No privacy issue
Dear Editor:
RE: Rights eroded, July 30.
I read with interest the letter from the lady who was asked for contact information when in a restaurant.
Her comment that the government is using COVID-19 to further invade our rights and protections is baseless. For one thing, the government already has the information that the restaurant owner requested. If you pay your taxes, they have your name, address, phone number and email. If you order a pizza they have your phone number and email. If you order anything online, they also have this info. So tell me where the invasion of privacy lies.
The owner indicated the information would be used to inform them if there was a case of COVID at the restaurant which would then enable them to take the appropriate measures to protect their health and the health of anyone they might come in contact with.
People who consider this an invasion should simply stay home where they also don’t need to wear a mask. We are fortunate to live in a country where most of the population takes the preventative measures outlined by our health experts and passed to the citizens seriously.
That’s why many states in the U.S. have more cases and deaths than our whole country. There are always some who don’t see the big picture. This insidious virus will be with us for some time.
The better we take care of ourselves and consider how our actions may affect others, the sooner it will recede.
Terry Filce,
Belwood
Work together
Dear Editor:
RE: Rights eroded, July 30.
It is unfortunate that Doreen Henschel feels that her rights are being eroded because of a government-mandated directive to collect the names and phone number of people dining at restaurants in the current pandemic so that contact tracing can be done if someone else at the restaurant tests positive.
In order to make a reservation at a restaurant you have to give them your name and phone number; to submit a letter to this newspaper you have to supply your personal information. Can we assume that she does not mind supplying her information in those situations?
This has been an extremely difficult time for everyone; lives have been disrupted, people have lost their income.
Restaurants, bars, pubs, etc. are trying to get back on their feet. Let’s do our part and cooperate instead of thinking there is something nefarious about giving your name and phone number. Anyone can find us regardless.
Let’s try and get out of this as soon as possible by working together.
Jane Cullen,
Rockwood
Nuclear waste concerns
Dear Editor:
RE: Hiding it not the answer, July 23.
Michelle Stein talked about the Deep Geological Repository (DGR) that will store high levels of nuclear waste (NW) under the Teeswater River.
Nuclear Waste Management of Ontario (NWMO) said South Bruce (SB) is a willing host and has purchased farmland at the site. However, the people of SB are against the DGR as their lives will be permanently changed without their consent.
Those making the decision to dig the DGR will not be living near it and local businesses will be affected, including Gay Lea whose milk comes from farms built on or near the DGR. Even Chapman’s Ice Cream in Markdale has expressed concerns because a portion of their milk comes from Gay Lea.
A referendum will allow the residents of SB to decide whether or not they want the DGR, like the Saugeen Ojibway Nation voted against the DGR for low/intermediate levels of NW.
Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) are located in Ontario (Darlington/Pickering/Tiverton), Quebec and New Brunswick. Every day for decades, high levels of NW will travel from NPPs through Toronto-Orangeville-Guelph-Rockwood-Fergus-Elora-Arthur-Harriston-Clifford-Gorrie-Wroxeter-Wingham-Belmore-Mildmay and Formosa before being stored in the Teeswater DGR.
Although the NWMO assures that the containers with secure lid locks will withstand accidents from traffic or winter weather (SB has frequent blizzards), is it possible that these less than perfect conditions could weaken the containers? Would it make more sense for each NPP to bury their NW underneath their plant, keeping it localized and away from endangering the public through transportation?
Ideally, researching ways to removing the radiation from NW seems more favorable than burying it.
The DGR affects everyone, however, SB seems to be fighting this on their own. We can write our government leaders and raise public awareness to help stop the DGR. For more information visit protectsouthbruce-nodgr.org.
Carol O’Neil,
Fergus
Mail thief
Dear Editor:
To the person who stole from the 2nd Line mailbox near Ariss on July 29 between 6 and 9pm.
I just wanted to assure you of the distress, upset and unnecessary waste of time you caused by your decision to steal a dog’s blood sample from my mailbox as it waited for lab courier pickup.
After you took it and realized it was of no value to you, you threw it from your car two miles down the road, where it spent the night in less than ideal conditions and was thus compromised. I thank you for at least leaving it visible at the edge of the ditch after my two-hour search the next morning.
I don’t know if you are an overzealous Geo Cacher, but I have a newsflash for you. Mailboxes are off limits! Mailbox theft is a crime.
