[EpochTimesOctober192021](Epoch Times reporter Wang Lan reported in Toronto) Canada has one of the highest rates of vaccinated population in the world. As of October 2, 86.57% of the eligible population had at least vaccinated A dose of vaccine. However, public health officials are still persuading those who insist on not being vaccinated to roll up their sleeves to get the vaccine. They believe that vaccination is the best way to end the pandemic, and more and more people who have insisted on not being vaccinated have changed their minds. .
Dr. Jia Hu, a former health officer of the Alberta Health Services Department, said that under normal circumstances, three factors will prompt people to get vaccinated. One is how worried people are about the COVID-19 virus; the other is Confidence in the vaccine; the third is whether it is convenient to inject the vaccine. But now there is another factor that is the vaccine passport.
Dr. Hu said that vaccine passports have begun to be adopted across the country. “The vast majority of people are now vaccinated so that they can fly or go to restaurants.”
The Globe and Mail contacted some vaccinators to find out what caused them to change their minds.
“Fear of being isolated by society”
After months of repeated consideration, Fadhwa Yusuf, a 45-year-old resident of Kitchener, Ontario, finally received the first shot of Pfizer vaccine in the fall. She is in the service industry, which means that she has to interact with people frequently.
She said that fear of social isolation is an important factor in making the final decision. “If you are isolated, you can’t go anywhere, you can’t connect with your friends, and you can’t take your children anywhere. You are the one excluded. So this pressure finally came down on me.”
Ms. Youssef said that she hesitated for a long time not to get the vaccine because she felt that she did not have all the information about the latest vaccine, and now she has to get it.
“In order to keep the job”
Caroline Hartley, a 55-year-old resident of Olds, Alberta, said that she was reluctant to get vaccinated at first because she didn’t know what to believe. The news was all good news about vaccines, but friends and social media A lot of bad news seen on the Internet casts doubt on the effectiveness of the vaccine.
In late September, five days after Alberta launched the vaccine passport program, she received her first vaccine. She said half of the reason was fear that if the vaccine was not fully vaccinated, she might not be able to fly to New Brunswick to visit her mother. The other half of the reason is the fear that you might lose your job. The company she works for installed a security system in an apartment in downtown Calgary. The apartment’s property manager said that if employees are not vaccinated, they will not be allowed to enter the apartment.
“This is my favorite job. When you are 55, trust me, you won’t find another job anywhere else,” she said.
“To travel”
Throughout the summer, when the 27-year-old Harbinder Singh resident of Terrace, British Columbia, a taxi passenger asked him if he was vaccinated, Singh felt nervous.
He said that he was reluctant to vaccinate because his relatives in India contracted the virus and died even after being vaccinated. The relatives’ family members blamed the vaccine for ineffective. However, a few weeks ago, Singh changed his mind.
British Columbia has already launched a vaccine passport. Singh said that he cannot go to a bank or restaurant without showing proof of vaccination. This is a strong pressure to vaccinate himself.
He also travels to India every one or two years and needs to show a vaccination certificate before he can fly home. His family members have recently been vaccinated, which is also for the purpose of travel.
“Can’t enter hospitals and nursing homes”
The wife of Jeff McLeod, a 45-year-old resident of Renfrew, Ontario, and their two teenage children were vaccinated earlier this year, but he was reluctant to vaccinate. “I’m definitely not in a rush to do this,” said Mr. McLeod, who runs the HVAC company. “I really don’t think this is something I want to inject into my body. It’s too new.”
But with the advent of the vaccine passport, some of Mr. McLeod’s biggest clients, including a hospital and nursing home, sent him letters informing him that starting from September 22, he will not be allowed without a vaccination certificate. Enter a hospital or nursing home. He felt that he had no choice. “Vaccine Passport is taking my food from my table, so it must be beaten,” he said.
His wife and children are happy to hear that he has decided to vaccinate, especially because it means they can go to Cuba or Mexico this winter.
“They are very happy about it. My wife wants to travel.” McLeod said.
“Friend was hospitalized with the disease”
Irene Brucculeri, a 56-year-old resident of Hamilton, Ontario, feels that she has a strong immune system and is not worried about contracting the virus. What she is worried about is what will happen if she gets vaccinated.
Then, this spring, some of her friends contracted the virus. A woman she knew was seriously ill and was about to be hospitalized. She feared that she would do the same, so she was vaccinated.
“We are not living in a free country”
Catherine McGovern, a 57 resident of Vernon, British Columbia, said: “I am not a conspiracy theorist. I am not an anti-vaccine person. I absolutely support vaccines.”
Despite this, the lack of time to test the COVID-19 vaccine made her hesitate, so she planned to wear a mask and keep her distance. She will not get the vaccine until the spring of 2022, but the emergence of the vaccine passport changed her plan.
Ms. McGovern and her husband ran an environmental company, and they realized that they had to be vaccinated.
“If you don’t get vaccinations, it becomes very difficult to do business.” She said, especially because she and her husband have to fly to Calgary at least once every two weeks. “You have to go out to have dinner with people, and so on. This is an important part of establishing contact with people when doing business,” she said.
She received the second injection on September 20, but was very angry.
“To be honest, my husband and I feel that we are not living in a free country.” She said: “In order to live a normal life, we were forced to inject vaccines that we don’t want to get. This made us even more angry. “
Editor in charge: Yan Feng
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