Editor:
Reading Lawrence Dolha’s letter (“Had COVID, don’t want jab,” Sept. 10) has made me rethink my position on this whole vaccination business. At first blush, the fact that B.C. has lost over 1,800 people to COVID-19 seems a great tragedy, but Dolha has helped me recognize how this loss of life has been blown out of proportion. As he suggests, age and health were a factor in most cases. Against a backdrop of deaths by car accidents, cancer, drownings and other causes, the death of 1,800 mostly old people with pre-existing conditions hardly seems worth our attention.
Following Dolha’s logic, one might also ask why the heat-related deaths of almost 600 people earlier this summer created such a to-do. Weren’t most of these people also old and infirm? Compared to the annual deaths by skydiving, cat scratches, poisonous mushrooms and myriad other causes, what’s the big deal about another 600 casualties?
I admit it gave me pause that Dolha boasts of his robust immunity while acknowledging that he contracted COVID-19. Fortunately, he recovered in a few days and I expect he’ll do the same should he be unlucky enough to catch the delta variant, as well.
The prognosis is probably not so rosy for the many immunocompromised individuals whose safety is jeopardized by the refusal of people like Dolha to be vaccinated, but that’s just the luck of the draw. I’m sure these unfortunate souls will happily accept a greater risk of death or serious illness to spare Dolha and his fellow thinkers the terrible inconvenience of vaccination.
Ian McLatchie, Davis Bay
