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LETTER: Yes to vaccinations, no to passports

‘Two days ago I cancelled my gym membership’

Two days ago I cancelled my gym membership and I’m still angry about it. I’ve been going there for years. They know me, they’ve seen my vaccine card and they know I’m fully vaccinated.

Yet that isn’t good enough for the government. I’m now required to present a vaccine passport every time I enter the gym. I won’t do it. This is a horribly divisive law with troubling implications for individual rights.

More than 80 per cent of us are now fully vaccinated. And 87 per cent have had the first vaccine.

(Editor’s correction: In Chilliwack as of Oct. 5, 71 per cent of adults had received two doses of the vaccine and 79 per cent had received one dose.)

What’s the cut off? When will the government be satisfied? Ninety per cent? Ninety-five? Ninety-seven? These levels are rapidly approaching neurotic.

It’s long past time to up our rigid and unresponsive health system, enabling investment in private clinics to supplement our hospitals. That way we could at least prevent the appalling spectacle of patients being refused desperately needed surgeries, and reduce the load on overworked doctors and nurses.

It’s time we all – governments and individuals alike – hit the reset button. We are so lucky to have a vaccine. It may not be perfect, but nothing is. Life involves risk, and only when we are free to choose the risks we want to take can we move forward. Governments need to stop trying to control us and stop pandering to those who want all risks eliminated.

Two days ago I cancelled my gym membership and I’m still angry about it. In the next election, I’ll be looking for a political party that will not try to micromanage the economy, the climate or me. And right now, I’m looking for a protest to join. Vaccines, yes. Passports, no.

Helen Yeomans

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