Editor:
I wonder who were the insanely insensitive folks who placed the COVID vaccination site at 14601 20 Avenue, a largely residential area?
Did they ever discuss accessibility? Means of transport? Distance from apartment buildings and the more densely inhabited areas?
“Time to put an end to elder abuse,” reads a headline in PAN June 10.
High time, one should think. In the same issue, also “Vaccine wait shortened…” a reference to people who are “70 and older or clinically vulnerable,” eligible for the second dose.
Again, “…starting with the oldest people still waiting for a second” dose.
So, age of generation to be vaccinated was fully known.
Yet, this letter is written by an octogenarian who himself had trouble finding the place, although lucky enough to own a car.
What about those without? Without family or friends to take them? From out of the Senior Centre alone comes to mind many elderly women, infirm in some fashion, women using cane(s), or walkers, trouble getting around, even difficulty mounting curbs, backs too bent? Nor was it a short walk from parking to the site itself, a modern sheep dip with separations enhanced by glass and chrome. Taxi unaffordable, so bus and, quite possibly, two buses. To be vaccinated in an 88-year old arm. Then home again.
Only in B.C., you say. Giving the NDP a bad name. An oddly uncaring government.
Women, I wrote. Men obviously were equally inconvenienced. And may have decided the gamble not worth the effort. I saw but a few.
None of the above reflects on those staffing the premises. They were invariably agreeable if also appearing somewhat puzzled. For good reasons. Maybe 10 recipients in a room set up for 100 or more.
Finn Schultz-Lorentzen, White Rock
