Don Pelton

As someone who is a member of at least four demographic groups associated with a higher risk of death from Corona virus, I’m distressed to live in the least vaccine-compliant county in California.

The scientific understanding of the Corona virus is changing rapidly, and the degree of vaccine compliance required to achieve herd immunity is still among the uncertainties. However, if COVID-19 is anything like measles, it could take approximately 95% compliance to achieve herd immunity. While the anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers may be an ignorant fringe, if they comprise anything above 5% they could confound herd immunity. This is a very distressing undemocratic fact of nature, and helps explain the rapid increase in the incidence of measles in Nevada County a few years ago.

Despite much virtue signaling by local anti-vaxers-maskers, based on their supposed fidelity to some notion of personal freedom and principle, their so-called principles amount to nothing more than selfish rationalization, rather like the Londoner during the Blitz in WWII who asserted his inherent right to keep his lights on during a blackout. Rarely has the assertion of an individual “right” been more blatantly hostile to the health and well-being of the whole community — it’s right to live and survive —  than in the case of these anti-vaxxer-maskers. It’s not too far-fetched to blame the current national resurgence of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths on these same anti-maskers, beginning with the ignorant Anti-Masker-in-Chief.

Until this sort of anti-science ignorance disappears from the world, and especially from positions of leadership, I’m hunkering down permanently.