A new series of ads on a digital billboard in West Kelowna are turning heads.
The ads from vaccine-skeptic group Vaccine Choice Canada display a series of messages that are likely not all that unfamiliar to anyone who has spent any time on social media over the past six months.
“COVID. Is the cure worse than the illness?”
“Masks. Distancing. Lockdowns. Are they working?”
The ads direct people to Vaccine Choice Canada’s website, where the safety of vaccines is questioned, despite a decades-old global scientific consensus that has determined them safe.
The group has recently been campaigning against the possibility of a mandatory COVID-19 vaccine, but why would it be funding ads questioning masks and physical distancing — basic tools health officials have been preaching to fight the pandemic — is not clear, but anti-vaccination signs have been a common sight at protests over COVID-19 restrictions.
The group’s Okanagan chapters in Vernon and Lake Country and national headquarters did not respond to requests for comment Friday.
The billboard hosting the ad is owned by Mountain Media, which owns several billboards throughout the Okanagan.
A statement on the Mountain Media’s website says “all content and copy must be approved in advance… We reserve the right to remove any offensive advertising at our sole discretion.”
A sales representative with Mountain Media deferred comment to company owner Jim Wannop, who did not respond to an email from Castanet including questions on the company’s decision to approve the ads.
Some supporters of Vaccine Choice Canada themselves voiced their surprise that the ads were approved when the group shared photos of them on Facebook.
“I’m surprised they let you do that!” said a comment under the Facebook post.
Facebook itself last month banned ads worldwide that discourage people from getting vaccines.
As COVID-19 case counts climb steadily in B.C. and around the world, health officials say a vaccine remains the only hope for a return to normality. But convincing all Canadians get vaccinated appears to be an impossibility.
A poll last month from Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies found that 17 per cent of Canadians will not take a vaccine while another 20 per cent were not sure. Sixty-three per cent said they would.
In a statement Friday, Interior Health said it hopes the public “will rely on trusted and accurate public health information, such as that provided regularly by Dr. Bonnie Henry, Interior Health medical health officers and the BC Centre for Disease Control.”
Dr. Henry said last week there is now an “expectation” that people wear face coverings while in indoor public spaces like grocery stores.
The CDC is urging the public to wash their hands often, avoid close contact with others, cover coughs and sneezes, clean and disinfect and monitor yourself for symptoms.
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