Brampton mayor believes facemasks will be with us deep into 2021

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown believes we will still be wearing facemasks until late next year.

Speaking to inbrampton.com, the mayor discussed a variety of topics concerning COVID-19 and the arrival of the vaccine.

The mayor said that although frontline healthcare workers and long-term care residents in Brampton should begin receiving the vaccine in the upcoming week, he expects the rollout to the general population will be gradual.

Brown said people who are in their 20s and in good health likely won’t be getting their shot until the fall, but those over the age of 70 could be recipients as early as April.

As such, because of the vaccine timeline, facemasks will still be with use for some time.

“I think until the rollout is finished {sometime near the end of 2021} I suspect we will continue to have a mask bylaw in public settings,” he said.

The mayor continued saying he is satisfied with the way public health departments are dealing with the pandemic, but admits he would do some things differently.

He said he doesn’t agree with the notion that not all locations need to be identified if there is an outbreak of COVID-19. He believes it would be in the public interest to have all information about the spread of the virus made available.

“I’ve publicly said there should be a greater level of transparency,” Brown said. “Now they only disclose an outbreak if there is a risk to the public which means with the vast majority of outbreaks there is never a release of where it happened. My personal preference would be a public list that is completely transparent (to show) anywhere that an outbreak happens.”

Brown went on to say that when he is eligible he would receive the vaccine because he believes that medically, it is the right thing to do.

Below is the complete interview with the mayor.