The COVID Aware aren't holding their breath waiting for an Adam Kinzinger or Liz Cheney to emerge in B.C.'s NDP caucus

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      Rep. Adam Kinzinger and Rep. Liz Cheney have drawn the admiration of people around the world for their willingness to lose their positions in Congress for the well-being of their country.

      The two Republican members joined the select committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, despite the very real possibility that they would not be reelected because of opposition from Trump supporters within their party.

      "If we're going to ask Americans to be willing to die in service to our country, we, as leaders, must at least be willing to sacrifice our political careers when our integrity and our oath requires it," Kinzinger famously said at one of the hearings. "After all, losing a job is nothing compared to losing your life."

      I thought about Kinzinger's quote as I read about the B.C. NDP government continuing to withhold second COVID-19 boosters from people between the age of 50 and 69.

      According to CBC News, Health Minister Adrian Dix "is considering making COVID-19 shots widely available in the fall".

      This is despite the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's conclusion that people who were 50 years of age and older with a single booster were dying from COVID-19 at a rate four times that of those who received two booster doses. 

      This was reported in the New York Times on the very same day that Dix made his announcement.

      It means that British Columbians between 50 and 69 who want to cut their chance of dying from COVID-19 will have to travel to Washington state to get their second booster.

      These second boosters are available to 50-year-olds in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, and New Brunswick.

      If you're 60 to 69 years old, you can get a second booster in Ontario and Prince Edward Island. But in B.C., Alberta, and Newfoundland and Labrador, you must wait until you're 70 if you're non-Indigenous, notwithstanding the U.S. CDC research.

      Not a single NDP MLA has uttered a public peep of concern about this. There are no Adam Kinzingers or Liz Cheneys in that caucus.

      That was also apparent on March 10 when Dix and Dr. Bonnie Henry announced the end of a provincial mask mandate in B.C.

      This came on the very same day that the U.S. National Institutes of Health announced the results of a massive study showing that mandatory masking during the Delta surge helped stem the spread of COVID-19.

      Districts with mandatory masking recorded approximately 72 percent fewer cases of in-school transmissions in comparison to districts with optional or partial masking policies.

      This study involved more than 1.1 million students—double the number of students in B.C. public schools—and more than 157,000 staff in nine states.

      Come to think of it, there are also no Adam Kinzingers or Liz Cheneys sitting as trustees of B.C. school boards. They all folded like cheap lawn chairs in response to the end of mask mandates in the spring, notwithstanding the NIH-funded study.

      The B.C. NDP will hold a leadership race in the wake of Premier John Horgan's recent announcement that he will be stepping down.

      Here are my predictions:

      1. Not a single candidate will suggest that if they are elected, they will replace Adrian Dix as health minister.

      2. Not a single candidate will suggest that if they are elected, they will replace Dr. Bonnie Henry as provincial health officer.

      3. Not a single candidate will ever be compared to Adam Kinzinger or Liz Cheney over the course of the campaign.

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