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Unvaccinated convoy protesters are selfish, plain and simple. Please, just get the jabThe choice not to get vaccinated has meant hospitals and their intensive care units are overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases, Althia Raj writes.
By Althia Raj
National Columnist
TORONTO STAR
Sat., Jan. 29, 2022
Please, just get vaccinated.
I have no idea if I speak for a majority or a minority of Canadians but my principal thought watching the demonstration unfold on Parliament Hill Saturday is just how selfish the unvaccinated are.
I’m sorry. Yes, I feel the need to apologize for feeling this way, but it is selfish to decide not to get vaccinated when you have no medical reason not to. Vaccines have been shown to be overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines save lives. Your life, and the lives of others.
We live in a society where we, as a group, have decided to invest in and support one another. I don’t have children, but my taxes go to educate my neighbours’ children and I’m happy about that. Our taxes go to pay for the roads and bridges we drive on, the parks we play in, the health-care services we all use.
Unless you’re living off the grid, hunting your own food, treating yourself when you’re sick, and choosing not to partake in society, I think protesting because you’re fed up with vaccine mandates that prevent you from doing certain jobs or going to a restaurant is selfish.
The choice not to get vaccinated has meant hospitals and their intensive care units are overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases. Vaccination, unfortunately, hasn’t prevented transmission, and there are too many vaccinated Canadians in hospital, but proportionally there are vastly more unvaccinated patients. Because we all share that hospital capacity, many Canadians have gone without surgeries, diagnostic tests or treatments. That’s unfair. As a group, we should do everything we can to ensure this doesn’t happen, and that means, please, get vaccinated.
Vaccinated protesters on the hill say they are tired of restrictions. I am also tired of the restrictions. We all are. I think often of the single parents with school-age children and how they’ve managed, or the small-business owners who worry about their life savings sunk in a business that may be unable to recover. I can’t wait for things to return to normal, to feel safe going about everyday activities, and not worry about my 82-year-old father catching COVID-19.
The sooner everyone gets vaccinated, the sooner this can happen.
I know some feel there’s no point to vaccination; we’re now on dose three and dose four may not be far behind. So many people have already caught COVID-19, what’s the point, the argument goes. Many people who recently got sick with the Omicron variant had mild symptoms, they note. True, and most were vaccinated. As long as people travel and there isn’t vaccine equity around the world, the virus will mutate, and we’ll be rolling up our sleeves for new jabs.
The alternative is we continue to live in a see-saw of lockdowns, or we accept that tens of thousands will die as the cost of keeping our society open.
I don’t like either of these scenarios. Please, just get vaccinated.
We are incredibly privileged to live in Canada, to have ample access to free vaccines. The few visible minorities on the hill reminded me how so many around the world would love to be in our position.
We are fortunate to live in a country where we can safely protest. I was relieved to see, as I write this, that the demonstration was non-violent. It was loud, full of profanity directed at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and reports of people urinating on the street. More troubling were the Confederate flags, swastikas, the use of the War Memorial as a parking lot, protesters dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the appropriation of a statue of Terry Fox. The demands from the convoy’s organizer, Canada Unity, which have garnered more than 250,000 signatures, are also concerning. Their memorandum of understanding reads like a civics essay from a flunking Grade 9 student. The Senate and the governor general cannot instruct any level of government to waive COVID-related fines or reinstate dismissed employees. Furthermore, the “people of Canada” are already represented in Ottawa, by members of Parliament who were just recently selected in a free and fair election, not by this self-appointed group of minority truckers and their supporters.
I fear the deepening polarization happening in this country. I worry about the hollowing out of the political middle, and political parties increasingly catering to their more radical wings. Our politicians should be united in calling out the misinformation that protesters are sharing, not catering to the group for political reasons.
Part of the problem is an erosion of trust. The pandemic response has been far from perfect. Official advice has not always been as transparent and honest as it could have been. Moreover, that advice shifted as science evolved. I can still hear Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, telling us in 2020 that quarantine is unnecessary and discouraging the use of masks. Politicians, meanwhile, too often chose to make politically popular decisions rather than be guided by science. I fear Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe’s decision to end proof of negative tests or proof of vaccination policy is the latest example.
But as I watch Phil Powers on the CBC, sitting in his truck stopped in front of Parliament Hill, urging people to do their “own research” and complaining that the “mandate season ... has gone on long enough, and it is just time for us to have our lives back,” I have only one message. Please, just get vaccinated.
