Our public health officer, Dr. Allison Berry, spoke the truth in lamenting the one million people who have died from COVID-19, by far the highest death toll of any country in the world.
Said Dr. Berry in comments reported by the PDN May 17, “So many of those deaths were preventable.”
The Kaiser Family Foundation released an estimate April 21 that well over 234,000 deaths could have been prevented if the U.S. had vaccinated our entire adult population.
What happened?
President Donald Trump chose to politicize COVID-19, turn it into a viciously partisan issue.
Trump sneered at Dr. Anthony Fauci, told a White House briefing that COVID-19 was like a cold, could be cured with a swig of Lysol.
QAnon whipped up fear, spread lies and disinformation.
The anti-vaxxer movement spread like wildfire in Republican strongholds like Idaho, Mississippi, Florida and Texas.
In Clallam County, anti-vaxxer cultists telephoned threats to terrorize Dr. Berry.
We should all honor her for refusing to bow to this domestic terrorism.
As surely as that crazed racist gunman murdered 10 African Americans in Buffalo, so COVID-19 inflicted death on Black and Latino people at twice the rate of whites.
Politicians responsible for our woefully low rate of vaccinations nationwide should be tried for criminal negligence and put in jail.
The best choice we have is to vote them out of office Nov. 8.
Elect political leaders who will fix our broken health system by approving Medicare for All.
Tim Wheeler
Sequim