Vaccines No Longer Carry Political Risk
To the Editor:
Both rural low population density Fayetteville and small town Columbus, as well as big cities like conservative Fort Worth, are now suffering from an unusually high spike in Covid-19 cases that are probably the more contagious Delta variant. That Delta variant has primarily infected the unvaccinated but also the vaccinated with the latter suffering only mild cases for now. This is grave cause for concern because it should be clear to you by now that our county and state officials and right wing media are responsible for failing to encourage at least 75% of all of the people of Texas, including Fayette County, (which equates to at least to all adults and not just the elderly) to take both doses of either the free Moderna or Pfizer vaccines (the latter vaccine now available at any CVS without an appointment for children ages 12 and above).
That failure of Republican leadership at all levels of government is allowing the now far more contagious mutation of the virus to continue to repeatedly mutate each time it spreads. Those mutations will continue to mutate if we continue to fail to vaccinate up to at least those 75% levels needed to attain herd immunity.
If such failure of Republican leadership in our Counties and State continues, soon our children under the age of 12, who do not have the option to vaccinate, may needlessly suffer and as those mutations progress even die at greater rates along with our lives and livelihoods needlessly damaged again but this time for years to come. Soon the vaccines that God blessed America with may no longer be effective against these mutations because of such failure to vaccinate.
What proactive and repeated public actions do you plan to take to get at least 75% of the people of Fayette County to take those two doses now?
Even Sean Hannity of Fox Cable News, who for more than a year collaborated with Donald Trump (who was secretly vaccinated before leaving the White House) in lying to the American people about the seriousness of the pandemic, is now encouraging all Americans to vaccinate and so there should be little political risk to you in proactively and repeatedly and publicly (and humbly) encouraging all the people of Fayette County to vaccinate before it is too late.
John W. Mikus
Fayetteville