Another tragic COVID loss

My heart goes out to the family of Sen. Doug Eriksen. What a tragedy to die at such an early age. He worked hard to protect his followers’ freedom to infect, as you pointed out in the Dec 19th article: “Ericksen fought, through protest and legislation, Inslee’s orders and mandates, intended to fight the spread of the virus.”

He, unfortunately, succumbed to his own ignorance and folly. We know that the pandemic continues to take its devastating toll because people refuse to get vaccinated and refuse to wear masks indoors, in public. Omicron is now spreading even faster than the Delta variant.

In counties where people trust Republican leaders and believe that Americans should have the freedom to infect those around them, they are dying at a rate 50% higher than counties that take the pandemic seriously. (“The two halves of the pandemic,” Philip Bump, Dec 1).

My hope is that people learn from this tragedy and begin to trust experts who know what they are talking about. How many more hundreds of thousands of Americans have to die from this virus before people will get vaccinated and wear a mask?

Justin StormoGipson

Newman Lake