still in progress when they do stuff like this?

Comments

[armiphlage]

Considering how bad "just" regular influenza is, I'm surprised they aren't making them permanent.

The ones at Costco look like they're there for the long run, with metal brackets.

[dewline]

I'm finding myself shocked and terrified.

If I could make my own regular trips to Costco, I'd consider switching my pharmacy business. I might be taking a look at the new IDA store, though.

[sabotabby]

My Shoppers has been consistently unsafe this whole time. They allowed two people there—one a regular worker, another a Canada Post employee—to be unmasked. The Canada Post office is right next to where people get covid tests and vaccines.

[dewline]

Pharmacies in a Pandemic...and they're allowed to operate like this.

[raincitygirl]

That is SO bizarre. It’s a pharmacy. Sick people go there to pick up medicine to help their health. Sick people are often germy. Sick people are also immune-suppressed, so even if THEIR illness isn’t germy, they’re more at risk of catching germs from the other sick people in the pharmacy.

I go to the pharmacy inside Safeway, which still has the plastic barriers, thank God. But I stopped by the local Shoppers a few days ago for Life brand gluten-free iron supplements (you’d be amazed at the number of iron supplements which are NOT gluten-free). They still had their plastic barriers up then.

Maybe each Shoppers store manager is allowed to make the call individually. Or maybe my Shoppers just hasn’t gotten around to taking down the barriers yet.

And people wonder why I still religiously wear a mask every time I set foot out of my apartment. Pandemic hasn’t blown itself out yet, and I prefer to continue taking sensible precautions.

Safeway...Safeway...

[dewline]

I remember Safeway from when my family lived out west in the Canadian Prairies. The Canadian stores got sold off to Sobey's parent company, Empire Company.

(A little too "on the nose" for corporate names confessing corporate intentions, right?)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safeway_(Canada)

House brands like Lucerne were still a thing when I was a kid at those stores.

[jsburbidge]

My understanding is that the barriers were based on a droplet model of transmission and actually make things more risky in an aerosol transmission context, because they interfere with airflow and ventilation. For at least the past year they should have been coming down with additional attention being paid to airflow.

That's not to say that Shoppers' motives are justified; it is likely that what they want to do is signal that "it's over" (which is both objectively wrong and potentially dangerous in effect).

[dewline]

"Aerosol vs droplet" is a thing that should be getting publicized if that's the case for changing tactics, then. Signalling that "it's over/let it rip" or similarly lethal nonsense is not a thing I want encouraged or tolerated.

[moonblossom]

Oh jeez.. and... Dwight, I refuse to go out on Canada 🇨🇦 day.... too much risk 😫😫😫😫😫