Rename anti-vaxxers to reflect denial industry
Let’s stop calling the those behind the misinformation campaigns targeting the reality of COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccines, and vaccines in general “anti-vaxxers.” They are COVID-19/vaccine deniers.
They are people making money off of COVID-19/vaccine disinformation, they are leaders of some form of religious fundamentalism (also making money off their disinformation preaching), and some right-wing politicians.
They spread doubt, disinformation and conspiracy theories to the gullible and uneducated (or those who think that education comes from random webpages) for profit and political gain. They use the same tactics used by other disinformation industries, from those linking tobacco and cancer to those linking human activities to climate change.
Like those in the tobacco and cancer and climate change denial industries, they are backed by major industries (the tobacco industry and fossil-fuel producers respectively). In the case of the COVID-19/vaccine denial industry, those backers are sections of the “alternative health” industry — an industry making with a market size of $100 billion US today and projected to grow to over $400 billion US by 2028.
While those in the tobacco and global-warming industries may not individually believe the claims of the COVID-19/vaccine denial industry, those earlier denial industries have done the basic work of seeding doubt, denying science and telling people that what is true is what they want to be true.
Robert Lewis
Victoria
Amazon’s arrival is nothing to celebrate
I fail to see how any business community on Vancouver Island could be happy with the new Amazon warehouse facility next to the Victoria airport.
There may be jobs being “created” there, but they’re going to cost jobs elsewhere, by making it even harder for our local businesses to compete with the Amazon juggernaut.
Oh sure, the landowner benefits, as do the construction workers (temporarily) during construction, but this is not a net “job creator.”
It’s going to continue the globalization hollowing-out of local communities.
Martin Simmons
Victoria
The things regular people did years ago
Re: “The mystery of the tombstone in the garden,” Jack Knox, Aug. 15.
I stand aghast.
The column indicates that at a house on The Gorge, right here in Victoria, the garden’s stepping stones and steps were paved with old tombstones, turned over. A neighbour is said to remember a contractor taking the headstones from a pile of slabs that had been in the municipal works yard longer than anyone could remember.
Then in 1908, the old Pioneer Cemetery grounds were graded, grassed, given the name Pioneer Square, and declared a city park — even though some 1,300 bodies are still under the grass where we walk and have picnics.
The bodies of those 1,300 were of white Catholics and Protestants and Chinese and others. People just like us today. They had church rites, and families grieved the deaths. Yet in not too many years, it all got glossed over and forgotten.
Compare that to the recent stories of dead Indigenous kids being secretly buried at residential schools, with no markers or records. It makes me think that such burials, as terrible and regrettable as they are, are just another example of what regular people were doing anyway.
Maybe we were just simply being stupid, and it looks like kind of a regular thing.
At that, I stand aghast.
Richard Kubik
Victoria
All that plastic, but only one kind is bad?
So, let me get this straight. I go to a grocery store and buy 200g of sliced ham wrapped in plastic, a loaf of bread in a plastic bag, two litres of milk in a plastic jug, a package of napkins wrapped in plastic, a tossed salad in a plastic container, a plastic bottle of mustard and a plastic bottle of ketchup, and they won’t give me a plastic bag to carry it all home because the plastic bag is bad for the environment?
Ken Wardell
Saanichton
A continued waste of medical talent
Re: “Physician shortage is cause for outrage,” letter, Aug. 17.
Dr. Paul Fenje’s letter was spot on. Canada has never trained enough physicians to supply its own needs.
We used to steal them from the rest of the world. We still do. Sometimes, they come as refugees.
When they arrive we hardly acknowledge their training, their years of experience or even their proven expertise. We insist that they take supplemental training and pass examinations such as those that Canadian medical students take when they finish medical school.
Even if they were super subspecialists in their own country, they will have trouble getting recognized in Canada. And finally, if their skills are acknowledged, they will have to deal with the licensing boards of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories, most of whom don’t recognize each other’s licences.
I have trained, worked and taught in Canada and also in England, New Zealand, Australia, Micronesia, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the Emirates.
In every place I worked with, and learned from, physicians who were every bit as competent as those in Canada. It is time for us to put aside our hubris and recognize that mainstream medical practice in much of the developed world has reached a high standard.
It is time for us to recognize the degrees and licences granted by other equally concerned examination bodies and licensing authorities around the world. If we don’t, we will have even more cause for outrage; the continued waste of medical talent.
Dr. Stephen Sullivan (retired)
Victoria
Yet another phone scam, so be very wary
I am writing to warn people about a phone scam. Usually, I hang up as soon as I hear the first couple of words of the recording, but this was not a recording. It was a real person who caught my attention immediately with the first two words: “Hi Mom.”
This tearful and distraught young man who was posing as my son explained that he was not OK as he had just been in an accident. When I commented that this didn’t sound like my son, he explained imploringly: “Mom, I was in an accident. I broke my nose.”
He then said that he was with the police , and that he was charged with drinking and driving, even though he only had one drink.
Before I could get any more details, he said he had to go but the police wanted to talk to me and that they were going to phone right back.
As soon as he hung up, I went searching for my son who lives on our property and quickly found him. My emotions now turned to anger.
The phone rang again. A man introduced himself as an “attorney” and was calling about Liam’s accident. I let him know that the gig was up. But still, I was badly shaken by this experience.
Please be wary of this scam — and scams in general. How disheartening that there are so many people out there that are ready to sink that low in order to make a buck.
Maria St Amand
Victoria
Climate-change claim is a weak justification
Re: “Putting Clover Point changes into perspective,” commentary, Aug. 18.
I’ll be succinct. Accusing Andrew Weaver of being intellectually incapable of appreciating the wisdom of the Clover Point redesign, and carrying on to complain that the ideas driving the plan are difficult to understand, is the height of arrogance, and typifies why there is often a disconnect between planners and the public. Planning ain’t rocket science.
The redevelopment of Clover Point is an abysmal planning failure with one redeeming feature: It should provide planning schools with material around the theme of “how not to” for years to come.
More specifically, public consultation and input were minimal, a traffic circulation problem has been created as drivers wait or line up to turn round, and the often-windswept environment is unsuited to the use of picnic tables most of the year.
Climate change is the overwhelming issue of the age, but the resources directed at Clover Point could have been better utilized elsewhere.
Modifying Clover Point is not going to affect automobile ownership or use. Frankly, the argument that it’s about climate change seems like an inadequate retrospective justification for a planning mistake.
Frank Duerden
Victoria
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