Monday, September 06, 2021

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KELOWNA ANTI VAX PROTEST AT HOSPITAL
We don't even have words'
Rob Gibson - Sep 2, 2021 

Photo: Rob Gibson
A healthcare worker watches a protest unfold outside KGH

A group of Kelowna General Hospital healthcare workers have reached out to Castanet to let the community know how upsetting they found Wednesday's protest outside the hospital.

"We don't even have words," said nurse Bruce MacKay.

He and many fellow healthcare workers at KGH considered some type of counter-protest, "but when I saw the chaos and directionlessness of the protest, I realized, oh my goodness what's the point."

Instead, Mackay and eight of his colleagues walked out the front doors linked arms and turned their backs on the protesters, who gathered in opposition to B.C.'s vaccine passport program set to launch on Sept. 13.


"We were talking about it at shift change, I just feel like that if we do nothing... Sometimes people say silence is complicit, but I didn't want to engage in a conversation."

"I was standing arms linked with my outstanding work cohorts. Turning our backs was representative of no longer wanting to listen to and work against the cacophony of disinformation."

Several other healthcare workers who spoke with Castanet, who were on-shift and unable to speak on the record, shared similar sentiments. One intensive care unit doctor walked outside and called the protest "B.S."

While watching the protest, a pharmacy technician at KGH called the situation "crazy."

"I mean I want to stop wearing a mask, but when it’s like this I don’t know. We have some COVID patients at the hospital, I just don’t get this," said the employee, who Castanet has granted anonymity to.

"We went back inside in tears," Mackay said.

Gareth Eeson, surgical oncologist, tweeted that he has "never been so disappointed in my community."

Dr. Michael Hopman, a family physician in Kelowna, called Castanet while the protest was taking place. His wife has scheduled cancer surgery and is afraid it may get cancelled because the hospital is overloaded, in part with COVID-19 patients.

"I'm all for choice, but it just seems so crazy right now... people are choosing a hard line. People are screaming out freedom. This isn't a Mel Gibson movie. This isn't Braveheart. This is real life."

"We have a choice yes, but we have a responsibility as people to make a concerted effort to help protect each other and be citizens. As a physician, I don't get it," Dr. Hopman said.

"We're here to help people," Mackay said, pointing to past vaccine successes. "Rheumatic fever, rubella, measles killed people for years, they came up with a vaccine, it was needless to die from that."

Mackay says he respects everyone's right to peaceful protest and he even understands vaccine hesitancy but he points out, "we're here to help people. We're not the frontline, you are."

Dr. Hopman's viewpoint is slightly more pessimistic, "in my professional opinion, there's a way out of this. It's called time, and death and chaos, confusion and a lot of frustration."

Kelowna's mayor and local members of Parliament and the Legislature all issued statements condemning the location of the protest outside the hospital. Similar protests took place across Canada, including in Kamloops.

The protest was organized by a group called "Canadian Frontline Nurses," a group of a handful of out-of-province healthcare workers who have been travelling the continent for several months spreading anti-vaccine messages and conspiracy theories related to the pandemic.


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