Dear editor,
It is good to finally see a letter ( Half measures in response to COVID aren’t cutting it, Mark Dalton, 17/02/2021) that identifies the poor response to COVID-19 in Canada and in B.C.
The soft “ We don’t want to offend anyone or tell you what to do” response federally and provincially has brought us to this point of devastating loss of life and debilitation as well as the catastrophic losses in retail and small businesses.
We have had no leadership in this pandemic.
With a killer on the loose (literally), our B.C. public health officer gently encourages people to” lock the door” but it is an option and she hopes you are listening. Not good enough! We had models in Canada (the Maritimes) and other parts of the world (Australia and New Zealand) that took strong and direct action immediately and the result was a short period of lockdown and a very successful outcome. The land border was closed but international flights flooded into Canada non-stop. Interprovincial travel continued without impediment. Quarantine was loosely monitored. The result was the number of infected rising uncontrolled and now new variants from around the world to contend with. And the numbers game is clearly a faulty process since it is only based on people who have been tested, which has been very few along the way, no doubt because of the utter confusion of who, where and when can get tested in B.C.
This has been a mess and continues with the confused and disorganized delivery of vaccines. This is irresponsible and unacceptable. I am tragically amused when the daily briefings come on the television. It is quite obvious that the “officials” are making it up as they go. The most recent poll in Canada identified that more than 50 per cent of us have lost faith in our scientists, our government, and our media. No mystery here!
Deborah Joyce,
Courtenay