Public Health here in B.C. has implemented a vaccine card for residents to use to access all non-essential businesses and services this Fall. I managed to maneuver through the online system to obtain mine, a week ahead of implementation date.

It's not mandatory to obtain one but in some venues it will be mandatory to have it. Essential services (such as health care and grocery shopping) do not require it. For non-essential services (i.e. restaurants, hair salons, gyms) you will be required to show it to get in.

The purpose, of course, is to ensure that business and other premises are as safe as possible for staff and patrons alike, with all those sharing the space being fully vaccinated, to avoid ongoing major transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19.

When this new approach was first announced, people referred to it as a vaccine passport or a vaccine pass but the government settled on vaccine card as being the most neutral term. The word 'passport' especially had negative connotations for many.

People without the card can still do take-out at restaurants or dine on the patio but can't go inside. They can still attend medical clinics and hospitals as those are deemed essential services. That seems counterintuitive to some as people most at risk from COVID-19 are likely to be in those facilities but the thinking is that you cannot prevent people from seeking medical care, obviously.

I've done a lot of reading recently about some of the reasons people give for why they won't get vaccinated, especially about EV Christians and others who are refusing due to their religious beliefs. To the surprise of some of us, as seen in posts on this board, at least 50% of Mormons are so far not accepting the vaccines, despite their leaders encouraging them to be vaccinated. Even with as much time as I've spent in churches in life to date I didn't know the reasons for the objections of church folk at first. Now I see more clearly what their stance is - for many of the EVs it relates to the Mark of the Beast that's mentioned in the Bible book of Revelation. For the Mormons, maybe someone could remind me why they're not in line with the recommendations. For once they won't follow the prophet?

I wrote yesterday about the erroneous conclusions people are arriving at re the scriptures relating to the mark of the beast. I've seen that people seem to be confused about the accepted interpretations of those scriptures, accepted, at least, in the mainstream EV world that I know. Too, I've seen where people get the parable of the sheep and the goats mixed up and think goats are good and sheep are bad when in fact the Bible states the exact opposite. One American lady famously declared "I don't wanna be no *** sheep" which would make her a goat, which is considered highly undesirable in the Christian world of my acquaintance. Surely she didn't mean that. Which shows how some people are confused about their own church's teachings and based on that are making decisions against their own best interests and that of others.

It's disturbing enough to see people rejecting basic science, as we've discussed here thoroughly to hell and back, so to speak. It's doubly distressing when you can easily see that they're confused on many fronts, even including according to their faith's very own scriptural interpretations.

The biggest difficulty I've experienced with this new B.C. vaccine card so far was trying to figure out how to download the thing from the online secure government site. I finally realized you don't have to download it, just take a picture of the B.C. Health Authority's verification that I'm fully vaxxed. Now, when I want to enter business premises or other venues I just have to show them the card on my phone.

I don't have a problem with that. At all.

Now I know that if I want to go into a restaurant (not an essential) everyone else in there, including staff, is vaxxed. It makes things a little more comfortable.

Even so, masks are still mandated in some circumstances, or suggested, according to whatever's up at the moment. Again, no problem here with that.

It's not perfect but it's implementing layers of protection that will hopefully keep our numbers low during the coming cold and flu season.

Yay for science. Yay for medicine.

And yay for loving your neighbour by caring about them as much as you care about yourself.

I'm happy.

Nightingale Wrote:
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> And yay for loving your neighbour by caring about
> them as much as you care about yourself.

Exactly right.

I have no objection to Canada's approach.

In the U.S., when you get your vaccines, it's noted on a special card put out by our CDC (Center for Disease Control.) I had mine laminated. Now, I'm looking forward to getting my booster shot. I will get it ASAP.

I can tell you that Covid is already in my school building. We've already had one student test positive, and I feel certain that there will be many more. Parents are supposed to keep sick children at home, but you know how that goes. We currently have one family that is sick. The parents tested for Covid on Saturday, and then sent their sick kids to school on Tuesday before the results came in!

If you have children in school, I would *strongly* recommend that they wear masks, and that they receive a vaccine as soon as possible. Also advocate for universal mask wearing in school if that is not already happening in your school district. Schools are petri dishes for illnesses. It's not going to be a good fall, I can tell you that much.

Both theaters I regularly attend have issued a combined vaccine and mask mandate. Need both. I now feel like I can attend the performances.

Can’t wait for the booster for Moderna to be released.

And they shall cause all, great and small, rich and poor, free and enslaved to produce the covid card to buy or to sell, to enter the bar or the theater. None shall do unless they bow down and carry proof.

This sounds tyrannical, but I've thought for months that it might force a sizable number of the holdouts to comply.

If you can't shop, go to theaters, eat at restaurants, or just about anything else you wanted to do without proof of vaccination, you might have to re-think your priorities.

