Skip to content

Letter: Canadian sources for good health info out there, too

The CDC, CDRAP, and John Hopkins can be ”Canadianized”
25387475_web1_Letters-logo-2-660x440

Canadian sources for good health info out there, too

A picture is worth a thousand words.

This saying above may also be true to the cartoon published in Thursday’s Citizen on June 3. It depicts two persons discussing the problem of negative messages they are receiving: ”I am getting tons of scary warnings about COVID vaccines on my Facebook!”

Actually, this can also be true about e-mails and other forms of ”communication” on the internet.

If I may critique this excellent cartoon; the information being given is valuable and worthy of serious consideration, but it also includes contacts that will be useful for our neighbour to the south, but not so much for ourselves here in Canada.

I did a bit of ”investigative reporting” and the CDC, CDRAP, and John Hopkins can be ”Canadianized” by some contacts I have checked and which seem to be equally, if not even better, than the ones in the cartoon.

1. For CDC check British Columbia Centre for Disease Control.

Apparently the full title at the end ”for Canada”. So we have a contact right here in B.C whose mandate is national.

2. For Johns Hopkins University check Health Link B.C., and there is a toll free number one can call when you check this web site.

While on this topic of checking facts there does seem to be in this area a number of citizens who, and I’m sure in good faith, have fallen into the trap of ”scary warnings”. This attitude of taking information, often imported from sources below the 49th and which cannot be truthfully ”peer checked” by recognized Canadian authorities on the matter. It is truly sad to hear and read these doom and gloom messages. It seems to me that we are losing our sense of trust in our own medical scientists who are in many areas ”cutting edge” and deserve more respect.

Then there is the continued conspiracy theorists declaring loudly that we are all victims to ”hidden” manipulative forces controlling our medicines and services. We are, I believe, fortunate to have such figures of Dr. Bonnie Henry at the helm and I’ll leave you to decide about the politics!

But, ”a cartoon is worth a thousand words…..eh?”

Peter Elliott

North Cowichan