Here is a little thread on vaccine passports and how, again, media is getting this story wrong.
Journalists should not be asking "passports yes/no" but instead what it means for a government to institute a passport system (and what it means for a gov't to *not* institute one)
I'm speaking only for Canada right now -- this gets more difficult when you bring in the global perspective. But in Canada, if a government announces a vaccine passport, they de facto have the moral responsibility to ensure that a vaccination program is as accessible as possible.
You can't attend concerts or play sports? Fine -- call a line and get your vaccine then through a home visit or visit to the venue of the event/activity.
You can't eat at restaurants? Fine -- vaccine buses are ready to meet you before dinner.
Is there a systemic reason for you a community is not yet vaccinated? Creating a passport system morally requires the government to work with these communities to be vaccinated.
Exploring it through this lens teases out what we mean by hesitancy, refusal and access.
But more important are the implications of a government who refuses the vaccine passport. Ok, that's an OK direction to go too, but then what happens is that governments download the responsibility to police vaccine status.
So rather than it coming from above, employers are given the power to decide to impose vaccine mandates. Except they do not have the power to compel more accessible vaccination! So that leaves people in a way tougher spot (with their boss, en plus).
There becomes no solution to the dilemma "I need vaccine proof to attend this concert" (at the decision of the venue) because the initial barrier of actually getting the vaccine isn't something that the venue has any power over.
When you tease this angle out, you start to see all the reasons for why the yes/no frame is insufficient, and instead.
Anyway, please do better journalism.
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I'm going to do a live take two on how this article is propaganda now that I have a different paywall bypass and I can read the updated version. The version I read before was short and only referenced a random tweet and CFIB opinions.
And because it's live and I am extremely humble, if I am wrong, I will identify this throughout. Let's see...
1. Better start -- no reference to a tweet from a random journalist. But oop! Leading with the guy that owns Toronto's most boring chain of pubs the Firkin and who thinks -- wait for it! --- CRB is killing his employee base.
In researching my book, I came across no evidence at all that CERB is causing a hiring crisis. I can't wait to read this and see what the CFIB says.
And the frame -- that EI "spoils" workers -- @RosaJSaba are you trying to be insulting to people who are desperate or did you just not think about this too much?
Of the 26,428 people who have died in Canada from COVID-19, I've linked 17,977 deaths to 1717 residential facilities -- no change in RF deaths since Friday (with most PHUs no longer reporting on weekends. But ... docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
I've now linked 185 deaths to workplace outbreaks (123 with healthcare teased out) -- with about 17 new deaths added to York Region. These had been reported previously, I've just been able to update my own list.
I can't say where these deaths happened, though.
York region lists deaths in a global total -- there's no workplace breakdown.
There are also 8 residents of York region who have died from COVID-19 workplace outbreaks but outside York, but I can't add them as I have no way to tell if they're already represented in other data.
Hi! You might see that there are hundreds of messages targeting me for making yet another completely reasonable point.
Don't worry about me! I'm really, really fine. I have visitors!!!! But ...
All this outrage over church burning makes me think of 3 things.
One: the church i grew up in was demolished. By the diocese. They wanted a shiny new church and despite the protests of many parishioners, our church was self-immolated.
I think of that because it's funny that destroying a church is "always bad" except when it isn't. And guess how much money the capital campaign raised for the new church that could have been paid out to victims of the church ...
Of the 26,214 peopel who have died in Canada from COVID-19, I've linked 17,745 deaths to 1715 residential facilities. That's one more death since last night.
In Southwestern Ontario there seems to be a crisis among homeless shelters of COVID spread -- Windsor, Waterloo, Owen Sound (yeah that is still south) and they're all being blamed on "itinerants" or a "homeless lifestyle" rather than on a system that inexplicably ...
is still not protecting individuals who rely on others to keep their living quarters safe. And what about targeted vaccination drives? How many 13 year olds in these cities are double vaxxed while people who are at the most risk of catching COVID are blamed for spreading it?