Misleading anti-vaccination letter not from my office, says northern B.C. MLA

Dan Davies, the MLA for Peace River North, says neither he nor his office have anything to do with a misleading anti-vaccination letter circulating around the community that has his constituency office address on it. 

Davies, who lives in Fort St. John, says he feels "betrayed" by the incident.

"Never in my 16 years of elected time have I ever seen [something like this]. But I've never seen an issue like this either, we're all in a new world dealing with an ever-changing pandemic that has beaten a lot of us up," Davies told host Sarah Penton on CBC's Radio West. 

Davies first heard of the letter — a five-page double side pamphlet — from a friend, according to whom the letter was being circulated to a group of doctors at a clinic. Davies is asking anyone else who received such a letter to report it to his office. 

Davies has been a vocal supporter of vaccination efforts in northeastern B.C., a place which has seen low vaccination rates and soaring COVID-19 numbers. Since Sept. 7, the region has had stricter restrictions because of the high number of cases. 

"Where we're sitting right now in the northeast, and Fort St. John specifically, our hospital — pardon the pun — it's on life support itself," he said. 

"It's short-staffed. It's overrun with COVID patients. Incidentally almost 100 per cent of those patients are unvaccinated. We don't need this information out there stirring the pot, adding more hesitancy to it." 

In Peace River North, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, 64 per cent of eligible people age 12 and up have had their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 53 per cent have had their second dose as of Tuesday.

In comparison, 87.8 per cent of those 12 and older in B.C. have received their first dose and 80.6 per cent have received their second dose. 

"We need to get the facts out there," said Davies. "We need to make people understand that we have to do our part and get vaccinated. It's for our loved ones. It's for our community and it's to make sure that our hospital continues to operate."