Pitting us against each other

I am so over Shawn Vestal (“We shouldn’t need vaccine mandates, but we do,” Oct. 6) and his ilk disparaging firefighters/ EMTs/ nurses who have all worked on the front lines since the beginning of this pandemic, who knowingly and willingly worked for months when there wasn’t a vaccine even available, doing their job being face to face with hundreds of COVID positive patients.

I work in conjunction with an emergency department in town, and have witnessed time and again EMTs who have brought in patients from the most squalid of conditions, with their full PPE on, not knowing if they are in direct contact with a COVID-positive patient or not. For Shawn Vestal in his sanctimonious self-righteousness to say these are “supposed” public servants doing backflips to avoid taking responsibility for public well-being when they are ALL meeting their responsibility and desire to take care of the most downtrodden and sick, is disgusting.

I can’t think of a better way to increase vaccination rates than by belittling and demonizing those who have personal and, in their view, very legitimate reasons to forgo the mandate (natural immunity, anyone? Get out of here with that crazy talk. One of our top ER docs is leaving even though he just got through COVID but still has to get vaccinated or else. Have fun on your next six-hour ER visit).

Hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but the fantasy of zero COVID has left the station, and all the mandates in the world isn’t going to make it so. Pitting neighbor against neighbor, haves against have-nots, is a story that will not end well.

Kevin Healam

Spokane