Don’t force vaccines on health-care workers

Is forced vaccination the way to show our appreciation for health-care workers?

The powers that be are planning to suspend and/or fire health-care workers who have not complied with their mandated vaccine rule.

These are the same workers we praised as heroes just a few short months ago, who have given their all throughout this miserable, never-ending pandemic.

Now we are comfortable with having them punished?

We have constantly been told that the hospitals are understaffed and the staff is overworked, so suspending these healthcare workers seems like a classic case of “cutting off your nose to spite your face” on the part of the government.

Regardless of where one stands on vaccination, according to our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, medication of any kind is a personal choice.

The choice should not be influenced by any form of coercion. For those who are concerned that it is the unvaccinated who are spreading the virus and therefore claim that these personal choices affect others, we now know from public health officials that vaccinated individuals can also be infected with COVID-19, carry similar viral loads as the unvaccinated, and also spread the virus.

So, rather than suspending or firing these special people on whom many have depended over these past 20 months, let’s applaud our health-care workers, give them our support, let them do their jobs, and leave them be.

Janet and John Ashton North Saanich