By – Kendall Worth!
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| PIC: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/gofundme-blocks-10-million-in-donations-to-canadian-trucker-convoy/ |
The main message of this post is:
“When are the organizers of these AntiVaxx-protest/Freedom rallies going to stop being selfish toward those living in poverty, and stop your Protest/Rallies and get your COVID Vaccines? Truckers who are supporting them, Smarten up!”
“Your actions are scaring the community-of-people-living-in-poverty, who I advocate for”
“And to Government … Two things I want to say:
#1 – You have got to do a better job to end these protest/Freedom Rallies that are happening across this Country and take more action against those who are refusing to get vaccinated.
#2 – When it comes to things like “easing restrictions”, like Premier Tim Houston and Dr. Robert Strang did in their press briefing of February 9th, 2022, telling people to “learn to live with COVID”, you have to remember that people-living-in-poverty do not have the same resources. They do not have what is necessary to achieve “getting back to normal” like financially better off people do.
Since my last BLOG post I have been having conversations with more and more people who are living in poverty. They tell me about their fears, about life following the pandemic. I mean we all agree that we all want life to get “back to normal”. However, those who are living in poverty also want to feel confident that they can live day to day safely. They do not see this happening if these protest/freedom rallies continue, and/or if the government keeps moving too slowly to resolve these protests/rallies.
However, since my last BLOG, people on income assistance who I am in regular contact with have told me “Kendall we feel now that this Pandemic has gone on long enough that our days of getting out and socializing are over”. Also some of them are starting to tell me that they are starting to prepare to cut supportive family members and friends out of their lives, for the rest of their lives.
The following lists reasons they are scared of the future:
We are scared that we are going to find out that family members and good friends we have in life, and who we want to reconnect with after more restriction are lifted, who are also part of the financially better off have taken part in these AntiVaxx/Freedom Rallies and refused to get their COVID Vaccines.
We fear he fact that, we, as Income Assistance Recipients, took the Public Health Measures seriously throughout this whole Pandemic, may increase the amount of stigma we face in the future.
If people who we want to reconnect with, refuse to tell us whether or not they have been vaccinated, we will not be taking their refusal to tell us lightly, we warn.
The Government not taking more serious action to end those Freedom Rallies and to end the Convoy in Ottawa is adding fuel to the fire of us already being scared and feeling isolated.
The following describes what two different income assistance (IA) recipients had to say to me just today:
IA recipient #1: “Kendall in Pre-COVID times I use to go visit my Aunt and Uncle every second Sunday. Besides going to my part time job during the week, that was my only day to day getting out and socializing with people.” Since COVID has started, I now only keep in touch with them here and there via phone. I want the in-person visits to start up again. Every time I ask them if they got their vaccines yet, they will not give me an answer and even told me it was ‘none of my Business”
“I am trying to figure out how to tell them I am cutting myself from them for the rest of my life” She added.
“Now my life is just going to work, coming home, and playing with my cat. Spending weekends with no human contact what-so-ever”
IA recipient #2: “Put it this way Kendall, if first COVID itself, now the AntiVaxxers who are hosting these Freedom rallies, has taught me anything, it is that it is OK to live life, having no human contact, and it’s ok to shut myself away from people.”
“The fact that Premier Tim Houston and Dr. Robert Strang have done nothing further to reduce the spread of this recent variant adds fuel to the fire of why I am feeling this way”, he said.
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| Premier Tim Houston and Chief Medical Officer Dr Robert Strang. |
It seems to the community-of-people-living-in-poverty who I advocate for, that the truckers who are participating in that “Freedom Convoy” in Ottawa do not care about the health and wellbeing of the community at large. Otherwise, those truckers would get their vaccines and stop protesting.
IA Recipients I talked to recently, feel that is a good idea to look at doing more to help with stopping the spread and ending the pandemic. If mandates and punishments are not working, maybe we could try reaching EVERYONE, and making it convenient, for those that are finding it difficult. Paid sick time for instance. Vaccine clinics at schools (with parental consent of course), or at workplaces with low vaccination rates, and no mandates? Time off work to get vaccinated or get your child vaccinated. . . Mandate that employers must let people work at home if possible. The vaccine hesitant have not had a live person contact them to ask them to get vaccinated or why they have not., . . we just leave everything to individuals, and individual responsibility. My community stepped up, but we need our whole society to do more if we are ever going to have any kind of social life in the future.
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