Letter to the editor: Covid is what 'ruins lives'

I have seen many dumb statements made on this page, but the letter by Michael Arnone is quite possibly the winner (“Don’t worry about the unvaxxed,” Dec. 2, TribLIVE). He says vaccine mandates are “ruining people’s lives” and that, since the vaccine works, the vaccinated shouldn’t care if others get the same protection.

Mr. Arnone, very possibly it will be covid that will be the ruin of your life, and by refusing the vaccine, you are ruining the lives of others. Have you heard of breakthrough infections or herd immunity? The vaccine isn’t perfect, but if enough take it, it will lead to herd immunity.

The omicron variant is now upon us, and more than ever, we all need to work together. Covid has already killed nearly 800,000 Americans; the vaccine has killed none. So what’s your problem? Donald Trump? He’s a charlatan, not a doctor, and he told you more than 35,000 verified lies in the four years of his presidency, so why would you believe his nonsense about covid? If you broke your leg, would you go to Trump for the fix? He even suggested you inject poison, among other bogus cures he was peddling. And I would bet that if you actually got covid, you would go to a real doctor.

We are in a war, and the experts are saying the fix is easy. If it weren’t for stubborn people who think they know better, we might have been past this pandemic by now.

Wear a mask and get vaccinated. It’s your civic duty. Please don’t act stupid.

Fred Durig

Delmont