Please, just get vaccinated.
I have no idea if I speak for a majority or a minority of Canadians but my principal thought watching the demonstration unfold on Parliament Hill Saturday is just how selfish the unvaccinated are.
I’m sorry. Yes, I feel the need to apologize for feeling this way, but it is selfish to decide not to get vaccinated when you have no medical reason not to. Vaccines have been shown to be overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines save lives. Your life, and the lives of others.
We live in a society where we, as a group, have decided to invest in and support one another. I don’t have children, but my taxes go to educate my neighbours’ children and I’m happy about that. Our taxes go to pay for the roads and bridges we drive on, the parks we play in, the health-care services we all use.
Unless you’re living off the grid, hunting your own food, treating yourself when you’re sick, and choosing not to partake in society, I think protesting because you’re fed up with vaccine mandates that prevent you from doing certain jobs or going to a restaurant is selfish.
The choice not to get vaccinated has meant hospitals and their intensive care units are overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases. Vaccination, unfortunately, hasn’t prevented transmission, and there are too many vaccinated Canadians in hospital, but proportionally there are vastly more unvaccinated patients. Because we all share that hospital capacity, many Canadians have gone without surgeries, diagnostic tests or treatments. That’s unfair. As a group, we should do everything we can to ensure this doesn’t happen, and that means, please, get vaccinated.
Vaccinated protesters on the hill say they are tired of restrictions. I am also tired of the restrictions. We all are. I think often of the single parents with school-age children and how they’ve managed, or the small-business owners who worry about their life savings sunk in a business that may be unable to recover. I can’t wait for things to return to normal, to feel safe going about everyday activities, and not worry about my 82-year-old father catching COVID-19.
The sooner everyone gets vaccinated, the sooner this can happen.
I know some feel there’s no point to vaccination; we’re now on dose three and dose four may not be far behind. So many people have already caught COVID-19, what’s the point, the argument goes. Many people who recently got sick with the Omicron variant had mild symptoms, they note. True, and most were vaccinated. As long as people travel and there isn’t vaccine equity around the world, the virus will mutate, and we’ll be rolling up our sleeves for new jabs.
The alternative is we continue to live in a see-saw of lockdowns, or we accept that tens of thousands will die as the cost of keeping our society open.
I don’t like either of these scenarios. Please, just get vaccinated.
We are incredibly privileged to live in Canada, to have ample access to free vaccines. The few visible minorities on the hill reminded me how so many around the world would love to be in our position.
We are fortunate to live in a country where we can safely protest. I was relieved to see, as I write this, that the demonstration was non-violent. It was loud, full of profanity directed at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and reports of people urinating on the street. More troubling were the Confederate flags, swastikas, the use of the War Memorial as a parking lot, protesters dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the appropriation of a statue of Terry Fox. The demands from the convoy’s organizer, Canada Unity, which have garnered more than 250,000 signatures, are also concerning. Their memorandum of understanding reads like a civics essay from a flunking Grade 9 student. The Senate and the governor general cannot instruct any level of government to waive COVID-related fines or reinstate dismissed employees. Furthermore, the “people of Canada” are already represented in Ottawa, by members of Parliament who were just recently selected in a free and fair election, not by this self-appointed group of minority truckers and their supporters.
I fear the deepening polarization happening in this country. I worry about the hollowing out of the political middle, and political parties increasingly catering to their more radical wings. Our politicians should be united in calling out the misinformation that protesters are sharing, not catering to the group for political reasons.
Part of the problem is an erosion of trust. The pandemic response has been far from perfect. Official advice has not always been as transparent and honest as it could have been. Moreover, that advice shifted as science evolved. I can still hear Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, telling us in 2020 that quarantine is unnecessary and discouraging the use of masks. Politicians, meanwhile, too often chose to make politically popular decisions rather than be guided by science. I fear Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe’s decision to end proof of negative tests or proof of vaccination policy is the latest example.
But as I watch Phil Powers on the CBC, sitting in his truck stopped in front of Parliament Hill, urging people to do their “own research” and complaining that the “mandate season ... has gone on long enough, and it is just time for us to have our lives back,” I have only one message. Please, just get vaccinated.
Althia Raj is an Ottawa-based national politics columnist for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @althiaraj
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