When will we ever learn?

I have some questions:

First, when did we become so inured to such high case numbers and why do we just accept that our death rate must be so high? We now have the highest infection rate in the country with one of the lowest testing rates. I remember when the PHO said twenty-five cases would be too many. When do we realize that maybe we are not doing so well as a province and when does the Premier hold someone accountable for our lack of progress? The public at large needs to say: “too many people are dying, too many people are getting infected, too many families have suffered unbearable pain, we need to do better!”

Second, when do we demand that this PHO and now this Government become more transparent. We know we have been given figures that are misleading and incomplete? We know that figures for long term covid are hidden and that hospitalization numbers have been deliberately misleading. Now the Government is passing legislation that will make Freedom of Information requests more costly and therefore more difficult to acquire. We also know that we have relied on two dedicated Mothers for exposure information on schools when our PHO should have provided this information. This Government and the PHO are feeding us propaganda and it is time to demand an end to misinformation and disinformation that has so damaged the country to the south of us.

Third, how were we not able to coordinate with the federal Government and the other five provinces, so that we only needed one vaccine passport rather than two? Now anyone traveling is stuck with the burden of ensuring they have multiple documents when one would do. Who was asleep at the switch on this one: the Premier or the PHO?

Fourth, why do we accept the current Passport deception? No one can go to certain events or restaurants without showing they are fully vaccinated. Yet the staff that are serving you do not have to be fully vaccinated and by the current rules the employer may not even ask their employees if they are fully vaccinated. Every time you go to an event or a restaurant, you run the risk of being served by an individual who could give you covid. We are all living under a false sense of security in these venues. This is madness brought on by ridiculous rules set down by the PHO.

Fifth, why are School Boards not mandating vaccines for all school district employees? Children now account for approximately twenty-five percent of our infections. We have children under the age of ten being admitted to ICU and we have no idea how many children will suffer from long term covid nor what the effects over time will be. The BCTF has said they will support a vaccine mandate, yet our School Boards sit on their hands and do nothing just as they did with the mask mandate. Trustees are abrogating their responsibility to our children and grandchildren and leaving them in peril every day. Why do we as a public accept such inaction?

Sixth, why do we support a PHO that will not accept that the virus is aerosolized and who would not mandate masks for children in September? It took parental and public pressure to force the PHO to mandate masks for children and when the little ones began to wear the masks the number of cases in schools began a decline. How many cases could have been prevented had the mask mandate been in place in September?

Seventh, why have we not had an apology from the PHO for the mistaken decision to open everything up in July? Even the PHO in the neighbouring province apologized for that mistake. Recently, a club in Kamloops had an evening event with sixty-eight people in one room, all fully vaccinated, and because the delta variant is so virulent there were still eighteen cases of covid in those sixty-eight people. Yet we are now opening up again when we have the worst infection rate in Canada.

Which brings me to the final question from a very popular song in my day:

WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN?

Doug Player, October 26, 2021.