Hey anti-vaxxers, stay in your rabbit holes!

I wonder about the intellectual limit of some people. A news item a few days ago showed quite large protests by anti-vaxxers. It was the location of these protests that really disturbed me. They were protesting outside hospitals and impeding the work of our Canadian health care professionals. To focus their vitriol and anger on these workers who have been literally risking their lives throughout the Pandemic speaks to an ignorance that is beyond my comprehension. Yes you have a right to voice your opinion and even to protest in public, but to direct this rage at the people who are saving our lives underscores a stupidity that shines through your protest like a laser beam. We have arrived at a juncture where the very future of our society depends on the vaccines that have been holding the virus and its ever morphing variants at bay. Numbers are creeping up on a daily basis, but at least those of us who have received the vaccine understand that even if we contract the virus, we won’t end up in hospital on a ventilator. You anti-vaxxers have a right to reject the vaccine, nobody is suggesting it will be forcibly injected into you. This is not Nazi Germany nor Stalinist Russia. But if you maintain this absurd point of view which goes against all the science, then stay the fuck at home! You being out and about puts me at risk. I don’t want to see you out in public. Exchange tweets and posts on your rabbit hole social media sites. But don’t show your face amongst the rest of us who want to live out our lives in good health, free from the fear that boneheads like you will spew a vapor trail of virus next to us. And kudos to or provincial government for initiating vaccine passports effective September 22. No gyms, no cinemas, no indoor dining, no concerts for you anti-vaxxers. Hang onto your absurd mindset and commiserate with each other, as if what you are doing is somehow a freedom of expression right. Stage your rallies and protests in wide open public spaces. But don’t come walking down Main St. You belong in your hovels with your Q-Anon conspiracy friends, far removed from civilized society.

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Vaccine Passport a must!

To begin with, now that the vast majority of Canadians are vaccinated, we should close the airport gates to those who aren’t. If you want to fly, you need a vaccine. A form of this already exists in some places—if you want to board a flight to northern Manitoba, for example. The same rules should be applied to trains, concerts, even restaurants. We could even go so far as to impose it as a requirement for interprovincial travel.  This approach is already working in Europe. When French President Emmanuel Macron announced vaccine passes would be required to enter restaurants, hospitals, shopping centers or to take a train, 2.2 million new appointments were booked within the following 48 hours. In Italy, 5 hour long lines formed immediately after similar restrictions were announced. This might require some form of standardized certification, beyond the print-outs most of us have now. All that would require is a visit to a vaccination centre, a doctor, or possibly even city hall where you could show some ID and your proof of vaccination, and then be given something similar to a temporary driver’s license. There would be no need for a picture, just your name and birthdate on some difficult to replicate paper stock. (This, like so many things with this pandemic, should have been something our public health officials had anticipated and prepared for months ago.) Of course, the more easily confused among us will cry that this is a “vaccine passport”. Well, so is the membership card you use to get into your gym, the driver’s license you need to get behind a wheel and the health card you need to show your doctor.  Others have warned this will create a segregated country. Randy Hillier, an Ontario politician infamous for being even too much for Doug Ford’s conservatives, claims that withholding access to the unvaccinated is akin to Nazi policies and “one step removed from extermination.” I could point out that everything in our society already contains element of segregation (No shoes, no shirt, no service), but there is simply no point in trying to reason with idiots or frauds who might believe this nonsense, and I won’t try here.  We need to begin treating the vaccine holdouts as the fools they are. It is not fair that reasonable and responsible Canadians should pay the price for their deadly selfishness. No more soothing tones and patience. Time for the stick. (Scott Gilmore, Macleans)

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Vaccine passport.

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