On Sept. 28, Fraser Health hit Fraser Valley East (encompassing Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Hope, Mission, and Agassiz/Harrison) with a brand new set of restrictions that make it increasingly inconvenient to continue life “as normal” for unvaccinated people.
Yes, these new restrictions are a measure to force people’s hands to get vaccinated. But this isn’t just a Canada-wide issue. Every country on earth that is facing some kind of resistance to vaccination is enforcing different measures to ensure that people get vaccinated. This is so the pandemic can slowly come to an end. What our regional health authorities are doing is nothing remarkable, and it is even lax compared to what other countries’ restrictions have been. The bottom line is that these vaccine mandates make sense.
Certain workplaces in British Columbia like long-term care facilities, health-care facilities, and homeless shelters, will require their employees to be vaccinated, and honestly, why wouldn’t they mandate this sooner? These professions are working with the most vulnerable populations. Health care workers already require proof of a myriad of vaccines, such as influenza and hep B vaccinations, so why is requiring proof of this vaccination any different? Mandating the vaccine is no different than the countless other measures these agencies are doing to ensure the people they serve are protected, such as sanitizing surfaces and limiting visitations.
Mandated vaccines for Canadian healthcare workers and public servants are in line with many other countries around the world like Britain, Australia, France, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, and Russia. Some countries like Kazakhstan are requiring either vaccination or weekly testing for those who work with 20 or more people. There are places like Italy, Saudi Arabia, and Fiji that require a fully vaccinated workforce, regardless of what line of work you’re in. Regardless of your stance on the vaccination, mandated workforce vaccines have proven to be effective in getting people vaccinated; when people are faced with the choice between losing their job or getting the jab, the majority have chosen the latter.
While the biggest punishment here for not getting the vaccine is limited access to a number of public events such as indoor ticketed events, indoor sports, and gatherings of more than 10 people inside or 50 people outside. Places like Indonesia, where a shocking one in three citizens tested positive for COVID-19 this July, are enforcing vaccines by imposing heavy fines and rejecting social aid for those who refuse to get vaccinated.
Turkmenistan has also made COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for all adults over 18, being the first country to do so, with exceptions only to those with medical contraindications. What’s interesting about this mandate is that the Central Asian country has yet to report an official case of COVID-19, yet its vaccine policy is one of the strictest in the world.
Places like Sydney, Australia are just beginning to reopen after being fully shut down (we’re talking a 9:00 p.m. curfew) for the last three months because of a new Delta-variant outbreak, but their reopening is dependent on the vaccination milestones reached. In other words, everyone remains locked down until 70 per cent of residents over 16 are fully vaccinated. At the time of writing this article, 78 per cent of Abbotsford residents aged 12 and up have received two doses of the vaccine.
All that being said, we shouldn’t be shocked, scandalized, or surprised by these new regional mandates. The government wants you to get vaccinated for the safety of yourself and others. Get vaccinated if you haven’t already, educate yourself on the benefits of the vaccine, and inform your unvaccinated friends and family about why they should just get the shot already. We are not living in an oppressive government regime under the current mandates, but we do all rely on a public healthcare system that is already overburdened and overworked, so for the sake of all the burnt-out nurses who don’t want to see you hospitalized, get vaccinated.
Image: Brielle Quon/The Cascade
Andrea Sadowski is working towards her BA in Global Development Studies, with a minor in anthropology and Mennonite studies. When she's not sitting in front of her computer, Andrea enjoys climbing mountains, sleeping outside, cooking delicious plant-based food, talking to animals, and dismantling the patriarchy.