This letter is regarding an Aug. 5 article in the Red Deer Advocate, Hinshaw sorry for causing ‘confusion, fear or anger on page 9.
It seems the chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw thinks we didn’t understand her. In fact, we did, and that’s what has caused fear, anger and confusion.
Allowing infected people as of Aug. 16 to run around our communities, knowingly or unknowingly, spreading the highly transmissible delta strain has created obvious anger, fear and confusion.
We can ‘learn to live with COVID-19’ once our vaccination rates are high or we continue wearing masks. Today, Alberta has one of the the lowest vaccination uptake in Canada and a high number of anti-vaxxers. Ongoing scientific reviews from both Britain and the U.S. find those with single doses (76.1 per cent of Albertans) have little protection against the delta strain.
Fifteen percent of our population is children under 12. As much as Dr. Hinshaw downplays dangerous side effects for children, pediatricians aren’t buying her line. Seems the delta variant in the U.S. isn’t buying her relaxed attitude either as more young children are being admitted daily to hospitals and ICUs.
The percentage of eligible people who have been vaccinated (the stat Dr. Hinshaw likes to use) isn’t a number the delta variant cares about. It starts to lose its power at 80 per cent and above.
That might explain why Dr. Hinshaw stands alone in the medical world when she announced ‘learning to live with COVID’ even though 1.9 million Albertans are still completely unprotected.
Brenda Schimke, Red Deer