Dear editor:

Remember someone repeating COVID, COVID, COVID over and over again?

Now Premier Doug Ford and other premiers keep saying vaccine, vaccine, vaccine! And Ford wants a specific delivery date.

If he wants to deliver something, let him start with long-term care homes giving caregivers full employment, working in one specific place instead of working in different centres to make a living wage, adequate protective clothing and equipment, sick leave benefits, weekly testing of residents and staff to those he calls our heroes.

These also include people working in grocery stores.

As to the vaccine, I’d rather wait and see what will be happening to those who receive it, maybe as early as mid-December.

I’m really tired of hearing the media ask when the vaccine is going to be ready.

When it arrives, it should be first given to the people who are the most vulnerable, the elderly and the caregivers (doctors, nurses, people working in hospitals and in long-term care homes) and essential workers.

Not to be too cynical is Ford’s rush for a vaccine a way to circumvent what is needed in long-term care homes? Why not start preparing now for the next pandemic?

I also find inconsistencies in the premier’s decision to keep open revenue-generating government agencies, such as the LCBO, and big box stores while closing small businesses and restaurants.

Gilbert Comeault 
NOTL