Kidney specialists recommend vaccinations
Victoria’s kidney specialists wish to confirm and clarify for the kidney-transplant and other renal patients under our care, in the strongest possible terms, that vaccination against COVID-19 is highly recommended for them.
Further, we wish to remind others that medical reasons for not being vaccinated are vanishingly rare and most people living with chronic illness, including those with suppressed immune systems especially, benefit from vaccination.
We mourn the loss of Juliana Nieuwenhuis and our other patients who have died from COVID-19 infection. Bill Nieuwenhuis is to be commended for coming forward publicly to advocate for others and to encourage them at what must be a very difficult time for him and the entire Nieuwenhuis family.
We encourage everyone to be vaccinated and to continue following public health guidance around masking, distancing and handwashing until the pandemic is behind us.
Dr. John E. Antonsen, MD
Dr. Gregory Ganz, MD
Dr. Gaylene Hargrove, MD
Dr. Kevin Horgan, MD
Dr. Krishna Poinen, MD
Dr. Michael Schachter, MD
Dr. Caroline Stigant, MD
Dr. Rene Weir, MD
Don’t be cruel in this difficult time
Local restaurateur Chad Rennie has passed away from COVID-19, prompting a wave of online discussion about his apparently vocal opposition to the vaccine.
There is a growing trend of antagonism toward people who are hospitalized or die after publicly criticizing vaccinations. Some even suggest that refusing to be vaccinated ought to disqualify people from receiving health care (or as it is often put, “taking up hospital beds”).
I sympathize with the frustration — as a Stage 4 cancer patient currently receiving chemotherapy, I struggle to see much in the dwindling anti-vaccination movement but misguided defiance, toxic masculinity and shortsighted selfishness.
However, Rennie’s death reminds me of the discussions that occur around our other epidemic, the opioid crisis.
In both situations, people are engaging in risky behaviour and when deaths occur, others often conclude that they “brought it upon themselves.” This callousness is in some ways an understandable response to this intensely and unceasingly challenging time — like growing calluses on our bruised hearts.
With close to five million deaths globally and two years of loneliness and social dislocation, we are all so worn out.
But just like people with addictions, those who choose to put themselves in the path of COVID not only harm themselves, but also so many around them who did not make that choice.
This cruelty in the face of another’s suffering might feel like self-defence or maybe even justice, but it’s not good for us, not as a society nor as individuals. We should be careful — once calluses form, they are difficult to undo.
Mayana C. Slobodian
Esquimalt
More testing, please, as the case count rises
Given that you might have to wait days to get a COVID test, even if you have symptoms, maybe it’s time for us to stop being afraid to question and even criticize how the pandemic is being handled here.
Easy and speedy access to testing has been shown to be crucial in controlling the spread of COVID, so why aren’t testing sites increasing now that the number of cases are increasing?
And why don’t we have rapid testing available in the schools as they have in other provinces? We can support what is going well and still keep pushing for answers and accountability in areas where the B.C. plan to manage COVID is failing us.
Elizabeth Causton
Victoria
These are trying times, so be kind to each other
Dr. Bonnie Henry taught us to be kind and safe, but it seems we’ve forgotten the kind part. For a year and a half we’ve all been angry fearful and stressed beyond belief.
I understand that both sides of the vaccine and mask issue want this resolved quickly and are quick to attack each other.
Let’s think things through clearly. Take deep breaths. There seems to be a lot of fear and worry. Everyone is pointing fingers and stereotyping.
Not all vaccinated types hate the unvaxxed. Not all unvaxxed are this by choice.
Many in fact have serious allergies to vaccinations and treated poorly and being told that they are evil and dangerous.
Please, instead of automatically lumping all people together, let’s try to remember we are Canadians and we are known to be kind, loving and compassionate.
That’s the Canada I know.
Rhianna Barr Beaumont
Victoria
It worked with polio, it can work with COVID
I was dismayed to stroll past our legislative buildings the other day and witness the frothing vitriol by the anti-vax crowd being screamed across our beautiful lawns by this crazy man with a loudspeaker trying stir up his followers with the bizarre conspiracy theory that COVID was all a big plot by the media and an imaginary world government to try to control our lives.
We will never beat this horrible virus plaguing our world if we don’t pull together. That means that everyone must be vaccinated. If everyone is vaccinated, the COVID virus will have no place to hide or mutate.
Many years ago, polio threatened planet Earth. Doctors and scientists worked around the clock and polio was eradicated by vaccination. We need to do the same thing again.
Paul Arnold
Saanich
Not vaccinated? Your taxes will go up
We have sin taxes for tobacco and liquor. We recognize the negatives to society and increased health-care costs.
How about a new sin tax? The province or the feds should put out that if you do not have your second vaccination by Dec. 31, then your 2021 income tax rate will increase by five per cent.
Help the deficit and reduce health-care costs. Just do it; hit these idiots where it hurts.
Ken Mawdsley
Saanich
Canada must get tough with China
It is fantastic that the two Michaels have been released from China after Meng Wanzhou admitted fraud and wrongdoing to a U.S. court. Only because her wealth enabled supporting almost three years of legal action in Canada was she able to avoid extradition to the U.S., which quite rightly demanded her extradition for the offence.
I spent three years in China and viewed the abdication of the U.S. and Europeans in complying with Communist Party rules to do business there.
What a mistake it was to meekly comply when China was stealing intellectual property from western companies in return for short-term-based corporate profits. Now China is the second-largest economy in the world, and scarily also as a military power.
We rejoice in the arrivals of the two Michaels home. Our lacklustre government had nothing to do with that result, which is thanks to our U.S. friends who facilitated the release following the “plea and admission of lying” she was arrested for.
I understand that Meng owns two luxurious homes in Vancouver and is technically a permanent citizen of Canada, yet she chooses immediately on her release to high-tail it off to her “motherland” where she was greeted as a Communist State heroine.
I trust the Canadian government will have the fortitude and common sense to cancel her residency in Canada — and, most importantly, immediately declare Huawei operations here persona non grata.
John O’Brien
Parksville
Playing politics with the Two Michaels
Canada and the world rejoiced in the homecoming for Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. After a very long and difficult ordeal, they were reunited with family and friends.
Then the comments by Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, petty for sure.
They thanked the hard work done by the diplomats. Never a hint that civil servants and politicians from many countries had an active role in their release. Not a word of praise for the continuous dialogue among Prime Minster Justin Trudeau, Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau, Global Affairs and U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration and a host of other world leaders.
Nor was there any praise for how our respect for the rule of law was exemplified by the Canadian justice system.
My hopes for more respectful and harmonious debates and collaboration in the House of Commons have been soured.
Brian Head
Sidney
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