Canadian Politics Today

O’Toole would rather prisoners spread COVID to the community than they get the vaccine if they’re deemed to be high risk spreaders.

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2021/01/06/Opposing-Prisoner-Vaccination-Erin-O-Toole-Unmasked/

The federal government’s COVID-19 vaccination effort includes a plan to immunize high-risk prisoners in federal prisons — people who are old or sick. The initial wave of vaccinations will reach 600 inmates, about four per cent of the prison population.

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O’Toole was predictably outraged, and equally predictably took to Twitter.

“Not one criminal should be vaccinated ahead of any vulnerable Canadian or frontline health worker,” he harrumphed.

In one sentence, O’Toole evoked both the callousness of the Stephen Harper government and its unwillingness to leave such decisions to experts who actually make them based on evidence, rather than political calculation.

In this case, public health officials looked at the evidence and decided that, based on the goals of saving lives and preventing the spread of COVID-19, some prisoners should be included in early vaccination efforts.

That’s not surprising. Prisons are crowded, inmates and guards are in close proximity around the clock, and many inmates are unhealthy.

O’Toole’s position is, basically, tough. If they die, they die.

The problem with the Conservative’s stance on this is that ignores all science and advice from medical experts on the best way to stop the spread of COVID in favour of feeding their “tough-on-crime” base.