A homeless person wearing a mask sits with his dog as people go about their daily lives during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto on Jan. 14, 2021. The province of Ontario is currently under an emergency order lockdown.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
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Vaccines in vain?
Re ‘It’s Rewarding And A Real Privilege’: Britain’s Army Of Volunteers Sets Blistering Pace In Vaccination Effort (Jan. 18): Why can’t we do this in Canada? I am a retired registered nurse who used to teach nursing students how to give needles. It is not rocket science. One does not have to be a nurse or doctor to give a needle. This skill can be taught with ease.
Nursing professional associations across the country have been especially strict in their regulations, requiring retired RNs to reregister if they want to get involved in the pandemic, at a personal cost of hundreds of dollars for each registration. These are emergency times requiring extraordinary measures.
When more vaccines become available in the spring, let’s not be held up by draconian and territorial rules.
Cathy Harrop Canmore, Alta.
Re Canadians Are Eager. Where’s The Vaccine? (Editorial, Jan. 16): Researching the distribution and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines in Canada illustrates the dismal state of our response. The Canadian government endlessly touts the huge number of doses contracted for eventual delivery, but has bungled the contracting of the first two approved vaccines for quick distribution and delivery into the arms of its citizens.
A comparison of the availability of vaccines in Canada and the United States (hardly a beacon of vaccine delivery efficiency) further illustrates this lag. The rates in the slowest states are still almost double the Canadian pace. With the anemic delivery schedules expected in the first quarter of 2021, this disparity will only expand.
Robert Masters Saskatoon
Lockdown lessons
Re How Atlantic Canada Beat Back The Virus (Editorial, Jan. 18): The Globe’s diagnosis seems right on, as evidenced by other countries which minimized or outright avoided second waves through decisive actions similar to those taken by our Atlantic premiers. Examples include Australia, where the last COVID-19 death occurred, at last check, in December and New Zealand in September. How could we have done thousands of times worse?
In both foot-dragging and prematurely lifting lockdowns, our “open for business” premiers appear to have failed to grasp that pandemics are exponential phenomena in which every day of delay hugely magnifies the outcomes. To avoid third and fourth waves, which are already occurring elsewhere, our lockdowns should be outcome-based, lifted only after per-capita active caseloads have been driven below predetermined safe levels.
While that would likely extend the restrictions by weeks, the human cost of not doing should be deemed too high.
Ron Hartling Kingston
On the first day of the new Ontario lockdown, I made a grocery run at a chain store. There, four young men were examining the produce – not one had a mask to be seen.
I called over an employee, who shrugged his shoulders and mumbled that “we are not allowed to say anything.” He offered to call security and commented further: “You have no idea how often this happens.” I left with no groceries.
In a second store (locally owned), a woman came up behind me, unmasked, to fill a bag with the same oranges I was purchasing. Later at the cashiers, I commented that “you must get really frustrated by people who don’t wear masks.” Her response: “We do, and there’s nothing we can do.”
If store employees do not have the leverage to ask for compliance, how do these lockdown measures benefit them? They have no choice but to work and stand by and witness.
Claudia Buckley Ottawa
Re Ford Boots York Centre MPP From Caucus Over Plea To End COVID-19 Lockdown (Jan. 16): I commend Roman Baber for standing up and at least presenting his thoughts on the impact of the virus. What I read in his letter is that we need to find better ways to manage the virus, improve our immune systems and go about our daily lives.
Ordinary Canadians should have access to self-administered rapid tests. We should learn more about improving our immunity and fighting the virus on a personal level, especially if we want our old lives back. Given the tools, we can manage this.
Another thing that Mr. Baber and I agree on: Give our children hope. That would come from new ideas and the ability to start thinking about the future again.
Kensel Tracy Chelsea, Que.
Money for nothing
Re CRA Targets Artists To Repay Emergency Benefits Over Grants (Report on Business, Jan. 15): That grants to artists are not counted as income for emergency benefits seems absurd. Grants are provided to promising artists as replacements for having to go out and work at other jobs, preserving time for them to nurture their talents.
That money absolutely should be counted as income, particularly as the Canada Revenue Agency charges income tax on it.
Alison Dennis Kingston
I suppose we must applaud the Canada Revenue Agency for their keen vigilance in spotting this breach of emergency benefits. Canadians are generally a tolerant people, but we cannot abide cheats.
Imagine allowing these conniving poets to sneak onto the pandemic support rolls without enough real income to support their claims. And all the while, these authors are continuing in their lavish lifestyles and foisting their obscure dithyrambs upon the public!
Richard Bachmann Burlington, Ont.
He shoots
Re This Season Of Hockey Is Like A Reality Show, Minus The Cash (Sports, Jan. 13): Spiritual gurus tell us that the only certain road to despair is to become emotionally attached to an outcome we can’t control. Enter our national sport, where we while away our winter evenings – this year as a distraction from the banality of our shut-in lives – surrendering our mood to a lucky or unlucky deflection off the post.
How do we reconcile these opposing notions? I suppose we can look to the great sportswriter George Plimpton, who described an engaging sports experience as the only reliable cessation of time and, sometimes, a shared experience of the divine (with each other, and occasionally with the athlete who locks eyes with us in incredulity to say, “Did you see that!?”).
Game on!
Jackson von der Ohe Edmonton
Easygoing
Re Retirement Plans (Letters, Jan. 18): As a retiree who doesn’t skydive, zipline or even lawn bowl, l must point out that not all seniors feel compelled to be rigourously active. Give me the “cobwebbed and dusty attic we seniors are expected to inhabit” – but not too dusty – and a good book, and let the rest of the world go by. It’s fascinating to watch.
T.M. Dickey Toronto
Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com