Protect yourself

Thu., Sept. 2, 2021

Aug. 25 you reported that our hospitals “are dangerously close to crisis standards of care.” Despite our hospitals’ dire situation, I was appalled to visit a large medical clinic in Coeur d’Alene today, where not a single staff member was wearing a mask.

Before you visit your medical, dental, veterinary or other provider, call their office to be sure that all staff are required to be vaccinated AND wear masks. Being vaccinated, alone isn’t enough. Vaccination will prevent you from getting seriously ill, but you can still transmit COVID to the rest of us, even if you are asymptomatic.

This crisis is an unforced error. Being vaccinated and masking would have completely prevented the situation we now find ourselves in.

How many more of us need to die before people open their eyes?

Justin StormoGipson, M.D.

Newman Lake

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