What’s it going to take for the Tri-Cities to beat this virus?

What’s it going to take to beat this virus? It seems to me that this is a three-fold question.

Or is it a challenge?

Today, Franklin and Benton counties have the worst vaccination rates in Washington State. Why? About a third of us took the advice of public health and medical professionals, donned a mask, and got in line to be vaccinated. Research tells us that another third is “hesitant” for a variety of reasons, some of which make sense even to the already vaccinated. But too many of those reasons are based on what people hear from social media’s conspiracy mongers.

The other third? The folks who simply dug in and refused to participate in the pandemic that has already killed more than 600,000 Americans. If that many people refuse to be vaccinated, herd immunity to protect the rest of us may be out of reach.

What is it going to take to beat the virus?

First, we should take a lesson from the past. I’m old enough to remember panic in our neighborhood when parents learned that a kid in the local swimming pool had come down with polio. I also remember how the whole country rallied to help the March of Dimes pay for the vaccine, covering block-long strips of masking tape with dimes. The last domestic polio infection in the United States occurred over forty years ago.

We have a safe and effective vaccine based on research that has been underway for more than a decade. Operation Warp Speed kicked that work into high gear and vaccines began going into arms early this year.

The second answer to the challenge involves us. You and me. Our families and friends. Our co-workers and our communities. Are we willing to do the things that we know will help keep everyone safe from a deadly virus? Wear a mask in public places? Willingly? Stay home if you’re sick? Get tested if you’ve been exposed? Accept the extremely low risk of getting vaccinated?

An unfortunate third possibility is that we won’t meet that challenge. COVID’s Delta variant is ravaging our communities. And why? Because too many of us are unwilling or unable to get vaccinated or even wear a mask in public. That presents an existential crisis. Our hospitals have already had to divert critically ill patients to hospitals out of the area. Intensive Care Units are at capacity. Our nurses, doctors, and other health care professionals are burning out at an alarming rate.

This week the Columbia Basin Badger Club will present a special, timely forum, “A Pandemic of the Unvaccinated” that will give our audience a chance to hear directly from an infectious disease doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital.

He is Dr. David Roach, a member of Pasco’s prominent Roach family. Dr. Roach has treated hundreds of Covid patients and is in the battle every day in one of the world’s top learning medical centers. He will talk with host Jim Hall, who will also pose questions from the audience during the hour-long Badger Forum this Thursday, August 26, beginning at 1:30 p.m. The later start time is to respect Dr. Roach’s work schedule. Register at www.columbiabasinbadgers.com. It’s free to members, $5 for non-members.