Masks, Vaccinations
Dear Editor: Seeing the COVID case numbers again alarmingly rising in Sitka, and this country, after a concerted national effort by authorities to get every eligible American vaccinated, many of us ask why this is happening.
And, many of us liken this fight against the ravages of COVID to a war. When Pearl Harbor was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941, a war already raged in Europe – a war the U.S. had taken little to no part in, although much help had been requested. The attack on Pearl Harbor can be likened to COVID’s attack: the Japanese attack came out of nowhere, and the U.S. had to scramble to fight back against its enemies.
And we ARE at war – against a virus that has killed approximately 609,000 Americans. The global death toll currently stands at 4 million. Despite these numbers, we have approximately 40 million Americans who still refuse to get vaccinated, a large number of them believing the lies the Trump Republican Party and his cronies continue to spread in the news, even from some Christian pulpits.
There are many Sitkans who, because of their ages, or their health conditions, cannot take the vaccine. There are also too many in this community, and in this country, who choose not to wear masks unless they are asked to. Will it actually become necessary to have workers stop each of us before we can enter a store or restaurant or school to verify our vaccine status? Or how long will we have to require everyone, regardless of age, to wear masks again, both indoors and out, to protect one another?
Sadly, as long as we have community members who refuse to help this town/state/country get rid of this deadly COVID virus by getting vaccinated AND wearing masks as a matter of course, IF they are able, we will continue to lose this very real and deadly WORLD war. And it is a long way till next summer.
A friend of mine down south asked her deacon how we can overcome the doubt, the lies being shared about COVID, about this pandemic, to get people to at least wear masks and to get vaccinated and his response? “Perhaps we should remind them of one of the most basic of Christian tenets: ‘Be kind to your neighbors.’” I learned this in Sunday School many decades ago. When did you?
G. Hammons, Sitka
