"It doesn’t take much to see divide between the haves and have nots in the “preferred vaccine” narrative. According to the government, you should wait for the good stuff if you are an affluent Canadian in a suburban area with a stable, work-from-home job, don’t have kids in school, and can afford to have everything contactlessly delivered to your doorstep. You should take the “less desirable” vaccine if you are working class and live in a crowded hot zone, work in crowded or public-facing environments, live in a multigenerational house, and care for children attending in-person school. This is decision making with a lens of assumed privilege." - THANK YOU. Some of us don't have the luxury of waiting until the "preferred" one is available and some of us also believe in the science behind vaccines.
Also, the communication from the federal govt on this and other covid issues has been staggeringly incompetent. With all the money they are throwing around, you would think someone would have thought to hire a PR firm to help them with their messaging. I could do better and I am no where near a PR professional.
I heartily agree. Good article. For the entire duration of the pandemic, communications have been one dumpster fire after another. No wonder people have stopped listening.
I understand the political imperative to try to find the most negative spin on this, but I don’t buy the class narrative. The mRNA vaccines *are* the preferred vaccines. They’re more effective, including against variants. They’re also safer, although that’s a pretty fine distinction when you look at the very small risk of rare blood clots with the adenovirus vaccines. Heck, they’re even more available when you look at the supply chain: it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get Astra-Zeneca because of the need for it where it’s made in Europe and India; the US has a stockpile, but isn’t making more of it because they haven’t provided an authorization for use and don’t need to with their supply of the mRNA vaccines. That said, if you’re at risk of COVID exposure, any of the approved vaccines is still better than no vaccine at all. You might be able to get a slightly better vaccine in a month or two, but that’s not going to reduce your exposure if your kids are bringing COVID home from school right now or if you work in a job where you regularly interact with others in person. The fact that Pfizer would further reduce a tiny chance of blood clots and be slightly more effective when you get it in 2 months isn’t going to be much of a comfort if you get COVID and associated side effects like blood clots in the meantime!
So, why couldn’t NACI provide a clear, coherent message? This isn’t even the first time they’ve screwed up communications - could the government not have provided them with an experienced communications person months ago? The story here is another example of Liberal incompetence in management, not a strained tale of class warfare.
I am not sure I want The Line as a platform for partisan hackery. There is a lot of that that can be found elsewhere. re: Millions of CDNs with no access to family doctors ? Please, this is not mostly a federal issue nor is it something that has really changed since the days of Harper. Honestly, this is about as annoying as the Ont provincial Libs complaining about long term care. Its been in a crisis since the 80s FFS.
Furthermore, I hate this infantilization of Canadian politics re decision making. Its a crap situation with all choices awful to various degrees and consequences. There never was any "magic path forward where no one got sick." Yeah, I wish everyone had access to Pfizer/Moderna. This BS binary of "everyone should have had access to the best" is like some lazy parent promising the weather will be sunny when we go to the beach on the weekend. You know what, it rains sometimes! Dont promise what you cant and dont act like a toddler because the situation sucks and there are no good options. I would much rather have politicians tell us in Feb. "RIght now, this is what we got. Take what you can. Some have slightly more risk and some are not quite as effective, but still will save your ass from death and YOUR healthcare system from being steamrolled. In April May, its gonna be a tricky situation and not an easy decision"... Instead, we get manichean criticism as well as cowardly punting of the question by the health minister.
I write this as a "5[0-4] yr old white middle class work from home suburban desk jockey" who just got their AZ shot yesterday. And yes, its just not as good as the MRNA based vaccines and lets not stop pretending it is! And yes if I waited 3 days I could have signed up for the mRNA and probably got it in 3-4 weeks.
And where exactly are the Federal Libs telling provinces where to distribute which vaccine? Here in Ontario, workers at my local Loblaws 18 or older can sign up "for the good stuff" and its the PROVINCE doing that.
A while back Michelle Rempel Garner wrote a piece for this space that was quite reasonable and thoughtful and that made me think that she was more than a oenophilic partisan harpy. This one does the opposite. Yes, the Trudeau government has stumbled often on the Covid file but virtually all governments have. A new pandemic is a huge challenge for all of us. Making a partisan attack like this is a little rich considering Rempel Garner's premier and former colleague, Jason Kenney, seems to be in a competition with our Doug Ford for biggest bungler. "I'll see your idealogical-driven incompetence and raise you criminal negligence." Canadians want competent leadership and action from politicians not partisan sniping. If Michelle has a better way to do things then share it, please. That's why we pay her.
This is another article at TheLine which glosses over or avoids issues in order to achieve its political or ideological ends.
