Fight against COVID — get vaccinated

I was truly disheartened last week to read in the Seattle Times that our 98022 Enumclaw ZIP code area has one of the lowest rates of COVID vaccinations in King County: 52.9 percent.

This is extremely concerning since 97 percent of the virus has now been spreading more readily among those who are still unvaccinated, according to Seattle-King County’s chief health officer. It’s no longer just the elderly who are vulnerable, new variants are showing up in unvaccinated children and young adults also.

My family (we have stayed well and been fully vaccinated) has been impacted by COVID over the past year and a half. In early 2020, one of our friends died from the virus in Arizona (his family survived but were very ill) and in early 2021 another friend died of the virus in Florida. But, more recently, we had a friend in Maple Valley who contracted the virus before she was eligible to get vaccinated – she ended up hospitalized, on a ventilator, and almost died even with the latest medical treatment. She’s home now but is on oxygen and very weak.

This is a serious health issue; a matter of life or death in many cases. Early in the pandemic Enumclaw had the stigma of having one of the highest rates of local nursing care COVID outbreaks, second to Kirkland. Now we have the stigma of being one of King County’s most poorly vaccinated communities. We can do better than this and we must!

My parents were part of the “greatest generation” who volunteered to protect our country during World War II. My mother was an Army nurse and my father was an Army medic. I can just picture how cowardly they’d find citizens today who refuse to volunteer to protect their families and their neighbors by refusing to get vaccinated. This is a global war, if you will, against a malicious COVID enemy and we as a community need to step up!

Local websites show that Walgreens has COVID shots available by appointment; so does St. Elizabeth Hospital. I hope our local politicians are getting behind the effort to make our community safe from this awful virus. Perhaps, in addition to a COVID testing site, they could sponsor COVID vaccination sites or events. If nothing else, maybe the monetary incentives being offered by the state of Washington, etc. will get our residents moving to the goal line.

Please get vaccinated Enumclaw – let’s help win this war!

Donna Smith

Enumclaw