It was “uniquely unhelpful” when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dismissed unvaccinated Canadians as a racist fringe group, the Commons health committee heard on Wednesday..Trudeau called unvaccinated Canadians and opponents of vaccine mandates a “small fringe minority” with “unacceptable views” on Jan. 26. He also said the unvaccinated are “anti-vaxxer mobs,” “people who wave swastikas” and unfit parents..“It was a uniquely unhelpful thing the prime minister did when he said that,” said David Jacobs, president of the Ontario Association of Radiologists. “It was politically driven. It did not help anyone in the health care industry. It did not convince anyone to change their mind.”.“They are putting at risk their own kids and they’re putting at risk our kids as well,” Trudeau said on Aug. 31. “What about my choice to keep my kids safe?”.“These are extremists who don’t believe in science,” Trudeau said on Sept. 16. “They are often misogynists, also often racists. It’s a small group of people that muscles in and we have to make a choice,” he said, adding, “Do we tolerate these people?”.But unvaccinated Canadians include people “who are just simply afraid” and others who “looked at the research and disagree with the findings the majority of health care workers and scientists have come to in terms of conclusions,” Jacobs said, according to Blacklock’s Reporter..It’s a mixed bag of people who remain unvaccinated and name calling is not helpful, Jacobs said. He also questioned vaccine mandates that have applied as conditions of employment, tenancy and access to public services. .“In terms of mandates, yes, Omicron was highly contagious, and no, the vaccines didn’t do much in terms of preventing spread of Covid,” Jacobs said. “If it did, it was minimal.”.“That takes away some of the need for a vaccine mandate except, except — and this is the big exception — what we saw in the hospital were patients who were immunosuppressed, elderly, so de facto immunosuppressed, and patients who did not receive a full vaccine regimen, they were the ones who were getting very severe Covid pneumonias,” Jacobs said..Dr. Shiri Kaylan, a professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia, said she “really questions the validity of the current vaccine mandates” for the entire population. .“If we had focused on protecting the most vulnerable it would have gone farther than putting blanket mandates on everyone because that actually has the potential to increase vaccine hesitancy and trust in vaccines and the public health care system in general,” Kaylan said..“It is clear, especially with Omicron, the vaccines we have cannot really be relied upon to either prevent transmission or infection,” she said. “An example: The first Omicron case in Israel came from a triple-vaccinated doctor returning from a conference who passed it on to another triple-vaccinated physician.”.“With this evidence we should have moved quickly to lift heavy-handed measures and explain the evolving evidence,” Kaylan said. “This is necessary for public trust. It is also good for public health to have a well-informed populace. Having a false sense of security has obvious negative consequences.”.The National Advisory Committee on Immunization also declined to make recommendations on vaccine mandates, and Dr. Howard Njoo, deputy chief public health officer with the Public Health Agency of Canada, told reporters on Jan. 21 vaccination should be voluntary. .Rachel Emmanuel is an Ottawa Parliamentary reporter for the Western Standard
It was “uniquely unhelpful” when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dismissed unvaccinated Canadians as a racist fringe group, the Commons health committee heard on Wednesday..Trudeau called unvaccinated Canadians and opponents of vaccine mandates a “small fringe minority” with “unacceptable views” on Jan. 26. He also said the unvaccinated are “anti-vaxxer mobs,” “people who wave swastikas” and unfit parents..“It was a uniquely unhelpful thing the prime minister did when he said that,” said David Jacobs, president of the Ontario Association of Radiologists. “It was politically driven. It did not help anyone in the health care industry. It did not convince anyone to change their mind.”.“They are putting at risk their own kids and they’re putting at risk our kids as well,” Trudeau said on Aug. 31. “What about my choice to keep my kids safe?”.“These are extremists who don’t believe in science,” Trudeau said on Sept. 16. “They are often misogynists, also often racists. It’s a small group of people that muscles in and we have to make a choice,” he said, adding, “Do we tolerate these people?”.But unvaccinated Canadians include people “who are just simply afraid” and others who “looked at the research and disagree with the findings the majority of health care workers and scientists have come to in terms of conclusions,” Jacobs said, according to Blacklock’s Reporter..It’s a mixed bag of people who remain unvaccinated and name calling is not helpful, Jacobs said. He also questioned vaccine mandates that have applied as conditions of employment, tenancy and access to public services. .“In terms of mandates, yes, Omicron was highly contagious, and no, the vaccines didn’t do much in terms of preventing spread of Covid,” Jacobs said. “If it did, it was minimal.”.“That takes away some of the need for a vaccine mandate except, except — and this is the big exception — what we saw in the hospital were patients who were immunosuppressed, elderly, so de facto immunosuppressed, and patients who did not receive a full vaccine regimen, they were the ones who were getting very severe Covid pneumonias,” Jacobs said..Dr. Shiri Kaylan, a professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia, said she “really questions the validity of the current vaccine mandates” for the entire population. .“If we had focused on protecting the most vulnerable it would have gone farther than putting blanket mandates on everyone because that actually has the potential to increase vaccine hesitancy and trust in vaccines and the public health care system in general,” Kaylan said..“It is clear, especially with Omicron, the vaccines we have cannot really be relied upon to either prevent transmission or infection,” she said. “An example: The first Omicron case in Israel came from a triple-vaccinated doctor returning from a conference who passed it on to another triple-vaccinated physician.”.“With this evidence we should have moved quickly to lift heavy-handed measures and explain the evolving evidence,” Kaylan said. “This is necessary for public trust. It is also good for public health to have a well-informed populace. Having a false sense of security has obvious negative consequences.”.The National Advisory Committee on Immunization also declined to make recommendations on vaccine mandates, and Dr. Howard Njoo, deputy chief public health officer with the Public Health Agency of Canada, told reporters on Jan. 21 vaccination should be voluntary. .Rachel Emmanuel is an Ottawa Parliamentary reporter for the Western Standard