I did everything but the bow. My wife did do a bunny dip, does that count?

A bunny dip is a lot better than sheep dip or horse drench.

I received the vaccine and I turned into the beast.

Good for you! I agree that it does help with feeling comfortable. Shame that so many have made this a hill to, literally, die on. I heard an interesting interview today where a guy would not get the shot because he ain't takin' no shot from "those people". I still have no idea who "those people" are supposed to be. Idaho is now rationing care but that is OK because they have their freeeedumb. Have a heart attack or a car accident too bad.

Don't laminate your cards folks, you may need to add to them. They told me that right off because they thought we might end up in this situation. I really feel for Summer and others that work in schools. This isn't going to go well.

Thanks, Susan. We already know that the first round of testing (which starts in a week or two,) is going to be brutal. We already have students testing positive. What bothers me is that we are not consistently sending sick kids home. If the kid doesn't have a fever, or more than one symptom (i.e. vomiting, diarrhea, bad cough,) back to class they go. IMO this needs to stop. Sick people need to stay home. Period.

I made the mistake of laminating my card. I guess they will have to issue me a new card when I get my booster.

Truly shocking Summer. The teachers unions need to do something about that!

Our union is working very hard, but what I'm hearing is that school headquarters is currently a mess in terms of response.

I congratulate your courage!!

;)

Oh, you'll notice it. It takes a little while but then begins as a sort of embarrassing rash and spreads everywhere.

Received my card months ago and it convinced me that it's not part of some plan to control citizens as a "Mark of the Beast" passport. If it was, the US card would have been made wallet sized.

Meanwhile, the number 666 isn't on my forehead, I'm not losing my keys and finding them attached to my hand, and I don't hear the Legions of Hell in my head (well, not more than before).

I should mention that it’s not all sunshine and roses here just because of relatively high vaccination rates, advent of the vaccine passes and cautious measures implemented to try and keep public spaces safe (i.e. control the spread of the virus).

Here is an article outlining the situation in BC, with elective surgeries being postponed and ER waits longer than usual while staff burn out and anti-vax protestors target hospitals and medical staff.

https://vancouversun.com/news/surgeries-being-postponed-delayed-and-adjusted-across-b-c-as-covid-19-pressures-mount?__vfz=medium%3Dstandalone_content_recirculation_with_ads#vf-0ff987e0-bb99-4dad-b455-4fd3d0220298

(Sorry – the number of popping ads is annoying)

The article states:

“Mounting COVID-19 pressure is leading to the postponement of some non-urgent surgeries in B.C. hospitals…”

NB: “Elective” and “non-urgent” designations don’t indicate that the booked procedures aren’t necessary or vital to a person’s health and well-being. Too, back-ups in ER can lead to increased level of illness not to mention causing more stress and anxiety to patients and family members. At least one death in ER is being investigated currently as a waiting patient died before staff was available to assess her.

More excerpts:

“[In the hospital in Kamloops – an area in the Interior of the province] It has been reported that about two-thirds of the nurses in ER have recently left the job due to burnout, leaving nurses and doctors dealing with far more patients each than they normally would.

“In addition, at least three straight weeks of elective surgeries were cancelled due to staffing shortages and limited time in operating rooms, coupled with a surge in COVID-19 patients and those who were brought to hospital from areas under wildfire-related evacuation orders and alerts.

“Because of the circumstances right now, particularly in ICU, we are delaying some surgeries, some non-urgent surgeries, at particular hospitals...” Dix [health minister] said.”


NB: Delays are also reported at four major hospitals in the Lower Mainland (Vancouver) area.

Article:

“77.8 per cent of British Columbians aged 12 and older now fully vaccinated with two doses.”

“Dix said it was unvaccinated, or partly vaccinated people responsible for most of the COVID-19 cases being treated in hospitals. In the past two weeks, 80.5 per cent of cases admitted to hospital were people who are not vaccinated. According to latest B.C. Centre for Disease Control statistics, Creston and Enderby in the Interior Heath region both have a fully vaccinated rate of 58 per cent, while Hope in Fraser Health is at 64 per cent. Peace River in Northern Health is at 48 per cent. On Vancouver Island, the Cowichan Valley West has the lowest rate at 68 per cent.

Dix also said the province was reviewing “all options” when it comes to limiting protests outside health facilities.

“Demonstrating in these circumstances and interfering with our hospitals and yelling at our health care workers serves no purpose at all,” he told a news conference.

“Dix said ignoring scientific facts and refusing the vaccine hurts the wider population.

“Going up against this virus by going on with our daily lives unvaccinated when we’re eligible to be vaccinated helps only the virus,” he said. “Going up against the virus by rejecting the facts, the data, the evidence and science and its instructive purpose only hurts us all.”

