Writer responds to critic

Re. Victoria Napora’s letter Stats show a different story (Castanet, Jan 3)

I cannot let Victoria Napora's letter go unanswered.

She seems to think she is writing some sort of rebuttal to my letter, but then goes on to supply her own figures which essentially confirm my own.

What I find annoying is she accuses me of being "pliable" with the figures, despite the fact that they were taken directly from the CDC website. Is she telling us that they are inaccurate in some way, and how does she know?

Her own figures from Statscan include the period for 2021 when the earlier variants were much more virulent and death rates were higher. In addition many people in that year didn't receive any vaccine until the middle of the year, so clearly the rate of death amongst the unvaccinated would appear higher. Now who's being pliable with their statistics?

She also accuses me of being an anti-vaxxer. I have stated here before that anyone who wants the vaccine and believes it is doing them good, should absolutely be getting vaccinated.

What I am against is government coercion, forcing people to inject a drug that was only approved for emergency use and was rushed through clinical trials, the findings from which have since remained the property of the pharmaceutical companies, and are not subject to public scrutiny.

Finally she tells me that, having read my letter, I can't know anyone who has died from COVID. She then uses this completely false assumption to tell me I am “reprehensible.” I look forward to Castanet publishing her apology in due course.

Peter Emery, Kelowna