EVERYONE (but white males) can now get a COVID booster

Health leaders dangerously continue to expand the definition of "high-risk groups".

I know nobody will be in a rush to get a COVID booster this fall. Less than 20% of Canadians took the offered XBB.1.5 offered last year and less than 4% of Canadians are currently up to date with their recommended mRNA shots.

But when the local health unit announced this week that they got their batches for this season, they had to hype it up in some way.

So once again, they pretended like there will be a shortage….

With the absurd premise that there will be more than 12 people who want these shots in the region, the health unit announced that starting mid-October, only “high-risk” groups will be eligible for a COVID shot.

EVERYONE but straight white males are “high risk”

The pushing of a fake demand narrative once again is not what surprised me about this press release. What bothered me most is this organization’s continued expansion of identity politics and the growing “victim class”.

When the mRNA vaccines were first rolled out (assuming they had worked), I could see some justification in identifying remote first nation communities (or any remote communities) who had less access to health care. This would be a legitimate prioritization based on health needs.

But today, it appears the health leaders are simply stating that people who happen to be a certain race regardless of where they live, access to health or life circumstance can get priority for this medical service (the mRNA shot).

They have gone even further now to include anyone who is in a “racialized community” or part of an “equity-deserving community”. According to Dalhousie University, Queen’s university and even the government of Canada, “equity-deserving communities” are any groups that have previously faced economic or employment barriers. They specifically include women, members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and anyone who is from a minority race (every race but white).

This in turns leaves only one small segment of society that is no longer considered “high risk”: straight, white, biologically born men who still identify as men.

Now most people won’t care too much because most people don’t really want any priority on getting the latest mRNA shots. But we cannot discount the subtle precedents that this is setting. These hypocritical health leaders pretend like the mRNA shots are an important health care service so we must assume that this is the way they believe all future “important” health care service be offered out.

With an increasingly stretched out health care system, why would they not apply this way of thinking to all limited health resources? Determining who gets priority non urgent surgeries (i.e. hips, knee replacement) which sometimes take months or years for Canadians… Why not prioritize “high-risk groups"? Determining the priority for cancer treatment services… Why not prioritize “high-risk groups”?

You see where this can lead to. We may not experience it today, but I don’t see our health care system getting better so we may be faced with more and more burdens of determining priorities of treatment. And unless we don’t treat every race, gender, minority group equally, we risk descending down a long dark road.

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How Far We Went: The complete historical account of how far Canada went during the COVID-19 era is now available on Amazon.