Get your vaccine and the care you need | Letter to the editor

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Basic public health measures have played a role in stopping pandemics for centuries. The Black Plague killed more than 25 million people, 30 to 50 percent of people on the European continent, between 1346-1353.

It probably ended because people quarantined themselves, just like many did during the influenza pandemic of 1918/19. 

Unfortunately, that one first killed 36 million people, or 2 percent of the world’s 1.8 billion population. Fortunately, the flu vaccine now also plays a major role in curbing deaths each year.

In the 1940s and 50s, polio killed or paralyzed over 500,000 people each year worldwide. When Jonas Salk developed the first polio vaccine in 1955, it changed everything. Though there were still more than 500,000 cases worldwide in 1980, this year there have only been two cases so far - one in Pakistan and one in Afghanistan. This remarkable achievement is the collaborative work of WHO, Rotary International, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and many others. We could eradicate polio THIS YEAR.

We could also end the COVID-19 pandemic this year, but it will take continued public health measures and more people getting vaccinated.  It has infected more than 145 million people worldwide so far, and killed more than 3 million. More than 570,000 of our family members, friends and neighbors have died in the U.S. alone.

We have plenty of safe vaccines now. Fully 75 percent of the staff at Jefferson Healthcare is vaccinated. I just had a Mohs procedure for an invasive skin cancer on top of my head, and I felt perfectly safe. It could have been much worse had I waited to get care. 

So please, get your vaccine and get the care you need now.

Note: This letter does not necessarily represent the views of the Board of Health or Public Hospital District Board on which I serve.

Kees Kolff
PORT TOWNSEND