Letter: Set example to stop COVID

Science has given us many effective vaccines — smallpox, polio, measles, tetanus, etc. Since the introduction of germ theory, we’ve invented better masks and proven that their use prevents infection.

We now have the tools to control the spread of COVID-19 and reduce it to a nuisance rather than a public health threat. The weak link in the chain is our behavior.

What do we risk by our present behavior? Excess deaths, adverse long-term health effects, the generation of more dangerous variants and the suspension of the economic recovery we seek. And yet we do not have the political guts to do what is required to change this aberrant behavior.

I do not want to be treated at a health care facility by an unvaccinated professional who, by definition, does not believe in modern medicine.

Nick Rolovich, the football coach at Washington State, has refused to be vaccinated. We are investing $2.9 million a year in someone who displays the ultimate in irresponsibility to his young players. Alumni and state officials, show your investment in our community by applying the pressure to be rid of him. The balance of his contract, $9.3 million, is a fraction of the damage he will cause by his appalling example.

Local, state and U.S. politicians, school boards, health care administrators and businesses: Pandemic management is not a popularity contest. Do your job.