Covid Pandemic

[PortKells]

Vaccine passport are here another broken promise this was never going to happen

As long as you get vaccinated you're good. Personally I'm ok with it, why should people be punished for others making a poor choice? Maybe this will motivate some people.

[John]

As long as you get vaccinated you're good. Personally I'm ok with it, why should people be punished for others making a poor choice? Maybe this will motivate some people.

Nobody should be forced or coerced into a vaccination this pure government overreach. Btw I am vaccinated but it’s my choice. If you think not getting vaccinated is a poor decision which I think is true if you’re older, that doesn’t affect anyone else but the person himself.

[moonshadow0825]

that doesn’t affect anyone else but the person himself.

I'm not sure how you think that is the case John? as of August 14 over 1900 kids in the US, who under current advice can't be vaccinated if they are under 12, have been hospitalized with Covid.

these kids haven't got a choice regarding the vaccine but they got the virus from someone, the adults do have a choice. if the choice is to not get the vaccine how do you posit that that choice does not affect anyone else?

[Canada Goose]

I think there has been a complete lack of transparency throughout this very complex challenge.
The government is now forcing people to be vaccinated against their beliefs. The majority are okay with this because it is aligned with their beliefs, but you should be outraged that the beliefs of others are being trampled on.
Social distancing and masks are not sustainable solutions. We have 80% compliance on vaccinations, but we are acting like this is a competition we can win. We can’t win, we have to manage it.
We are all holding up data, science, and reports to support our beliefs, but we are not being given all the statistics to make good decisions.
Show me a data set that has Cases and Deaths by age, race, population density and co-morbidity. If any of those categories have a number in the 70/80 percentile then we should have a different approach.
We are facing a huge health crisis, but we are not even having the right conversation about what that is. The critical issue is the state of our metabolic and mental health. Instead of offering full transparency we are controlling people with fear and, even worse, feeling righteous enough about it to launch online attacks against anyone who doesn’t agree.
We should be looking at our obesity and diabetes pandemic. We should be looking at exercise and nutrition. We could be changing our allowable density regulations.
If you want to control what we put in our bodies to save lives and protect the population let’s start with making high fructose corn syrup and trans fats illegal.
Instead of not allowing the unvaccinated on public transport we could ban (protect) anyone with obesity, diabetes or hypertension and maybe stop blaming them for being symptomatic in this crisis.
More transparency would show that metabolically healthy people are statistically reasonably safe.
The solution is not more vaccines to fight more variants (although they have a role) it is better sleep, lower stress, real nutrition, increased exercise, better social support, decreased harmful behaviors, and a fucking huge wakeup call on mental health.
We are all trying to argue about who is right, but we are not even having the right conversation.

[Typeing3]

If some people are so insecure and/or scared to the point they do not wish to access some of these non-essential activities with no risk at all to themselves or others, then they should be free to make their decision; instead we're seeing the exact opposite with blanket unprecedented mandates.

I remember people - including politicians - brushed off the mention of domestic vaccine passports last year as conspiracy BS, yet here we are today.

In lockstep and in addition to all what has happened since March 2020, these moves indicate a continued shift towards greater authoritarian measures along with a culling of freedom of choice in creating some semblance of a de-facto segregated two-tiered society. Nevertheless, the provincial government has at the very least (using this very lightly here) earmarked an end date for the passports (January 31st, 2022), so only time will tell if they stick to their word.

[Typeing3]

if the choice is to not get the vaccine how do you posit that that choice does not affect anyone else?

One can make that same argument for an obscene amount of other issues (whether related to a vaccine or not)... the answer/response to which is certainly not what is happening now.

[John]

Should we weigh people before they enter a restaurant or a grocery store to see if they are allowed to buy certain foods that will negatively affect their weight?

[SouthSardiswx]

I told you restrictions would be back albiet masks but still.

[PortKells]

Wait the government isn't forcing anybody to do anything. You are free to not get vaccinated, you just no longer have the right to unnecessarily risk other people's health.

I don't see any comparison to obesity whatsoever unless there are people who can catch obesity from others.

I think people are missing the big picture here. We are losing health care workers and we are seeing the health care system plugged up unnecessarily by selfish actions. What other options does the government have? Sit by and watch as the ICU is overrun? Cancel surgeries for people who have done nothing wrong? You could ban unvaccinated individuals from obtaining covid health care but that would most likely be illegal and unnethical.