Perhaps you have been infected by COVID-19. If so, it has clearly gone to the small amount of grey matter that you were originally given or perhaps you are just a self-centered, immature shmuck and always have been.
I don’t expect you will ever read this, if in fact reading is even one of your skillsets, but know there is a thing called karma and it is real.
Dr. Karen Bentley,
Ariss
Erin blood clinics
Dear Editor:
On behalf of Canadian Blood Services, I’d like to take this opportunity to provide an update on our blood donation events in Erin.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been suspending whole blood collections at select mobile and fixed donor sites to address the immediate needs for blood and platelet collections.
Some venues are better able than others to accommodate physical distancing requirements and many fixed donor centres, like the ones in nearby Guelph and Mississauga will see expanded hours for donors.
Changes to where we hold donation events are allowing us to host larger events in fewer locations and make the best possible use of public funds. After careful review and consideration, we have made the difficult decision to suspend donation events in Erin.
Donation opportunities will continue to be offered at fixed and mobile donor centres in neighbouring communities, including Orangeville, Acton, Georgetown, Fergus, Guelph and Mississauga.
We are deeply grateful to donors in Erin for their commitment and encourage them to continue contributing to Canada’s Lifeline.
We have been blessed with the support of the Erin Legion, which has hosted our events over the years. We wouldn’t have a clinic without a venue, so our thanks go out to them! We also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge our dedicated volunteer team led by Dr. Duncan Bull, a champion of our organization for some 33 years, along with members of the local Optimist Club and Masonic Lodge, who have doted over our donors ensuring they had a wonderful donation experience.
Our goal is always to ensure all donors continue to receive the best possible experience every time they donate. There are no changes to how hospitals and other centres will receive blood and blood products – including plasma and plasma protein and related products.
Canadian patients will continue to receive the blood products they need, where and when they need them.
To book an appointment for any upcoming donation event, download the GiveBlood app available for iOS on the App Store or for Android on Google Play, call 1-888-2-DONATE (1-888-236-6283) or visit blood.ca.
In Wellington County, there will be a donation event at the Fergus sportsplex from 2:30 to 7:30pm on Aug. 27.
Together, we are Canada’s Lifeline. Thank you for being the reason – the connection – that keeps Canada’s Lifeline going.
Elaine StPierre,
Territory manager,
Donor relations, Canadian Blood Services
Reads reports, papers
Dear Editor:
RE: Vitamin supplementation, and Vouching for vitamins, July 23 and 30.
Regarding John Scott’s letter to the editor in the July 30 Advertiser, I too take exception to the editor’s note regarding dismissal of the benefits of Vitamin D related to COVID-19. Searching mainstream sites, one of the benefits of Vitamin D is that it improves lung health. Respiratory failure is one symptom of COVID-19 so why would Vitamin D not be of value?
Louis Pasteur believed that disease arises from microorganisms outside of the body. He believed that to prevent disease we have to “build defenses”. Pharmaceutical companies today believe in a magic bullet.
Claude Bernard and later Antoine Bechamp believed the “terrain” or “internal environment” determined our state of health. Healthy terrain could handle various pathogenic microorganisms that are thrown its way. Bernard and Bechamp, and their followers to present day, believe that disease occurs to a large extent as a function of biology when metabolic processes become imbalanced. Germs are symptoms of a weak terrain. That terrain needs to be built up through nutrition, detoxification, and maintaining a proper pH balance.
Bechamp believed that to prevent disease we have to create health. This was nearly 200 years ago and scientists now know we all live within a “biome” and that science is psychoneuroimmunology.
We have more than ten times the bacteria, fungus, viruses, yeast and other microscopic creatures living in and around our bodies at all times. That 90% of our DNA isn’t really ours.
In his last remaining years Pasteur recanted his entire life work by stating “the microbe is nothing; the milieu is everything”. He conceded that Bechamp was correct in what he theorized.
Like you, I read many scientific reports and papers to form an opinion. I ask myself these questions to decide what science to trust.
1) Who stands to make trillions of dollars off the backs of healthy, or otherwise, people using taxpayer’s dollars to cover the cost of their “magic bullets” without any financial responsibility?
2) Who loses their reputation, life work research and are labeled as charlatans for being a whistle blower in reporting their truth?
Joyce Sloat,
Alma