Vaccination isn't going fast enough
We are bombarded by the federal government and province about the number of vaccine doses that have been administered and how many are on the way.
It's confusing, but the hard truth is that we have only scratched the surface and are not even close to ramping up to the necessary scale. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says we will have the majority of Canadians vaccinated by fall.
Let's suppose that means 25 of 38 million Canadians will be vaccinated by the end of September.
That means 50 million doses must be received and injected in 10 months. So we have to be administering at an average pace of at least five million doses each month, including January. But here we are in mid-January and at best a few hundred thousand doses have been administered.
I have resigned myself to the fact that 2021 will not be much brighter than 2020. Daniel Miller, Ottawa
Let's vaccinate the vaccinators
Re: Giving Ottawans the vaccine left indelible impression, Jan. 9.
Dr. Jess Fiedorowicz's opinion piece was a total shock. That nurses from the ICU or actual vaccinators could not get their inoculation during a lull in the vaccination process is appalling. The virus does not stand in line. If you can get a few dozen active, exposed professionals vaccinated, why not?
And as for the fact that the vaccinators themselves are not vaccinated, I have no words.
This is not a U.S. or Canada problem. This is a lapse in common sense.
Nicole C. Beauchamp, Ottawa
U.S. `leadership' has long been flawed Re: A Canadian's advice for Joe Biden on U.S. foreign policy, Jan. 11.
John Trent's advice to Biden was sound and his comment that we want American partnership rather than leadership very true.
However, his comment that the decline in American leadership probably began with the bombing of Cambodia in the late 1960s was too charitable.
The U.S. has had a long history of economic exploitation and imperialism dating back to the early 1900s as U.S. companies (e.g., the United Fruit Company and others) took economic control of Central American economies.
When revolutions or elections to assert people's rights threatened those interests, U.S. covert military and political support was given to tyrants, dictators or military juntas who were willing to protect and share in the profits of exploitation.
Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Cuba and others have been victims of American leadership.
Trent's message was an important one but would have been more powerful if it recognized the failures in leadership closer to home. The negative repercussions of that U.S. “leadership” persist today. Let's support the new administration in a fresh start.
Michael Wiggin, Ottawa
Earth to Randy: Please go away
I wonder what planet Randy Hillier, MPP (Master of Pandemic Perpetuation) for Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, thinks he is on? Clearly it might benefit us all if he were sent to another one along with his entourage who gathered around the Christmas table.
Cynthia Moffat, Ottawa