Time to get tougher and tell people: get your shots or face consequences

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/07/2021 (1555 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you want to go to college this fall, get your shots. And be prepared to prove you got them.

For that matter, if you want to go to a big sports event, see a movie in a real theatre, attend a conference or work out at a gym, get your shots.

That should be the message from all provinces, and they should be making it possible by developing a so-called “vaccine passport” — proof you’ve had both shots and are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

This is the best way to guarantee we’ll be able to return to normal life this fall. It’s the best way to avoid a return to restrictions or, worst of all, full-scale lockdowns if some new, virulent strain of COVID hurls us into a fourth wave after Labour Day.

Right now most provinces are refusing even to think about the idea of a domestic vaccine passport — call it a “vaxport” for short.

For months they’ve insisted vaccination must be entirely voluntary. This week Ontario’s new chief medical officer, Dr. Kieran Moore, repeated the line that vaccine passports are “not necessary at this time” and aren’t being contemplated by the province. Alberta has ruled them out entirely.

They’re wrong. Requiring proof of vaccination for access to schools, theatres, arenas and such wasn’t defensible when there weren’t enough doses to go around, and the work of educating people about their benefits hadn’t been done.

But the situation has completely changed. Canada is being flooded with vaccines — all credit to the federal government for that — and there’ll be enough to give everyone two doses within weeks.

Just as important, there’s been massive outreach and education to ensure vaccines are easily available. Public health authorities have, overall, done a great job through mass immunization clinics, pop-up clinics, pharmacies and now family doctors. Campaigns are being run in numerous languages to make sure the message gets out to everyone: get your shots.

So far we’ve taken a very Canadian approach — addressing every concern that comes up, finding ways to reach those hard-to-reach populations, giving reluctant people every benefit of the doubt. Essentially, it’s been “please, please, do the right thing.”

It’s now time to turn up the volume and change the message. It should be: You must get your shots, both for your own sake and for the sake of everyone else. No one will force you to be vaccinated but there will be consequences if you don’t. You may not be able to participate fully in public life.

The point, though, isn’t to be punitive. If people see real benefits to being fully vaxxed — and real problems with not getting their shots — that will encourage more to step forward. Problem solved.

Attempts so far to develop a domestic “vaxport” have bogged down in concerns about surveillance, privacy and the possibility that it might lead to inequities. Won’t people’s rights be violated if a supposedly voluntary vaccine becomes necessary to do many things? And what about those who can’t accept vaccines for medical reasons, or have genuine reasons of conscience to refuse them?

Of course those concerns must be addressed. But what about the freedom that all of us have lost over the past 16 months? For the sake of public health and the common good, we’ve given up a tremendous amount — the right to associate freely with others, the right to travel, the right to a full education, for many the right to run a small business and support a family.

These are enormous losses, and it’s unthinkable that we should be forced to shut down again because a recalcitrant minority refuses to do the right thing.

Others have come to the same conclusion. Quebec has announced it’s planning to bring in some kind of vaxport by Sept. 1, when there will be enough vaccines to give all its people two doses.

The plan is to use proof-of-vaccination as a way to avoid more lockdowns if there’s a resurgence of COVID this fall in some parts of Quebec. “If, and only if, the situation deteriorates, rather than closing sectors of activity, it would be necessary to be doubly vaccinated to access certain activities,” explained Health Minister Christian Dubé.

In this, Quebec is following the example of European countries such as Britain and France. Vaccine passports will allow them to reopen, and stay open.

Ontario and other provinces should rethinking their stand against such measures. Dr. Moore’s argument that they are “not necessary at this time” is entirely beside the point. They may well be necessary down the road, and the time to prepare for that possibility is now.

Others support this idea. Toronto Mayor John Tory on Wednesday urged the province to develop some kind of proof of vaccination; after all, it’s the province that has all the patient information needed for that.

And the Toronto Region Board of Trade says a vaxport is the ticket to re-starting large-scale events and heading off future shutdowns. “Now that we’ve got sufficient vaccine, it’s a way to start resuming a more normal form of day-to-day living,” says CEO Jan De Silva.

They’re all right. Ontario and others should develop proof of vaccination and make clear to everyone —there’ll be a cost to pay if you fail to get your shots.