It will take the work of all of us to see COVID truly end

When you are out in public, you get the feeling that the pandemic is about over. You see fewer masks and schools are starting to relax their mask regulations. I wish it was true, but unfortunately it is not over.

Experts say that despite the decreases in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths since the summer, the pandemic isn’t behind us, and we need to learn to live with COVID-19.

The state of Kentucky has gone past the halfway mark with 51.1 percent fully vaccinated. Here in the tri-county area the report is not as good.

Whitley County leads the way in full vaccinations with 40.2 percent. Laurel County has 37.18 percent of its people fully vaccinated and Knox County has 32.78 percent.

So, no matter how comfortable you feel when you are out in public you can see that we have not taken the necessary steps to wipe out the COVID virus.

According to Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, “The pandemic phase may be ending and the new endemic phase beginning. COVID may well settle in, smoldering along at two levels, higher in less-vaccinated states, lower in well-vaccinated states. Local outbreaks or bursts of transmission could occur sporadically.”

We fit into the less vaccinated category and that is why this area will be more likely to have an outbreak of COVID.

“With luck and at my most optimistic, we might be beyond the pandemic phase of COVID-19 as early as this winter,” Schaffner said. “Much depends upon how rapidly the last vaccine holdouts accept vaccination and how quickly we can vaccinate children.” The vaccination of children is crucial and it will have a major impact.

Nationwide more than 193 million people have been vaccinated. Also, 67 percent of the total U.S. population has received at least one dose. More than 80 percent of the country’s adult population has received at least one dose. More than 97 percent of people 65 years and older have received at least one dose.

I, for one, have never understood why everybody didn’t jump at the chance to get vaccinated. To help answer this I read a post by Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky. He had posted a blog by Melissa Patrick of Kentucky Health News.

In it she quotes state Health Commissioner Steven Stack who said, if you are trying to persuade someone to get a Covid-19 vaccine, it’s important to come from a place of “mutual regard and respect.”

He said that misinformation is a big obstacle to vaccination and the most important thing we can do is to “unplug” from social media.

He said that getting more Kentuckians vaccinated requires more than presenting just the science.

“If we don’t find a way to meet folks in a place where they feel respected and treated with dignity and regard, it just feels like someone from a distance is lecturing to them and telling them what they must do,” and he said, “that doesn’t work.”

It is very difficult to convince the unvaccinated to get the shot. When the leading infectious disease specialist said that the vaccination would reduce your risk of infection and reduce your risk of hospitalization and death by an even greater degree, that is all it took for me to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

And then you have famous ball players like Aaron Rodgers and Kyrie Irving disregarding the safety of their teammates by not getting vaccinated, which makes it harder to understand. Over 753,000 people in the United States have lost their lives to this virus. It will take the work of all of us to see COVID truly end. Vaccinations are the key to making it happen.