Last year I penned an opinion piece asking my fellow Bermudians to turn down the volume a bit and take some of the toxicity away from the discourse.

As we start 2022, I would like to echo these same sentiments.

Clearly, we are still in the midst of what feels like an unending pandemic, and while progress has been made with regard to vaccines and treatment of illness, we still must be careful of our exposure to large gatherings.

The Omicron variant, while it does not appear as lethal, is wreaking havoc with the staffing levels of many companies and institutions, both locally and abroad. As a government and as a community, we must all find a way to protect the public health of Bermuda, while trying to ensure the continuity of business and education is maintained.

This is not an easy balancing job for anyone in the decision-making positions, including business executives, elected officials, civil servants and consultants.

Unfortunately, the past few weeks have not been without their challenges and lessons have been learnt in how to constantly adapt. We are grateful for all those who have improvised to overcome.

We won’t all agree with every or any decision made; however, there is no need for the vile comments that have permeated our social media lately. The comments sections of nearly any post are extremely nasty, negative and personal.

Most people wonder why the moderators continuously allow these comments to permeate our society.

Bermuda, your government is here to lead through this pandemic. We are doing the best we can with the resources we have amid a fluid landscape. Please let's try to use 2022 to move our country forward together, rather than using the keyboard power we think we have to go after hard-working civil servants and our fellow Bermudians.

• Jason Wade is a government backbencher and the MP for Southampton East Central (Constituency 30)