I was disappointed to see Dr. Allison Berry’s allegation that the mask honor system failed and that unvaccinated are responsible for the current outbreak.
Unvaccinated individuals are more likely to contract COVID-19 and have serious complications, but vaccinated people are still a source of infection, e.g. Texas Democrats and Australian socialite Anthony Hess.
We are seeing a significant increase in breakthrough infections in places that have high vaccination rates, mask mandates and social controls in place.
In Singapore, which uses the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine, 75 percent of new cases are in fully vaccinated individuals.
Israel has a 50 percent breakthrough rate, and the UK has a 40 percent rate.
It is hard to determine the number of breakthrough cases in the U.S. because the CDC stopped separately tracking non-severe COVID cases in fully vaccinated individuals back in May.
Instead of trying to increase vaccination rates by stoking an indiscriminate condemnation of all unvaccinated people, including those unvaccinated for medical reasons, shouldn’t we focus on promoting benefits of vaccinations, like lower risks of complications?
Over the past year, as a community we listened and complied with all that was asked of us: we forced our parents and grandparents to live and die in isolation, kept our children out of school, put off regular health care screenings, shut down for two weeks, over a year, to flatten the curve, wore masks, social distanced, and we did it all not only for ourselves, but for each other.
Now is not time to sow hatred and discord.
K. Adams
Port Angeles