We need COVID Passports

Canada is finally turning the corner on COVID-19. At last estimate we will have 66 million doses stocked in this country. We have enough to vaccinate our entire eligible population in this country. Furthermore we have an appetite for those vaccines. Canadians were proud to find out this week, that we surpassed the United States in vaccination rates. The majority of us are eager for these shots and have lined up or are lining up right now to get them.

I want to emphasise my wording above. The majority of us. Because that is a major distinction we need to look at going forward. The cases we are seeing of COVID-19 in Canada are predominantly amongst the unvaccinated. Vaccine hesitancy still exists in this country and it’s getting to the point where it is holding us back.

It has been a year and half since the world was put on pause to deal with this pandemic. Here in Canada for the most part, we took the situation seriously. Many of us tried to follow directives to social distance and stay home whenever possible. We cut ourselves off from the local businesses we wanted to frequent, and from our friends and families that we hold dear. We all sacrificed for the greater good. Unfortunately that wasn’t always possible, and sometimes directions weren’t the most clear. However the post-mortem on the pandemic still needs to be written and criticism is still reserved for later.

While the rest of us were concerned for our families, loved ones and businesses suffered trying to make sense of ever changing protocols, we were forced to shake our heads and grind our teeth at the conspiracy minded ones. The Randy Hillier’s and Maxine Bernier’s who would rather jeopardise us all so they could trounce pseudoscience and false information for personal gain. The time has come to flip the script on them. Vaccine hesitancy is now the greatest threat to us getting out of lockdowns.

The time has come to introduce government issued vaccine cards. A simple piece of identification, akin to our driver’s license or health cards that businesses can request to see prior to us engaging in their services. Many small restaurants and retail locations would welcome the ability to say to the general public that their premises are as safe as they can make them. I know I for one am eager to get out and re-engage with people I haven’t seen for a long time.

I thought French President Macron put the current situation perfectly:

We need to reengage with each other. Businesses, restaurants, shops and public spaces need to reopen. This is a path to that reopening. A vaccine passport would be no different to be being carded before going into a nightclub or bar. We’ve never had any issues with doing it before, this shouldn’t be any different.

The time of catering to the ignorant and will-fully obtuse is over. We have all paid our dues and sacrificed much. Some more than we can ever understand. If we are to reopen our economy and our lives again to a post COVID-19 world, then it has to be on our terms. Stop catering to the conspiracy thinkers. They know not what they say.

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