B.C. health officials have, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, cited “privacy concerns” as why they haven’t released more data to the public. It took around nine months just to get them to release weekly case numbers for individual cities.
Which is why it was so wild today (Thursday) to see the B.C. Government Twitter account asked people to inadvertently narc on their friends and family who haven’t had their first dose of the vaccine.
“BC is among those leading the world with over 75% of people 12+ vaccinated with dose 1,” read the tweet. “Thank you! Next, let's get to 80%! Tag a friend or family member who still needs their first dose and help them register here: gov.bc.ca/GetVaccinated.”
Tagging, of course, would reveal people’s private information which *checks notes* violates their privacy.
The responses were immediate and now the tweet has been deleted.
Meanwhile, provincial health officer Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix have credited B.C.'s vaccination campaign for driving down the number of those actively infected.
In the past day, health officials have provided 81,934 doses of vaccine, with 11,820 of those going to unvaccinated people.
A record 70,114 doses went to individuals as needed second doses.
In total, since the first dose in B.C. was provided on December 16, B.C. has administered 4,652,087 doses of vaccine to 3,530,063 people, with 1,122,024 of those getting needed second doses.
Henry and Dix's math holds that this is 77.5% of all B.C. adults, and 76% of all British Columbians aged at least 12 years.
They added that 25.9% of all adults in B.C., and 24.2% of those aged 12 years and old, have received their second dose.
"Getting vaccinated is your ticket to travel and safe social connections," Henry and Dix said in a joint statement. "It is also our shared path to putting COVID-19 behind us as soon as possible."
- With additional reporting by Glen Korstrom, Glacier Media
