A mere eight days after John Rustad, likely the next premier of B.C., made an election promise to rescind B.C.’s vaccine mandate public health order (PHO) — signed by the public’s hero-turned-villain Dr. Bonnie Henry — Dr. Henry herself rescinded it.  

It was naked political calculus by the provincial health officer.

Her initial order was not about public protection — not for more than two years. It was illiberal, intrusive and unnecessary. It was about control and conformity — and punishing health-care workers who challenged the ethics of being coerced into taking a vaccine. The order’s pretext of “public protection” crumbled in the spring of 2022, if not months earlier, when it became obvious that COVID vaccines did not stop the spread of the virus to anywhere near the degree promised. It was nonsense that the order still existed until July 26, 2024, and everyone in B.C. is paying the price in the form of severe nursing shortages.