“Premier John Horgan [said] the targeting and harassment of health care workers was “completely unacceptable.”

“Dix echoed the sentiment Thursday, adding that interfering with patient care was inexcusable.

“To interfere with cancer patients, and heart patients and grieving families, and people who need to use the emergency room is not on. There are places to demonstrate that are not our public hospitals,” he said.”


The kindest thing I can say about people who stage and participate in demonstrations that block access to hospital entrances and harass patients, families and medical and general staff is that they’re not thinking straight.

I heard a public health official in another province say today that she was a schoolchild when “polio was running rampant”. “The thing that got us out of it”, she said, “was the polio vaccine”.

I read a comment by an MD the other day that we have been fortunate to grow up and live in the most disease-free era in human history (at least in the Western world) due to all the childhood and other vaccines we received or that our parents or grandparents did so that epidemics of those diseases are in the past (polio and smallpox are prime examples).

It seems that many people are oblivious of this **recent** history because they’re acting like vaccines are of the devil when in previous generations people must surely have fallen on their knees in gratitude. TB is another example of a scourge that dogged countless people and is uncommon in our day, at least in urban centres (where there is likely better access to health care).

My point is that even with nearly 80% of the population in B.C. fully vaxxed we still have a long way to go. To my great surprise we have all too many antis and protestors who not only ignore science and/or think they know better than the many and diverse experts in this area but who actively harm others by refusing the vaccine and a simple face mask, as well as blocking hospital entrances, thereby delaying or preventing treatment and increasing anxiety felt by patients and family members. The most negative result of their recalcitrance (in the worst connotation of that term) is that if they themselves become severely ill with COVID-19 they take up an ER or ICU bed as well as staff time and expertise, which then reduces the number of available beds, and access to emergency treatment, for other patients. This is happening as we speak.

I’m sure they’re hoping on that day that nobody’s blocking the path to Emergency when they need it.

I never even had an inkling that people in this province or country or hemisphere could be so ignorant of science and medicine or so selfish (seeking access to care they’ve denied or delayed to others) or so easily led by others or so wrapped up in themselves or so anything else supremely negative that you can say about the spectacle before us and the people causing it.

I'm disillusioned.

Maybe that's a good thing. Roses are lovely but those rose-coloured glasses? Not so much it would seem.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/2021 05:50PM by Nightingale.

One of my worries is that we will burn out our hospital-based health workers, particularly the nurses. It's not easy to train an R.N., and not everyone is up to the task. And there are only so many nurses available that we can bring in on visas.

Two years ago, I was quickly going blind from cataracts. At the time of my surgery, one eye was at 20/450, which is legally blind. The second eye was expected to follow in short order. If I didn't have the surgery, I never would have qualified for my new driver's license. No license, no job. Surgeries such as mine might be "elective," but they are also vitally needed.

summer Wrote:
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> One of my worries is that we will burn out our
> hospital-based health workers, particularly the
> nurses. It's not easy to train an R.N., and not
> everyone is up to the task. And there are only so
> many nurses available that we can bring in on
> visas.

That is a very important point.

More on the theme that it's not 100% agreement with the mandated measures against COVID-19 here in BC.

Today there are protests against the vaccine card, which comes into effect today (with leeway until the 24th if you've had one vaccination to date; afterwards it's two vaccines or no entry).

Protestors are outside the Vancouver Law Courts as well as at several hospitals around and about. One protestor screamed "there is no pandemic".

Honestly, I can't even comprehend...

Meanwhile, surgeries are still being cancelled and access to urgent care is reduced due to the numbers of COVID cases in ERs and ICUs. Not only is capacity an issue but also the infection control protocols which consume extra space and time.

Between the health care situation and the protests, and the pandemic itself, people are tired. Especially health care workers who have become the target of anti-vaxxers with all their loud (and irrational) protests. The same health care workers we used to celebrate for their selfless devotion at the beginning of the pandemic.

Our (ill-timed) federal election wraps up in another week. One of the party leaders (the most recent PM) promises to bring in a new law, if he wins the election, outlawing protests outside any health care facility, including making it illegal to target any person seeking medical care as well as health care workers (for instance by harassing anyone in either group as they enter or leave a medical facility).

I would never have believed we could come to this. Some concepts and behaviours have seemed to be just intuitively the right thing to do. Who would ever even think we would have to enshrine basic reason and courtesy into law. Such as don't harass a cardiac patient as they seek emergency assistance or don't scream at health care workers as they try to get through hospital doors to start their shift. Or how about don't cause such crisis in hospitals that patients have to spend three long days and nights in the ER waiting room, either not receiving care or being attended to in public without any chance for privacy or peace (this latter refers to the general infection situation and bed shortage, not the protests).

People. Get a grip.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2021 03:45PM by Nightingale.