To the editor,
Re: Vaccine card meant to add layer of safety, Sept. 1.
Have always admired the cool, calm and collected way that provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry presented pandemic facts and figures to the citizens of British Columbia. As the virus and its variants evolved, she changed tactics on several occasions to match circumstances. When health orders were altered, she never ducked a question from the media, always willing to explain how and why new paths taken were consequential of evolving science.
This was most evident this month when Dr. Henry ordered that everyone who has been vaccinated must obtain the vaccine card to enter certain establishments for the foreseeable future. Her presentation was so absolutely crystal clear, and easy to understand; it’s so simple to obtain a vaccine card, even for people like me who have never owned a smart phone. Everyone had ample advanced warning that this was the next step being taken, in a concerted effort for the hesitant ones among us to wake up, smell the roses and get inoculated, if they want a return to some kind of normalcy during this ongoing pandemic.
Strident anti-vaxxers have spent about 20 months listening to influencers on Facebook and other sources filling their gullible heads with disinformation. Their fraudulent and often crazy claims have been discredited on an hourly basis, yet they persist in spreading vicious, vile, viper-like, virulent accusations all through cyberspace. Throughout it all Dr. Henry has maintained a quiet dignity, and her latest excellent presentation must have caused the knotted knickers of the anti-vaxxers to tighten to an even more excruciating painful level.
Bernie Smith, Parksville
READ ALSO: B.C. COVID-19 vaccine card could help loosen some pandemic restrictions
To the editor,
Re: Vaccine passports will segregate B.C., Letters, Sept. 1.
Contrary to popular belief we do not have the right to do whatever we want in society. You are allowed your rights, freedom, and choice providing it does not endanger those around you. When that happens governments can set rules and enforce regulations to minimize that danger to others. Without this source of intervention, we will have anarchy.
Considering the destruction and death this pandemic has wreaked, anything that will help control it is needed. Sometimes the measures will ruffle a few feathers but if it stops the pandemic so be it. Rules need to be followed to protect the majority. If you feel this is segregation it is your own actions that cause this. Simply toe the line and you will not feel segregated from the majority. That is the choice we all have. If you walk around without vaccination or a mask on you are a danger to all. I’ll follow any guideline or rule that keeps me and those I love safe.
Robin Hulme, Nanaimo
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