Two adds, one depicting a man and the other a woman, defaced by printig
Health

Anti-vax graffiti in Cortes Island newspapers

Someone has been defacing pro-COVID vaccine adds inside copies of the Campbell River Mirror distributed on Cortes Island. 

When Tom Bohart picked up a copy of the February 1st edition at Mansons Landing, he saw the endorsement on page A 26, where Dr Titus Wong said ‘There are people who are vulnerable. Help protect them from serious illness by getting a booster.’ Someone had taken a felt pen and wrote ‘Lies + propaganda! They cause harm + death’ across the add. Returning out of curiosity the next day, Bohart found a similar defacement in the first paper he checked.  

This week he took a paper from the Squirrel Cove General Store. Opening to page A4, he saw where Dr. Danièle Behn Smith stated, ‘the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the risks.’ The anonymous scribbler wrote ‘Propaganda +Lies.’ 

In all cases the comments were made with a felt pen and a large ‘X’ was left on the face of the doctor endorsing vaccinations. 

Mission accomplished, the anonymous grafitti protester left their handiwork for neighbours to pick up. Aside from the satisfaction of having not been caught, it is not known what the perpetrator hoped to accomplish.

Bohart sent scans of both defaced adds to Cortes Currents. 

According to the World Health Organization, COVID was responsible for 6.8 million deaths. 1.1 million of these were in the United States. In Canada, which took a more precautionary approach, there were 50,629.

British Columbia COVID-19 Dashboard , as of Feb 9, 2023

The British Columbia COVID-19 Dashboard states that, as of Feb 4, 2023, 656 of those deaths were on Vancouver Island. Six of them occurred in the preceding week.

It has been more than two years since the only known COVID related death on Cortes Island. 

There are people who dispute these facts.

The authors of a peer-reviewed report from the Royal Society of Canada are among them. They suggest that as a result of limited testing and poor cause of death data, the number of COVID related deaths during the early days of the pandemic could be twice as high as reported. 

Another study, released by the Council of Canadian Academies, suggests that 2,800 Canadians may have lost their lives because of misinformation spread by the anti-vax movement during the first nine months that vaccinations were made available. An estimated 2.35 million Canadians were not vaccinated because they believed COVID-19 was either a hoax, or reports were exaggerated. 

Click on this image to access the study

The tide has changed. More than 85% of British Columbia is fully vaccinated and close to 95% have received at least one dose. 

Finding their voices largely marginalized, one anti-vax protester has resorted to defacing the pro-vaccine adds in their neighbour’s newspapers.

Top image credit: Scans of the defaced Pro-COVID vaccine adds from the Feb 1 (l) and Feb 8 editions of the Campbell River Mirror – courtesy Tom Bohart

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