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Letter to the editor: 68-year-old letter writer should think about the smallpox pandemic

Ted Woodson
Breckenridge

 

Patrick Dolan says everybody should listen to both sides in this issue. I don’t want to prevent him from expressing his opinion, but I will point out where he is wrong. He says that masks do no good. Masks do work. When they are not used, COVID-19 rates soar. He also employs right-wing rhetoric when he says that he should not take a vaccine that might harm him. While there are side effects to some people, the three major vaccines are safe.

Now, Dolan, do one thing: Check either your right or left shoulder. You will find a small scar from the smallpox vaccine given to you at the age of 1 or 2. Prior to its eradication in the 1960s, the disease killed hundreds of thousand of people every year. It took the lives of children at a higher rate than adults. Those patients who survived sometimes had permanent scars. Many were permanently blind. So governments worldwide mandated the use of the vaccine. And the last case was over 30 years ago.

We are now facing both a national and worldwide emergency with almost 700,000 deaths here and over 3 million globally.



So you and the rest of the “open now” protesters do what we have to do to beat this thing. By summer, we could find a majority of Americans vaccinated and our country totally reopened.


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