I read the opinion piece published on Jan. 6, in The Squamish Chief, “Letter: Government messaging not holding up on COVID-19,” and was surprised your paper would publish such misleading statements around vaccinations, especially when Omicron spread is taking off like a rocket.
We currently have an overwhelmed healthcare system with burned-out healthcare professionals, and printing a letter questioning the need to get vaccinated is frankly surprising and shocking.
Being vaccinated has, to date, very much demonstrably prevented people from getting sick and catching COVID-19 (prior to Omicron), and still protects you from getting very sick, just not from catching the virus, and hence the need for boosters — but symptoms for those who are vaccinated are pretty mild. Also, it’s false that Omicron came from South Africa: it was first detected there, but was already present in other countries. It’s the unvaccinated who are breeding variants like Omicron and delaying a “back to normal” life.
I understand this is just an opinion piece, yet I am surprised you published this since so much of its content is patently incorrect, or you should have, at the very least, added a disclaimer that the information in this letter is disputed and does not align with accepted COVID science.
Emmanuel Prinet
Squamish
