To the editor,
I chose the needle because of my elder parents. It seemed like the right idea. I thought, at the time, that Canada had a plan to work with the rest of the world to solve this problem.
To me, neither the government’s strategy nor the media’s narrative instill confidence or even really follow the science. What they do instill is anxiety, stress, and fear whether you’re vaccinated or not. I try to decrease those emotions for my personal health. Anxiety, fear, and stress trigger our sympathetic nervous system’s fight and flight mode, suppressing immunity, and compromising rational decision making. In spite of the latter, repeated calls for transparency have come from people who would like to make an informed decision on whether or not to have their bodies injected with a novel substance.
Instead of providing data about either vaccine injuries or the validity of the narrative’s foundational argument (that the unvaccinated are primarily responsible for spreading Covid), the thinking seems to be that we can’t handle the information and they must default to force.
Vaccine mandates (and, in Quebec, fines and separating parents from children) are the current coercion trends, seemingly because the carrot-on-the-stick of vaccine passports was rotten. Despite nearly 85% vaccine compliance, Quebec cases surge. Clearly, the vaccinated spread Covid (Just look at Gibraltar). Targeted lockdowns have effectively dealt with outbreak infections of contagious diseases, but our government chooses general lockdowns – with industrial exemptions, of course. Industrial mega-projects, serving as incubation factories, progress with government support. This isn’t scientific.
The government doesn’t seem to be paying attention to these things or to The World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders who both plead for equitable vaccine sharing with medical staff and the most vulnerable globally. They plea because, while wealthy nations hyper-vaccinate variants of concern have arisen where vaccinations are low, where high HIV rates compromise immunity, and where affording vaccines is very challenging, comparatively. To clarify, currently, The Congo has 0.1% vaccinated while Haiti has 0.7%. Check out their GDP and HIV stats.
Besides targeted lockdowns, stopping variants through equitable sharing is key to solving Covid. Yes, hospitals will fill more and people will die but at the same time, if we are to believe and follow the advice and science of actual experts in the field, we can flatten the global curve and keep more Canadians from dying in the long run. Perhaps surging hospital admissions will provide an incentive for a future containing a realistic health system budget and a proactive (rather than reactive) pandemic plan.
The trends are deeply troubling. A local Dr. has been forced out of practice. The rights of informed consent and body autonomy are increasingly removed from people’s choices. Austria’s entire population may be on the brink of forced compliance in February. A line has to be drawn.
A booster? Given a real choice? Send mine to the Congo.
Rob Mercereau
Mcbride, B.C.
