My name is Crystal Cox, a student at Edward Milne Community High School in Sooke. My family and I moved to Sooke from West Vancouver during the summer of 2019, after my parents sold their medical practices.
Mayor Tait, we cannot overestimate how important it is for you, your council, local bylaw and services, like the District of Sooke, CRD and all other service providers, to behave professionally during the next few weeks until the COVID 19 pandemic overreaction is all over.
Using factual research and science to justify closing down the local playground monkey bars, but not over-step and over-react.
“Coronavirus”, also known as COVID-19, is actually a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS, and the official designation given to this new virus is SARS CoV2 or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus Version 2.0. The World Health Organization or WHO knew that Wuhan, China had identified this new strain officially via letter on Dec. 31, 2019.
WHO did not want to spread worldwide fear-mongering and panic that a new SARS Version 2.0 was going to wipe out possibly one per cent of the planet’s population of humans with immune deficiencies, compromised respiratory health issues, the sick and the elderly. So instead, they kept it “low key,” and renamed it with a fancier name, “the coronavirus,” later COVID-19. I guess the plan of WHO did not go over too well, huh?
Like most of my Generation Z (born 1995-2015) and Generation Y Millennials (born 1980-1994), we are extremely angry at both the Generation X (born 1965 - 1979) and especially the “Baby Boomers” (born post-war 1944-1964) for excessively over-populating planet earth, and destroying “our” environment excessively for most of the last 85 years.
If Mother Nature has created a super virus that wants to eliminate one per cent of the earth’s population in mostly high-density and over-populated areas, and restore the environment, “Great job Mother Earth!”
In the last few weeks alone, our planet has regained several decades of life expectancy again, just from the daily millions of megatons of carbon emissions that are no longer going into earth’s atmosphere. The dreaded “doomsday clock” has been set back several minutes.
Mayor Tait, closing down access to parks, boardwalks, beaches, the skateboard park, putting stupid yellow tape on bicycle racks, park benches, with big yellow CLOSED signs in black and yellow is getting really silly, don’t you think?
People who are forced out of employment, staying at home, forced to work from home, want to go out for walks in nature, get exercise, do some tricks at the skateboard park, or bike with friends. SARS CoV2 is not spread from sitting on a park bench, skateboards, or bicycle to bicycle. Some of you adults have lost your mind out of fear and are causing fear-mongering.
Preventing people in Sooke from enjoying nature and the outdoors is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Mayor Tait, do the right thing and be part of the solution in your community.
My mother taught immunology and virology at the University of B.C. and even though she is bound by a professional code of ethics with the Canadian Medical Association, those in her profession fear there is way too much overreaction going on right now. We need to start facing the hard facts, and living our lives within some sort of normalcy and sanity again.
Crystal Cox
Sooke