In pre-vaccine era B.C. (Bewildering Coronavirus), the prospect of a passport to permit or restrict mobility appeared unnecessary and unworkable.
In post-vaccine era A.D. (Aggressive Delta), it’s worth a try.
Not enough of us are vaccinated, so all of us are dealing with wanton risk arising from reluctance and avoidance on the twisting, turning path of scientific understanding. We might have thought everyone would jump at the chance to capitalize on the fastest medicinal collaboration in history, but not so.
Which has come to mean that the eligible unvaccinated among us need a disincentive to do nothing about that. The public shaming is shambolic. The pop-up clinics aren’t populated.
In the words of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, “the war has changed” because of Delta, only in this war we have a lot of draft dodgers and deserters when what we really need are all hands on deck.
The province’s moves Monday will take some slow but sure steps to squash the sponges on the system who want all the benefits of the steps forward without any safety commitment to them or others.
Want to see a Canucks game in October? The new James Bond movie next month? Your favourite restaurant? Your very favourite liquor store? It’s on you to get on with it, with one dose by Sept. 13 and another by Oct. 24, or you’ll be an outlier.
The Delta variant doesn’t care we are squabbling over this issue like children. It is coming for our children. More to the point, we all are coming for our children – through the seven-fold virulence of this new virus mutation, carried much more likely but not exclusively by the unvaccinated.
The coronavirus is a permanent feature of our world now, and in the same way we designed seat belts and required people to use them or face penalties, it has become time to do so with vaccines for the nearly one-fifth of the adult population in this province who can but won’t get jabbed twice.
Several episodes made the clearest cases for the greater restrictions: the coming-home games last Thursday and Saturday for the BC Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps and the opening of the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE). All were less of a victory lap than an act of faith in our fellow beings.
Given what it is, the PNE can’t possibly direct crowds in much of any direction, nor disperse them. What it had going for it was the outdoors, but pretty intimate outdoors with strangers. At the games there was no way to know at the concession line, the washrooms or the seats nearby if someone was double-vaxxed (although people around me were insistent they were).
There were few masks at the Lions game and only slightly more at the Whitecaps game. Our province’s health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, was masked for the latter after taking heat for being maskless at the former. The Lions permitted season ticket holders to return to their seats, while the Whitecaps did a little (but not a lot) of distancing of fans in the seats that were available.
In both cases, BC Place could not deal with the mass departure from the stadium up the exit ramps, even if at the Whitecaps game there weren’t any closed the way some were for the Lions. This throng will only be replicated at Rogers Arena when hockey returns this fall, at the Orpheum when the symphony comes back in the months to come, and at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in October when Ricky Gervais hits the stage.
Like those facilities, the clubs, restaurants, fitness centres and other indoor places deserve after a year-and-a-half of struggle the safety of their employees and patrons. The feeble questionnaires you fill out and too-late contact tracing information you leave are insufficient now that we have adequate medical protection.
The best option, even if it collides with someone’s preference for privacy, is to demand proof.
It isn’t what we wanted, but it’s what we need, just as it’s time to dig out the cloth mask or order more N95s.
This will be the new normal, even if in British Columbia there is an assertion, for now, that it is time-limited. It deserves some kind of fine-tune to deal with those who cannot receive vaccines, but that was glossed over Monday because this is a temporary measure. It's difficult to in an extended way exclude people who medically can't be vaccinated, so it falls to the authorities to figure this one out before the first phase of the passport ends in January.
Last week’s report from the independent B.C. COVID Modelling Group of academics indicated through their analysis that we could face 12,000 cases daily – yes, that’s not a typo – if we do not introduce restrictions and increase vaccinations.
It’s now clear that we don’t need 70% or 80% double vaccinated, but 90% of the eligible recipients. Even then, children under 12 and the immunocompromised – neither of whom are qualified to be vaccinated – are going to be very susceptible in this fourth wave.
If we don’t want to make matters much worse, then some who won’t help others be safe are going to have to be excluded from the reopening of the economy – for both our sakes.
Kirk LaPointe is publisher and editor-in-chief of Business in Vancouver and vice-president, editorial, of Glacier Media.
