Editor’s Note: This letter has been edited for length.
Dear Editor,
My wife and I view the newscasts of the truckers’ protest in Ottawa with some perplexity. The placards shout ”freedom.” It seems the truckers are protesting about vaccination requirements, which are currently enforced at the border crossing points.
We have to wonder what freedoms are being lost.
We are old-timers but can clearly remember our childhood panic days when our friends were catching polio, which often resulted in death and permanent disability. Too late for thousands, the Salk sugar cube arrived in 1957.
We had scars on our arms left by the smallpox scratches. Interestingly, we were required to have recent smallpox vaccination before being allowed to emigrate into Canada in 1969. The measles vaccination was not available when I was a preteen when I caught the disease, which left me with permanent problems.
COVID-19 vaccinations are effective in reducing the spread of the infection and the severity of the disease. My sister-in-law in South London informed me yesterday that there are 190 patients in intensive care, of whom no less than half will die and the survivors will mostly suffer permanent organ damage. All but six of the patients had no COVID-19 vaccinations.
A countless number of regulations are enforced that we take for granted. We drive on the right side of the road, we obey speed restrictions on the highways and wear seatbelts. We pay all kinds of taxes.
Bioscientists believe that if we can obtain 100 per cent COVID-19 vaccination, the number of infections will dwindle to a mere handful. Would it not be possible for truckers to believe that universal compliance to this request will save thousands from being infected and hundreds from a wretched death?
With respect,
Ed Monro
Agassiz