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“They think, ‘I know more than them — but I never went to any university or any school. I read something on the Facebook or I heard someone say that,’” Ahmed said. “It’s just nonsense.”
Ahmed said he is disturbed by the spread of misinformation, and lamented the “confusion and chaos” that lead to large numbers of people ignoring COVID-19 guidelines.
“Not following those measures results in what we are seeing right now in the U.S., what we are seeing right now in other areas of the country,” Ahmed said.
“I really worry about these people. They are doing a complete disservice to the entire community.”
Expressing his exasperation with anti-mask protesters, however, wasn’t Ahmed’s purpose for speaking with media on Friday.
In an update on the region’s COVID-19 situation, Ahmed noted that — in recent contrast to parts of the province like Toronto, Peel Region, and Ottawa — Windsor-Essex is doing well on most metrics.
For example, a new graph by the health unit shows that the percentage of local COVID-19 cases resulting from community transmission has not increased. Indeed, the figure dropped this month: as of Oct. 22, the proportion of new cases in Windsor-Essex that were acquired in the community is 25 per cent, going by a seven-day average.
“It’s not bad compared to some of the other regions, and what it could be,” Ahmed said.
Local hospitalizations resulting from COVID-19, going by a 14-day moving average, have remained in the single digits since the beginning of September — a trend the health unit considers “low and stable.”
