Sacrifices needed to fight COVID

Concerning the December 24 letter from Michael A. Judd (“What will history say?”):

Mr. Judd indicates the damage the COVID-19 virus lockdown has caused to our economy and the curtailment of civil liberties.

To date over 20 million Americans have been infected with COVID-19, and almost 400,000 have died. Mr. Judd indicated that the lockdown has caused many businesses to permanently close, resulting in millions of Americans to be unemployed.

Historically the wearing of masks and quarantining has proven to be an effective method to minimize the spread of viruses. Also, at the outset of COVID-19, President Trump indicated the virus was just a Democratic hoax. Trump disregarded the warnings of his medical and scientific people and held political rallies where attendees were not required to wear masks or maintain social distances becoming super-spreaders of COVID-19. Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has stated that had the federal government acted earlier many U.S. pandemic casualties could have been avoided.

Dr. Fauci warned that the tens of millions of Americans flying during the holidays would become super-spreaders of COVID-19. Vaccines have been developed that will significantly reduce the spread of COVID-19.

The above sacrifices are required to halt the spread of COVID-19. We have been fortunate that it has been one hundred years since the last global pandemic. The pandemic that hit Europe in 1348 killed one-third to one-half of Europeans in less than 2 years.

Mark Johnson

Nine Mile Falls