How did the guys who know how to communicate when they are running for office - fail to communicate when their public is frightened

SwP thumbnail graphicBy Pepper Parr

March 16th, 2021

BURLINGTON, ON

 

How did this get so screwed up?

The province had months to create a web site that people would use to register for a Covid19 vaccination.

They day they opened it up – it failed.  They appear to have fixed it.

HillierOn the same day the retired Army General who was overseeing the distribution of the vaccines in the province quits.  Maybe the $20,000 a month he was being paid (this on top of an Armed Forces pension) wasn’t enough.  Or maybe he stood back and saw nothing but a disaster on its way and chose to step aside.  Question – did he get vaccinated before he quit?

There are very legitimate concerns about one of the vaccines; the AstraZeneca vaccine is reported to have resulted in blood clots in some people.

The Prime Minister assures us that the batch that had the problems is not the batch of vaccines that we are using in Canada.  Do you feel assured?  I don’t.

Remember the thalidomide tragedy; those poor souls only recently got acceptable support and compensation.

For those who don’t recognize the word thalidomide it was a pharmaceutical that was prescribed for pregnant women. Far too many gave birth to children with no arms – just stubs instead of a fully formed arm.

Tragedies like this happen when governments fail to do the job the public expects.  There is good reason to ask if the same kind of incompetence, let’s be candid and call it what it is – stupidity, is happening to us now.

We have failed terribly to ensure that we would have access to the vaccines the government should have known would be needed.

The buck on situations like this rests at the very top.

Instead all we are getting from the leadership at the federal and provincial levels are bromides – people are beginning to become frightened; the last thing we need is a public that no longer trusts and begins to do what human beings do – look out for their own interests.

The best source of the news and information people need in Burlington comes from the Regional level – The Public Health Unit for Halton struggled like everyone else at the beginning to get organized.

When this is all over hopefully there will be an opportunity to tell the full story about the job these people have done.

In the meantime, we wait.  There is more that can be done.  Governments react to protest – if you are worried,  scream blue murder and let the leadership at the federal and provincial levels know that what they are doing is just not good enough.

There have been a few examples of superb leadership – try naming one.

Elections will take place in the not too distant future.

Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.

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3 comments to How did the guys who know how to communicate when they are running for office – fail to communicate when their public is frightened

  • Leonard Collins

    And dont forget all those that got Polio from a “bad batch” of vaccines made in California. Our trust in governments and political leaders is misplaced. Our/their reaction to this pandemic is unprecedented. Until 2019 the concept of a lock-down in a pandemic was not mentioned in world health guidelines for responding to a pandemic. Its becoming clear now that the lock-down did not significantly impact the death rate from this disease.

  • Penny Hersh

    I don’t trust the Government saying that the Astra Zeneca vaccine is safe. I will not take it.

    I just finished watching on CBC Gem the “tainted blood scandalr”. This was brought to light when patients were contracting AIDS and Hepatitis C from unscreened blood in the 80’s and 90’s. The docudrama shows how the government at the time refused to admit that the tainted blood products they had in stock was contributing to the problem.

    The government did not accept the fact that this plasma was tainted even though it had been proven in other countries and the United States also stopped using some plasma that was being treated by a company because it was not safe.

    Canada continued to use this plasma not only for haemophiliacs but also for people who required blood transfusions in hospitals.” 1,100 transfused Canadians were infected with HIV, and up to 20,000 Canadians were exposed to Hepatitis C. More than 700 lost their lives”/

    It took over 10 years of constant pressure until finally the government and the Red Cross admitted that at the time they had a stockpile of the tainted plasma and that they would use it first. They were concerned about the cost to replace it and then continued to use treated plasma that was proven not to be safe.

    We don’t have enough vaccine…..Could this be the “tainted blood scandal” of 2021, only this time it’s about Vaccine?

  • Hans Jacobs

    I don’t feel assured either. The BBC reported today that the clots are not the more common deep vein thrombosis variety but are on the brain and at a much higher rate than expected for this type of clot. It would be prudent to suspend the use of this particular vaccine until more analysis has been performed. And politicians should stop acting as if they understand the issue, which they clearly don’t.