I'm all for criticizing the government but also consider offer some solutions here. The unvaccinated did this to us and IMO they deserve all of the blame. Also politicians who have stoked those fears.

[Typeing3]

Stoking fear and division is the oldest play in the book, and - when carefully and gradually swept into society - works wonderfully for those in power. Blaming the "other" is often the easy way out (and a direct result of that fear and division) but almost never the solution.

We've already seen a wave of potentially dangerous government precedents over the past year and a half, even prior to adding domestic vaccine passports to the list. Repeatedly similar government and mass media messaging during this timeframe has already shifted western society's overall views on the individualistic vs collectivistic mindset.

Evidenced in recent goverment/media messaging and policy regarding things like lockdowns and vaccine mandates, traditional laissez-faire personal freedom ideologies have been gradually bleeding support to the betterment of the group or collectivist ideologies, at least from a social point of view. Economics-wise, we definitely still lean hard on the former rather than the latter. Hence why we witnessed an unprecedented rise in economic inequality and wealth disparity during the last year and a half, a direct result of lockdowns.

[John]

Stoking fear and division is the oldest play in the book, and - when carefully and gradually swept into society - works wonderfully for those in power. Blaming the "other" is often the easy way out (and a direct result of that fear and division) but almost never the solution.

We've already seen a wave of potentially dangerous government precedents over the past year and a half, even prior to adding domestic vaccine passports to the list. Repeatedly similar government and mass media messaging during this timeframe has already shifted western society's overall views on the individualistic vs collectivistic mindset.

Evidenced in recent goverment/media messaging and policy regarding things like lockdowns and vaccine mandates, traditional laissez-faire personal freedom ideologies have been gradually bleeding support to the betterment of the group or collectivist ideologies, at least from a social point of view. Economics-wise, we definitely still lean hard on the former rather than the latter. Hence why we witnessed an unprecedented rise in economic inequality and wealth disparity during the last year and a half, a direct result of lockdowns.

Your a wise person

[Glacier]

Anyone up for a trip to Peru?

coviddeathsagu24world.png

[Abby_wx]

The experts were wrong about herd immunity -- either that or they lied to us. We were repeatedly told that we needed to have about 70% of the population fully vaccinated to achieve herd immunity; a threshold that we are now well beyond in BC, with 76% of eligible people being fully vaccinated and 85% having received their first dose.

I have always supported a reasonable and balanced response throughout this pandemic while we awaited the vaccines. I agreed that mask wearing, social distancing and preventing large gatherings was a good idea at the time. But those were only intended to be temporary measures until the majority of people had received two doses of the vaccine.

Now it seems like even the experts have no clue what the endgame is. We're waiting and hoping that we can convince more people to get vaccinated, but we can't even agree on what numbers we're aiming for, or if it will make any difference. Then's there the issue of booster shots and new variants yet to be known. I'm sorry, but the line needs to be drawn somewhere. Are we supposed to mask up and social distance every time there's a new wave for the next who knows how many years?

It is becoming clear that COVID will never go away completely, and there will likely never be herd immunity as long as vaccinated people can still transmit the virus. It's time for us to face reality, which means accepting a certain level of risk as we go about our normal lives. We accept this risk every time we set foot outside. That's part of living in a free society. If one does not wish to accept any risk, they are welcome to stay home and never go anywhere, but they are fooling themselves if they think they can escape all risk. It's time to end these regressive policies that are bankrupting this country, contributing to wealth inequality, harming mental health and creating friction in society.

[Abby_wx]

Economics-wise, we definitely still lean hard on the former rather than the latter. Hence why we witnessed an unprecedented rise in economic inequality and wealth disparity during the last year and a half, a direct result of lockdowns.

It's certainly disturbing to see how this pandemic has impacted wealth inequality. I wonder how many people have seen their dream of home ownership crushed by the effects of this government money-printing and asset inflation?

The rich and upper middle class got to work from home in the comfort of their big suburban homes, while watching their stock portfolios go up in value. Meanwhile, the working class and poor who couldn't work from home had to expose themselves to COVID and watch housing prices get even further out of reach. And now we're seeing inflation of goods and services also ramping up, which disproportionately affects the poor and working class.

[Bonovox]

Wait the government isn't forcing anybody to do anything. You are free to not get vaccinated, you just no longer have the right to unnecessarily risk other people's health.

Yup.