Snowbirds Must Pay The Price For Their Selfishness

 

Like the majority of Canadians, my wife and I have taken all the precautions we can during this long season of Covid-19. We have not seen our son and daughter-in-law, who live out West, for over a year. Our daughter and her husband we have only seen outside the house, observing physical distancing. We shop for groceries once every two weeks in a large store, double-masking the whole time. 

None of these measures are pleasant, but they are wholly necessary if we are ever to come to grips with this pernicious virus.

Others feel differently, gathering willy-nilly as the spirit moves them, be it through gatherings of extended families, parties, or the other myriad circumstances in which close contact inevitably occurs. 

As a senior, for me the most egregious violation of the spirit of the precautions come from the snowbirds who have willfully chosen to ignore safety and gone on their annual hegiras to Florida, Arizona, etc., their compelling reasons including how hard the Canadian winter can be, their joints need the respite warm weather offers, etc. ad nauseam. For them I feel no sympathy; indeed, contempt might be a better description of my sentiment.

And their plaints, when something goes wrong, ring hollow in my ears. There is, for example, the recent case of a Nova Scotia couple who sojourned to Florida, where things quickly turned horrible awry:

A Kings County couple are facing hefty medical bills after they both became ill with COVID-19 while in Florida. Debbie Mailman of Aylesford says she and her husband, Wayne, travel annually to Florida for six months of the year because their arthritis, muscular issues, fibromyalgia and other existing conditions would leave them in in pain if they stayed in the cold Canadian winter. “If we stayed home we'd be in agony all the time,” she said. “We just come here for the warm weather.”

Their quest for respite didn't go exactly as planned, They quickly fell ill from Covid, resulting in hospitalization that will cost more than $300,000 for her husband's treatment and an unknown amount for hers. 

Clearly, I am not the only one who feels ill-disposed toward selfish indulgences. The following letters from Star readers, reproduced from both the online and print edition, reflect this fact: (I had some formatting problems here, so please forgive the inconsistencies.)

I do not feel one ounce of pity for Canadians who left Canada and have returned, or will be returning, and face a substantial cost to quarantine.

We have been advised for months not to travel. These people are just self-centred and selfish to think only about what they want. The COVID-19 virus and its variants got to this country by travellers, no other way.

Susan Magill, Gravenhurst, Ont.

 

Snowbirds must face consequences of selfishness

• Toronto Star
• 8 Feb 2021

Re Peeved Canadian snowbirds devising plans to avoid hotel-quarantine ‘jail’, Feb. 4

 

Snowbirds and other Canadians who travelled abroad deserve no sympathy.

 

One traveller mentions being punished for wanting to see the sun. Well, there are many Canadians who would also like to see the sun and close family they haven’t seen for a year and thankfully most of them are respecting the travel advisory and staying home. So no sympathy for those who confuse wants with needs.

Another traveller mentions that New Zealand made an exception to their strict quarantine rules for those who travelled before the new rules came into effect. Well, Canada has had a travel advisory since last spring and those who travelled chose to ignore the rules so, again, no sympathy here.

          A snowbird mentions that the quarantine hotels will be a financial hardship. Well, I’m sure that              Canadians who are struggling financially will be very understanding of those “poor” Canadians              stuck in their second home in the sunny U.S. Snowbirds are rightly facing the consequence of                having ignored the travel advisory that has been around since last spring.

          Claude Gannon, Markham

Re Peeved Canadian snowbirds devising plans to avoid hotel-quarantine ‘jail’, Feb. 4

As snowbirds with a Florida home, we chose to stay in Canada this winter.

          I have no sympathy for those who decided to travel during this worldwide pandemic and now                  may have to pay for a hotel stay on their return to Canada. I know teenagers with more common            sense than some of the seniors interviewed for this article.

 Giving up a winter in the sun is not the worst thing that could happen to a person. We have seen a lot of changes in travel restrictions during the pandemic and should be aware, after having seen what happened in the early months with people on cruises who became ill and had difficulty returning home, that nothing is guaranteed. Also, even though seniors are able to get travel insurance, they are in a group that is often hospitalized with age-related illness. Again, with hospitals full of people suffering from COVID-19 in the U.S., getting the needed health care could be a major problem.

I would hope common sense could make a comeback in our senior population.

 

Edith Ross, Thornhill