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CBC: "The level of action that we need to take to prevent severe illness and deaths is different in different settings," [Bonnie Henry] said on Thursday, announcing a vaccine mandate for workers in
long-term care settings.
I assume this is different from those most of us in this conversation: we want the province's goal to be much more ambitious than "prevent severe illness and death". Even if it's not literal #CovidZero.
I think we need to be much more vocal about this, but also explicit. To SFU leaders and also provincial and federal leaders. For too long there has been too much assuming we are sorta kinda all on the same page with respect to goals. Maybe Dr Henry and Pres Johnson haven't been sticking their heads in the sand, it's just that they look at all this and really do think everything is fine as long as long-term care deaths are kept to some acceptable amount.
Here's my personal 'ideal point', something like: "do whatever it takes to get BC cases down to 10/day, then open up carefully, and slam back on the brakes once we get to 25/day". Obviously, the more vaccinations the less brake-slamming (masks, closures)
will be needed. But we don't just vaccinate and then say everything else is a personal choice. The vaccines are good, but they're not
that good (for instance, the efficacy has now been shown to fade after a few months).
I'm curious to also hear what everyone else's 'ideal point' is... If you have the energy to craft a petition asking the province to set an
explicit and ambitious goal, please do. If you know any pollsters (or are one), please urge them to poll the provincial voters on this too. If most BC residents really do think "prevent severe illness and death, only" is the appropriate yardstick, then
so be it and I can focus on my "personal responsibility" rather than be frustrated with what we're getting.
Lucas
PS: for context, plenty of jurisdictions have adopted explicit suppression targets, and even automated some responses (rather than crafting various "4 step plans" that don't survive the next wave). In Germany, for example, things like public mask mandates
come in at the BC-equivalent of 250 cases/day, and gathering restrictions come in at the BC-equivalent of 350/day. Regionally stratified. Of course, my personal preference would be much stricter than this.
From: Christopher Pavsek <cpavsek@sfu.ca>
Sent: August 14, 2021 10:22 To: Lucas Herrenbrueck Subject: Re: UBC pres on vaccines and masks FYI, from the CBC today:
"Over the past 10 days, in a series of announcements and news conferences, you can see the strategy Dr. Henry is hoping to take.
It involves putting targeted restrictions in areas with large outbreaks, and will likely involve a host of vaccine and masking requirements in spaces under provincial control where large amounts of people gather. "The level of action that we need to take to prevent severe illness and deaths is different in different settings," she said on Thursday, announcing a vaccine mandate for workers in long-term care settings. Henry also said an announcement on post-secondary educational institutions is planned for next week. The next day, the federal government announced a vaccine mandate for plane and interprovincial rail travel. "
Cheers
chris
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