Letters June 29: Firing those health workers was the right call; leave Oak Bay alone; they should work from home The Times Colonist Jun 29, 2024 12:53 AM Jun 29, 2024 4:26 AM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix speaks during a health-care funding announcement, in Vancouver on February 12, 2024.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck Listen to this article 00:15:33 Dix made right call in firing unvaccinated Re: “B.C. ignores evidence with its health decisions,” commentary, June 26.
Alan Cassels roundly criticizes Health Minister Adrian Dix for firing health-care workers who refused COVID vaccination. The errors of Dix are encyclopedic but this, in my view, is not one of them. At the time of firing, vaccination was of proven value in reducing the frequency and severity of COVID.
That alone was sufficient evidence to insist that all employees who were in contact with patients be vaccinated. The reasons are obvious. Patients are involuntarily in close contact with many people.
Ill and/or aged patients have increased vulnerability to infections and with increased severity. To attack compulsory vaccination policy on the grounds of “lack of evidence” is plainly absurd. But there is a more fundamental problem with Cassels’ line of thinking, especially his misuse of medical ethics.
He states that the firing of staff conflict with the fundamental ethics of “patient autonomy and patient-centred ca.