The key question which should be addressed is how to properly address the facts of the differences between the various vaccines. Anyone who does any reading knows that vector vaccines have a small chance of causing blood clotting – mRNA vaccines do not. Once any vaccine is approved, whether health authorities or politicians say anything about it or not doesn’t actually provide any new information.
My wife is part of phase 2D in Alberta. Her decision to wait until phase 2D was based upon two factors: first, she was aware that waiting an extra couple of weeks to get Pfizer instead of AstraZeneca meant that chances of dangerous clotting become null, second, her not taking the AstraZeneca would give someone younger in a more precarious situation a chance to have the AZ shot instead. (why should she, who only interacts with others during a short shopping trip or in a socially distanced outdoor space, take AZ instead of a teacher having the opportunity to get it?)
What is Ms. Rempel advocating? Is it that she wants health officials and politicians to state that all vaccines are the same – knowing that listeners know that that is actually not the case? Or is it that, were she in charge, she would lump all vaccines together and that all those receiving vaccines should be ignorant of which they were receiving?
I think this is the first time I've been genuinely disappointed in The Line. I think the politicians take up enough oxygen that we do not have to give them another platform. This ignores the fact that this specific politician looks to block those who do not agree with her and does not allow any responses to her online musings unless she is following you. Feels very much against the spirit of what has been happening here.
The "Liberals" did not instigate the notion of 'preferred' vaccines. The independent advisory body the National Advisory Committee on Immunization did. All the vaccines available to Canadians are approved and safe. Michelle Rempel-Garner is contributing to vaccine hesitancy and disinformation about vaccines.
I agree for the most part but I don't see the "systemic elitism" aspect. I vaccinate people of all economic tiers, young, old, rich, and street people. They all want Pfizer.
Why did the NACI members need to be on TV anyway? At this point they are massively overworked volunteers in a thankless job. Did they decide for themselves to take this high-profile route (when they have always worked quietly in the past)? Or is there someone else pushing them to do this?
I have had to educate so many friends and colleges on the importance of taking the first vax available. Our govs are a joke. I am dumbfounded daily.
"It doesn’t take much to see divide between the haves and have nots in the “preferred vaccine” narrative. According to the government, you should wait for the good stuff if you are an affluent Canadian in a suburban area with a stable, work-from-home job, don’t have kids in school, and can afford to have everything contactlessly delivered to your doorstep. You should take the “less desirable” vaccine if you are working class and live in a crowded hot zone, work in crowded or public-facing environments, live in a multigenerational house, and care for children attending in-person school. This is decision making with a lens of assumed privilege." - THANK YOU. Some of us don't have the luxury of waiting until the "preferred" one is available and some of us also believe in the science behind vaccines.
Also, the communication from the federal govt on this and other covid issues has been staggeringly incompetent. With all the money they are throwing around, you would think someone would have thought to hire a PR firm to help them with their messaging. I could do better and I am no where near a PR professional.
I heartily agree. Good article. For the entire duration of the pandemic, communications have been one dumpster fire after another. No wonder people have stopped listening.
I understand the political imperative to try to find the most negative spin on this, but I don’t buy the class narrative. The mRNA vaccines *are* the preferred vaccines. They’re more effective, including against variants. They’re also safer, although that’s a pretty fine distinction when you look at the very small risk of rare blood clots with the adenovirus vaccines. Heck, they’re even more available when you look at the supply chain: it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get Astra-Zeneca because of the need for it where it’s made in Europe and India; the US has a stockpile, but isn’t making more of it because they haven’t provided an authorization for use and don’t need to with their supply of the mRNA vaccines. That said, if you’re at risk of COVID exposure, any of the approved vaccines is still better than no vaccine at all. You might be able to get a slightly better vaccine in a month or two, but that’s not going to reduce your exposure if your kids are bringing COVID home from school right now or if you work in a job where you regularly interact with others in person. The fact that Pfizer would further reduce a tiny chance of blood clots and be slightly more effective when you get it in 2 months isn’t going to be much of a comfort if you get COVID and associated side effects like blood clots in the meantime!
So, why couldn’t NACI provide a clear, coherent message? This isn’t even the first time they’ve screwed up communications - could the government not have provided them with an experienced communications person months ago? The story here is another example of Liberal incompetence in management, not a strained tale of class warfare.
