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As we near the end of August, we also near the 18-month mark of learning to live with the ongoing impacts of COVID-19. A familiar phrase I continue to hear throughout our community is “Are we still dealing with COVID?” Sadly, we are.

Three COVID vaccines have been available for many months, and Moffat County’s vaccine acceptance has lagged far behind other parts of Colorado. Our infection rates have remained high since the beginning of summer, and we still see the life-threatening effects of this disease nearly every day. I hope you’ll take the time to read through this newsletter, including the interview with Denise Huff, one of our nurses who’s been caring for COVID-positive patients.

I also want to share with you what I shared with staff earlier in the month. Each week, I send out an “Administration Topic of the Week.” On August 6, I shared with the staff a story about Ben Franklin and vaccines. I got a lot of feedback from staff, and several encouraged me to send it to a broader audience. So, I leave this with you:

Benjamin Franklin was unarguably one of our greatest founding fathers whose written works helped form the constitution of the United States as ratified in 1781. He was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, America’s governing body before the War of Independence. He was part of the five-member committee that helped draft even our very own Declaration of Independence.

More than 200 years after his death in 1790, Franklin remains one of the most celebrated figures in U.S. history. His image appears on the $100 bill, and towns, schools and businesses across America are named for him. Pretty impressive.

Yeah, so what? 

You may not know that Benjamin Franklin was initially suspicious of these new things called vaccines. Enter smallpox, a virus that is all but eradicated because of vaccines. Most people with smallpox recovered, but about three out of every 10 people with the disease died. Many smallpox survivors had permanent scars over large areas of their bodies, especially their faces. Some were left blind.

Unfortunately for Benjamin Franklin, he chose not to vaccinate his son, who died in 1736.  Quoting straight from Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, he writes:

“In 1736, I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of 4 years old, by the smallpox taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of the parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.”

Benjamin Franklin regretted that decision for the rest of his life.

I submit to you that personal decisions in medicine would be easy if they consisted of a pure black and white choice: take treatment and you will live; don’t and you will die. Just like now with the Delta Variant of COVID, that choice certainly is not black and white.

But what do we know?

• We know that those who are vaccinated against COVID-19 are less likely than those without a vaccine to get sick.
• We know that those without a vaccine who get sick are more likely to die than those with a vaccine.
• We know that even those with the COVID-19 vaccine who have a “breakthrough” case of the Delta Variant are more likely than those without a vaccine of having a mild case of COVID, much less chance of hospitalization and an even smaller chance of death.
• We know that the vaccine is safe and seems to do what it was intended to do effectively.

If there was no risk of contracting COVID, then “doing nothing” makes sense. Inoculation became an appropriate option when the COVID vaccine became available.

What’s the Bottom-Line Message?

You have the least likely chance of getting sick with COVID-19 and dying of COVID if you get a vaccine. You have the least likely chance of getting severely sick with the Delta Variant and dying if you get a vaccine.

Take a page from Ben Franklin, and do not be sorry later and regret something simple you can do today. Please consider getting a COVID vaccine today, if only for your family and loved ones.

Sincerely,
Andrew J. Daniels, MHA, FACHE
Chief Executive Officer