Thread by @IPEdmonton

Dear Councillors @_TimCartmell @MikeNickelYEG @MoeBangaYeg @sjlhamilton @bevesslinger @tony_caterina @JonDziadyk, I echo Serena's request, despite having somewhat different reasons for wanting the bylaw to be extended just a bit longer. Here are mine: 1/7

https://twitter.com/unicornwheels/status/1407712419300794371

My own “fully vaccinated” status will tip over into “fully immunized” on July 2nd, so I won't be terribly worried about catching COVID from the unmasked. But many YEG residents are still waiting for those 2nd-dose appointments. They will not be fully immunized in early July. 2/7

Also, while the data out of the UK does indeed tell us that fully immunized people are unlikely to get very sick from COVID, it also tells us that is still possible for them to transmit the virus to unvaccinated people or those with only one dose. 3/7

https://twitter.com/PHE_uk/status/1404484812488990721

It would only take a few more weeks for the group of younger Edmontonians still waiting for their second doses to be fully immunized themselves, and therefore to have the peace of mind I as an older Edmontonian am going to be lucky enough to have by early July. 4/7

Given just how short that time period would be, it only makes sense to wait just a bit longer to make sure that most of the YEG residents in that “unvaccinated or one-dose” group are in that group by choice instead of by accident of age, before lifting the mandate. 5/7

In fact, what Serena and I are asking for here is precisely the advice announced today by the European Centre for Disease Control: that a few restrictions should remain until more people are fully vaccinated. It is well-grounded in the available facts. 6/7

https://twitter.com/kakape/status/1407703862291668992

Extending the mandate by a few short weeks is a small request with an enormous payoff that would benefit a group of unvaccinated or one-dose Edmontonians that is still uncomfortably large (but will be smaller soon!). Please take this to heart as you vote on Friday. 7/7

P.S. If you require my legal name and address in order to be able to take this seriously, please reach out and let me know--I would be more than happy to provide both.

[Footnote specifically to this tweet: The U.K. data is relevant to AB because it’s very detailed data on how things work when the Delta variant becomes dominant, and that’s the scenario we want to avoid by keeping a mask mandate in place for a few more weeks.]