THE BOTTOM RAIL

by: Verbal Shredwright

Hurry up and rush to open schools, restaurants and everything! Maybe we should ask who is in a hurry and why? And while we're at it let's be honest… after all it's not many people who can get time on TV or have their op ed published in the local papers. Popular restaurant owners and local politicians must balance foregoing profits in favor of public safety. People on all sides are frustrated by the seemingly endless lack of clarity. So why are some opinions amplified and others considered inferior or irrelevant? It seems we have good questions that deserve answers before our leaders or businesses do more unintentional harm to our communities or economies.

Have you heard? Some are already discussing visas and foreign workers before communities have even got their schools open, vulnerable populations vaccinated and local workforce restored. This is both a disturbing and revealing statement about the priorities of some politicians and businesses in our mountain communities. This is just a bad idea all the way around to put forward when tourists and travelers cannot travel freely and safely yet. Even the idea of prioritizing foreign workers for testing and vaccines before visitors and local residents will only lead to frustration and outrage across already frustrated resort communities. It is simply putting the cart in front of the horse at this point of the pandemic.

At the same time discussions to re-open schools seem to focus on the loudest and angriest voices not the basic science regarding the complete lack of any approved vaccines for children under 17 as of this article. So it's great news teachers moved up on the priority list, but the families of teachers, staff and the students still go largely unprotected. One suggestion is to do vaccines on a school by school basis… including the students, staff and their families. The idea here would be to help re-open schools one at a time or on a district by district basis as individually vaccinated cohorts. Then perhaps healthcare, pharmacies and other vaccine outlets can address gaps in vulnerable sub groups, since many mountain and rural counties already have smaller populations making this very realistic and doable.

Last but not least is more science called math. The groups with the highest death rates are clearly those in group homes and those with preexisting and underlying conditions. Seniors, minority groups, people with disabilities are often at higher incidence of these same high risk factors. Healthcare providers should be able to contact existing patients with preexisting and underlying conditions and their households to accelerate distribution to the most at-risk populations. By protecting the most vulnerable we can reduce the number of hospitalizations and deaths in turn re-assuring the community while re-opening more parts of the economy with greater confidence.

Finally, it is important to remember why it is called a global pandemic… maybe because you're not in it alone or the only one who wants life to return to something resembling normal sooner than later… so be patient, be kind and do your part so we can all get there together.