The Toronto Star has presented many articles spelling out the sordid facts around our front line heroes on the frontmost of front lines, the PSWs in long term care homes. Thanks to the diligent reportage by Star journalists, we know those workers are mostly racialized recent immigrants working multiple part-time jobs to make ends meet.
These are the folks who are gonna be wiping your ass and washing your balls when you can't take care of yourself anymore. They typically make a wage that leaves them well below the poverty line. We should be very very kind to them.
We also know that vaccine hesitation is more pronounced in communities of colour, and the Toronto Star has provided us with extensive coverage of this topic. BIPOC communities have long suffered from systemic racism, and therefore don't trust the health care system.
Today, the Toronto Star published this letter, titled by an editor, or an unpaid intern standing in for an editor, "Care workers refusing vaccine should be unemployed."
Shouldn't my expectation to be cared for by a fully vaccinated health team supersede their baseless fear of vaccination? I believe their choice of whether to vaccinate or not ought to be replaced with the choice of whether to keep their jobs or not.
The author's name would suggest they are not a recent immigrant, and I strongly suspect they've not worked anywhere near the front lines.
There's quite a few strands you could pull together in analysing why the Star would publish a letter that suggests we fire racialized recent immigrants in essential health-care positions because they are vaccine hesitant.
I don't want to stir up a conspiracy theory, but do you think this could be a first glimpse of the new owners of the Toronto Star flexing their muscles?
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