August 25 2021

Vaccine passports… The phrase has been bantered about for the last year or more. Some view them as a threat to their freedom. Others see them as a path to freedom. 

I guess it all depends on what kind of freedom people are looking for. 

There are those that want freedom from all restrictions and don’t want the vaccine, for whatever reason. Others view vaccines as a way forward and the best way to rid the world of our viral foe once and for all. Many more find themselves torn in the middle of it all. On the one hand, people want to be safe in public and not worry about the infection from others and themselves infecting others. On the other hand, there are those that do not want to put something in their bodies that they don’t know what it is. Everyone has a right to their opinion.

Regardless of your feeling about them, passports are here. As of September 13, you will need at least one dose of the vaccine to go to any non-essential activity like bars, restaurants, and movie theatres. The announcement came down and has been greeted with concern and excitement.

Doctors have ‘practiced’ medicine for hundreds of years, I understand why there are so many skeptics. But when the full resources of the wealthiest nations and people in the world put all their efforts into it, amazing things can happen. 

Some would believe that the vaccine should be mandated and forced. That has resulted in horrible accusations and comparisons to Nazi Germany. This whole thing is so wrong on so many levels. Good decent people think that a vaccine is actually some threat to humanity. While in reality it has been designed to save lives and bring us out of this suffocating time in history. 

In the meantime, the bots are active on the world wide web of social media.  A world where the truth is hard to find and the memes can run out of control. The more you look at one subject, the more you are force-fed that subject. It is the algorithm of the new world. 

We are being divided.

And it’s scary. Scarier than the coronaverse we live in. It has been a long time since I walked the grocery store aisles in fear of infection. I am double vaxxed and have no problem with being out in public. I do sometimes have problems with the digital world. 

I messaged a friend with whom I have always found agreement on things and she was very upset and against the vaccine passport. I on the other hand responded that those of us responsible enough to get the vaccine should be rewarded. She felt bullied by my stance. I never meant to push her or think less of someone who has elected not to get the vaccine. I can understand the reluctance some people feel about getting the jab. 

The problem is the algorithms we now live with. 

I am tired though, very tired of it all. I am sure everyone is tired.

At the beginning of summer, there was so much promise of getting our lives back. Concerts were announced, live music was back. They told us we would be able to open up fully on September first.

September first is only six days away. Instead of opening up restrictions, they have decided to open up only to those that are fully vaccinated. The unvaccinated will have to stay away from restaurants and bars, concerts, and sporting events. 

Will it mean the vaccinated won’t have to wear a mask when enjoying these things? I hope so.

I have been programmed to think that the vaccine is the best and only way forward and I keep seeing things that support that position. In a distant town, my friend is finding videos from a nurse in Michigan who is losing her job because she refuses to get the vaccine. She keeps getting fed things that say the vaccine is bad. Strange days indeed.

I automatically reacted that the nurse should get the vaccine because we need to protect the patients. My friend saw it as an indictment of the system, the removal of rights and freedoms. Things like this only serve to divide us more and more.

I understand everyone has a right to disagree with what the health officials are doing. It’s not all up to them either, the insurance companies will not insure huge sporting events or even local restaurants if they don’t require the vaccine passport. The whole system is designed to over-react, to protect us from ourselves.

Like them or hate them the vaccine passport is the way our province has gone to prevent another wide-scale lockdown.

I hope everyone can stay kind to one another. In these trying times, it’s the best we can do.