March 28, 2024
Letters to the Editor | Bureau County Republican


Letters to the Editor

'Our actions can have unforeseen and unintended consequences'

I feel we need to take a moment as a community to refocus. We need to acknowledge the
increase in cases, hospitalizations and deaths from this virus and understand that things will
continue to worsen before they get better.

The colder weather will limit our ability to socially distance outdoors; driving people inside where there are more likely to pass the virus to others, often without realizing they are infecting friends and family. This virus does not care about your intentions, your political leanings, where you work or what your future plans may be.

It has impacted our daily lives and will continue to do so for months to come. For those of you still saying this is just “a bad flu” I would like to remind you that one year ago we basically told people to wash their hands and cough into their elbows to reduce the risk of spreading germs such as influenza.

Per CDC estimates for the past 10 years, influenza has been attributed to an average of approximately 36,000 deaths per year in the U.S. As for COVID, despite all that we have done to try to fight this virus we have lost >240,000 Americans already this year.

Since medical school I have cared for a handful patients sick enough to be hospitalized for influenza, but that number is small compared to the number of hospitalized COVID patients I have had in the past three months alone.

It is true that most people have a few mild symptoms or maybe even none if they are lucky. But I have seen the worst of this virus and it is heartbreaking to watch these people struggle with this disease, even more so because their families cannot be there with them, even at the end.

We were never going to stop this virus, but the recommendations are in place to slow the spread, to flatten the curve, to buy time until a vaccine is widely available. Wearing a mask will not prevent the spread of this virus 100%, but it can help to slow the spread. Just as a bulletproof vest does not prevent every gunshot wound, our police officers would still wear one in the appropriate setting. Please wear a mask. It is not a political statement and politics should never have been injected into this conversation.

We must keep in mind that our actions can have unforeseen and unintended consequences. Just
because you are at a lower risk of complications doesn't meant that you can't be an asymptomatic carrier who passes it to a loved one who is at higher risk, or passes it to a coworker who then brings it home to someone who does not fare so well with the illness.

These are difficult times we are in and this is not meant to frighten people into staying locked up
all winter, but we must consider the effects we can have on others in our community. It is the older portion of our population that does the worst, but just because they've spent more years on this Earth doesn't mean we should write them off for the sake of convenience and a quicker return to our normal lives. These are moms and dads, aunts, uncles, and grandparents that we are trying to prevent from coming into contact with this virus.

Lastly, I hope a safe and effective vaccine comes along shortly and that people will trust the science enough to utilize it so that we can return to normal. In the meantime, I hope we can realize that we are all in this together, struggling in our own ways. We can still safely support our local businesses. We can still reach out friends and family to make sure they are surviving as best they can. We can make it through this as a community, even if it's not the 2020 we hoped it
would be.

Chris Blanford M.D.

Princeton.