'It feels like betrayal': Vulnerable families respond to COVID-19 changes as B.C.'s top doctor defends approach
CTV
When the provincial health officer told British Columbians she was removing isolation requirements and testing for most of the population and compared managing COVID-19 in similar terms to the flu or common cold, many people were shocked and some instantly alarmed.
When the provincial health officer told British Columbians she was removing isolation requirements and testing for most of the population and compared managing COVID-19 in similar terms to the flu or common cold, many people were shocked and some instantly alarmed.
Dr. Bonnie Henry addressed people who are extremely clinically vulnerable, assuring them they would have access to COVID-19 testing and that they should get tested right away if they develop symptoms, so they can access treatment. In fact, she emphasized that the general public “have a responsibility to try and minimize our risk to them by doing the things that help protect us and protect others,” namely getting vaccinated and following public health orders.
For many, however, those statements were overshadowed by Henry’s discussion of the need for balance and the reduced severity of the Omicron variant in comparison to the deadlier Delta strain – particularly at a time the health-care system is struggling to maintain basic levels of care.
“It feels like betrayal, like we’re just forgotten and left to the side,” said Laesa Kim, whose kindergartner has multiple serious medical conditions and had open-heart surgery in the fall.
“I’m cautious with my child, but I still want her attending school and socializing and doing the things she should be doing,” said the Langley mother of two. “People still send sick kids to school and think it’s no big deal and then she’s home for three weeks recovering from a cold.”
Jeremy Franta is a terminal cancer patient in Delta. He hasn’t sent his daughters to school yet because most of their friends have had COVID-19 in the past two weeks and he’s terrified of the potential consequences.
“Do we send my kids (to school), and they bring it to me, they kill me? I won't care, but my kids have to live with that,” he said. “I feel the clinically vulnerable have been left behind and nobody cares. We’re left in the wind to fend for ourselves.”
