The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

7 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,F ebruary 6,2020 insidehalton.com Jensen Tire sales & service lTd. 928 Winston Churchill Blvd. • 905-338-9919 Jensentire.ca NOW SERVING WINTER TIRES michelin.ca * New tires only. Visit michelin.ca for details. Void where prohibited. © 2020 MNA(C)I. All rights reserved. The "Michelin Man" is a registered trademark owned by Michelin North America, Inc. clearout!! clearout!! clearout!! clearout!! cl ea ro u t! ! cl ea ro u t! ! clea ro u t!! clea ro u t!! My son and his friend were stopped one day by some kids who wanted to "test" them for coronavirus because they were Chi- nese. A few restaurants in downtown Toronto are now refusing to serve peo- ple who look Chinese. Across Ontario, com- ments are now made to kids who look Chinese that they should stop eating bats, that they are some- how dirty and should be quarantined. In Australia, patients will no longer shake the hands of a Chinese doctor. This is racism triggered by fear of the coronavirus epidemic. I get that people are scared. Fear can bring out the worst in people. Fear of the unknown, of an uncer- tain future. And while their intent may be benign, their words and actions hurt. Staying silent is not the answer. Instead, we should turn to compassion. Solidarity. Education. Perspective. There is a lot of good in- formation out there about the 2019 Novel Coronavirus and what you can do to stay safe. The Public Health Agency of Canada has up- to-date information here: www.https://www.cana- da.ca/en/public-health/ services/diseases/2019- novel-coronavirus-infec- tion. There are 4 known cases in Canada as of Janu- ary 31, and a few others are being monitored. By comparison, each year, the flu virus causes an approximate 12,200 hos- pitalizations and 3,500 deaths across Canada. And there are many, many oth- er contagious viruses that dominate the winter sea- son here. No matter what, the gold standard of pre- vention still includes: • Getting your annual flu shot. • Washing your hands frequently. • Using alcohol-based hand sanitizers. • Sneezing or coughing into your shoulder or el- bow. • Staying home to limit the spread of infection. • Seeking medical atten- tion if you have red flags like chest pain, shortness of breath, lethargy, dehy- dration et cetera. SARS and the annual flu has taught Ontario how to deal with outbreaks. Those lessons are being put to good use in hospitals, clin- ics and public health agen- cies to deal with the coro- navirus. It is important to stay calm. Stay informed. And stop the spread of misinfor- mation. Being Chinese Canadi- an does not mean you have the coronavirus. Being Chinese Canadian does not mean that you should be quarantined. Being a Chi- nese Canadian person with a viral illness like the cold does not mean that you have the coronavirus. Being Chinese Canadi- an means... you're a Cana- dian. I love Georgetown. I live here. I work here. My kids will be raised here. We will do our part to make our community strong and healthy -- just like every- one else should. Nadia Alam is a Georgetown physician and past president of the Onta- rio Medical Association. Her columns also appears on www.medi- um.com/@docschmadia. She can be reached at na- dia.alam@oma.org. FACTS, NOT FEAR, ARE NEEDED IN CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK OPINION FOCUS ON INFORMATION RATHER THAN SPECULATION, WRITES DR. NADIA ALAM NADIA ALAM Column ANIMAL TALES A fox makes its way back into the woods after walking right up to a front door of a townhouse in the Marlborough Court and Trafalgar Road area. Got a great local photo you'd like to share? Send it to sleblanc@metroland.com, along with a brief description. Karen Kinnear photo