A letter to the editor that came in past our deadline for submissions has to be shared and highlighted because it contains important information.
Sheila Sorensen wrote that she was vaccinated Tuesday afternoon at the Sechelt Seniors Activity Centre.
“The lineup outside was long as we waited for things to start after the lunch break. Groups formed to chat as we waited. The sun was shining and the mood was upbeat,” Ms. Sorensen wrote.
“There was little effort to keep space between people as the line stretched through the parking lot and along the street. It could have been a lineup for a movie before COVID-19.
“It seems a shame to falter just before the finish.”
This is a wise and timely warning and it describes far better than Premier John Horgan’s demographic scapegoating what has been happening in the province, from the highest level of the health ministry to ordinary people in every age bracket.
The combination of optimism around the vaccine rollout and the arrival of spring, usually the harbinger of the end of virus season, has made many of us falter. Even provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry seemed to be in denial of the skyrocketing case numbers last week as she continued to plot out a reopening timetable based more on wishful thinking than reality.
That changed this week when Dr. Henry suspended indoor dining at all food and liquor-serving premises and announced other new restrictions in an effort to get case counts under control.
The three-week ban on indoor restaurant dining will hit some establishments hard, but as Painted Boat Resort operator Walter Kohli said in this week’s front-page story, “If we lose a little bit in the short term but keep everybody healthy, and demonstrate to the public that we are really careful here on the Sunshine Coast, we are going to recuperate the money. Short term, if we are not careful, we could lose lives.”
There’s no other way to look at it. Case numbers on the Sunshine Coast have been enviably low because the vast majority of people here haven’t let down their guard.
As much as we’d all love to start acting normal again, now is sadly not the time.