I am not sure I want The Line as a platform for partisan hackery. There is a lot of that that can be found elsewhere. re: Millions of CDNs with no access to family doctors ? Please, this is not mostly a federal issue nor is it something that has really changed since the days of Harper. Honestly, this is about as annoying as the Ont provincial Libs complaining about long term care. Its been in a crisis since the 80s FFS.
https://images.app.goo.gl/fFb16NuPxS8UyvQr9
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-625-x/2015001/article/14177-eng.htm
Furthermore, I hate this infantilization of Canadian politics re decision making. Its a crap situation with all choices awful to various degrees and consequences. There never was any "magic path forward where no one got sick." Yeah, I wish everyone had access to Pfizer/Moderna. This BS binary of "everyone should have had access to the best" is like some lazy parent promising the weather will be sunny when we go to the beach on the weekend. You know what, it rains sometimes! Dont promise what you cant and dont act like a toddler because the situation sucks and there are no good options. I would much rather have politicians tell us in Feb. "RIght now, this is what we got. Take what you can. Some have slightly more risk and some are not quite as effective, but still will save your ass from death and YOUR healthcare system from being steamrolled. In April May, its gonna be a tricky situation and not an easy decision"... Instead, we get manichean criticism as well as cowardly punting of the question by the health minister.
I write this as a "5[0-4] yr old white middle class work from home suburban desk jockey" who just got their AZ shot yesterday. And yes, its just not as good as the MRNA based vaccines and lets not stop pretending it is! And yes if I waited 3 days I could have signed up for the mRNA and probably got it in 3-4 weeks.
And where exactly are the Federal Libs telling provinces where to distribute which vaccine? Here in Ontario, workers at my local Loblaws 18 or older can sign up "for the good stuff" and its the PROVINCE doing that.
A while back Michelle Rempel Garner wrote a piece for this space that was quite reasonable and thoughtful and that made me think that she was more than a oenophilic partisan harpy. This one does the opposite. Yes, the Trudeau government has stumbled often on the Covid file but virtually all governments have. A new pandemic is a huge challenge for all of us. Making a partisan attack like this is a little rich considering Rempel Garner's premier and former colleague, Jason Kenney, seems to be in a competition with our Doug Ford for biggest bungler. "I'll see your idealogical-driven incompetence and raise you criminal negligence." Canadians want competent leadership and action from politicians not partisan sniping. If Michelle has a better way to do things then share it, please. That's why we pay her.
And a different bunch selected from the 308 MPs in parliament would do a better job than this bunch? I highly doubt it.
This is another article at TheLine which glosses over or avoids issues in order to achieve its political or ideological ends.
The key question which should be addressed is how to properly address the facts of the differences between the various vaccines. Anyone who does any reading knows that vector vaccines have a small chance of causing blood clotting – mRNA vaccines do not. Once any vaccine is approved, whether health authorities or politicians say anything about it or not doesn’t actually provide any new information.
My wife is part of phase 2D in Alberta. Her decision to wait until phase 2D was based upon two factors: first, she was aware that waiting an extra couple of weeks to get Pfizer instead of AstraZeneca meant that chances of dangerous clotting become null, second, her not taking the AstraZeneca would give someone younger in a more precarious situation a chance to have the AZ shot instead. (why should she, who only interacts with others during a short shopping trip or in a socially distanced outdoor space, take AZ instead of a teacher having the opportunity to get it?)
What is Ms. Rempel advocating? Is it that she wants health officials and politicians to state that all vaccines are the same – knowing that listeners know that that is actually not the case? Or is it that, were she in charge, she would lump all vaccines together and that all those receiving vaccines should be ignorant of which they were receiving?
I think this is the first time I've been genuinely disappointed in The Line. I think the politicians take up enough oxygen that we do not have to give them another platform. This ignores the fact that this specific politician looks to block those who do not agree with her and does not allow any responses to her online musings unless she is following you. Feels very much against the spirit of what has been happening here.
The "Liberals" did not instigate the notion of 'preferred' vaccines. The independent advisory body the National Advisory Committee on Immunization did. All the vaccines available to Canadians are approved and safe. Michelle Rempel-Garner is contributing to vaccine hesitancy and disinformation about vaccines.
I agree for the most part but I don't see the "systemic elitism" aspect. I vaccinate people of all economic tiers, young, old, rich, and street people. They all want Pfizer.
A perspective more in line with my personal thinking.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/naci-is-right-about-astrazeneca-it-shouldnt-be-unsettling-to-trust-the-public-with-uncomfortable-information
Why did the NACI members need to be on TV anyway? At this point they are massively overworked volunteers in a thankless job. Did they decide for themselves to take this high-profile route (when they have always worked quietly in the past)? Or is there someone else pushing them to do this?
Spot on, Michelle.
Remember Burt's Law:
Everything Justin Trudeau touches turns to shit