The letter writer [“Local doctors warning about new variants deadly serious,” April 15] makes the vapid conclusion, “Do your part, be part of the solution, or you are part of the problem.” Let us pause for a moment to consider who is part of the problem.
The medical profession, and the B.C. government they serve, has failed to respond to the pandemic with a coordinated and aggressive effort to stamp this disease out. They are not even on the same page as we see from the banal missives of the duelling MDs right here in Whistler.
COVID-19 is a virus, it is not a thinking enemy who can make choices and keep us off balance. Why is it that after 100 years to prepare our response to the next Spanish Flu (which COVID-19 is not), there was not a coordinated plan to isolate and destroy this enemy?
The communication from the B.C. medical and government systems is feeble. The daily infection, hospital and casualty counts are akin to the casualty lists from the Great War. The Public Health Officer (PHO) [Dr. Bonnie Henry’s] stop-and-start reactions and health orders are destabilizing and debilitating, and seemingly always two weeks behind the “enemy’s” movements.
The people are tired of the lack of leadership and are showing their disdain more often. They find it particularly galling to read they are part of the problem when the real problem from the beginning was a lack of leadership from elected officials and officials of the PHO.
Probably the most pathetic thing heard these past months was Dr. Henry stating, “we are learning as we go.” Really? That is not leadership, and the general populace understands this.
Rolling up our sleeves and getting a vaccination is the right thing to do to help protect ourselves, our families and friends, and our community.
However, we must not forget the failure of the B.C. government and PHO to prepare and execute aggressively a plan to defeat a virus. They were, and are, no doubt “part of the problem” and must be held accountable.
Dix Lawson // Whistler
