CMA’S CALL FOR HELP IS OFF-BASE

It is with great dismay and anger that I read on April 16th about the Canadian Medical Association’s (CMA) call for “national collaboration between provinces and territories,” including changing COVID-19 vaccine distribution to focus on areas where vaccines are needed more urgently instead of the current distribution to provinces based on population and relocating health-care workers.

What the CMA really wants to say is that the Atlantic provinces and the territories should send their already thin resources to help Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

The CMA’S call amounts to rewarding provincial governments and their residents who ignored the science and public health best practices and penalizing those in Atlantic Canada and the territories who did the hard work of selfisolating, enduring lockdowns and wearing masks to tamp down case numbers.

It is not by accident that the COVID-19 numbers in Atlantic Canada and the territories remain low. Outside of these two regions, provincial governments at best implemented half-measures in response to the pandemic and their residents carried on going to shopping malls, restaurants, bars, parties and religious services as if nothing was happening, or worse, they did not care.

This has not been some natural disaster where there was little chance to prepare in the period immediately preceding the event. We saw this coming and even since it arrived we have learned more about COVID-19 and its variants. After the first wave passed, those provincial governments and their residents did little to reduce the impact of future waves. In fact, they have most often taken actions that have made the pandemic’s impact much worse.

Yes, what many people in many provinces are going through is awful and tragic. However, it was brought on by the bad behaviour of their governments, their fellow residents, and, in some cases, themselves. Now the CMA expects those of us who did the right things to give up our vaccines and our health-care resources to rectify the misdeeds of those in Ontario and Alberta? I don’t think so.

I, for one, am proud that Premier Iain Rankin of Nova Scotia is opposing the CMA’S call. I only hope that the premiers of the other Atlantic provinces and the territories find the courage to speak out against this ridiculous call.

One must ask, if the roles were reversed, would the premiers of Ontario and Alberta be willing to give up their vaccines for their Atlantic and northern neighbours? Given that Alberta and Ontario have often questioned the work ethic of the people of Atlantic Canada, I doubt it. Can we now say that the ethic of doing what is best for your neighbour and not just yourself is lacking in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta?

Karl Hanson Halifax