PD Editorial: Listen to the doctors, and get vaccinated

California’s latest COVID crisis is in some of the state’s most rural counties, where the delta variant and vaccine hesitancy crossed paths to overwhelm hospitals and mortuaries.

The deteriorating situation is tragic. Worse, it was avoidable.

Some of the strongest opposition to wearing masks and other public health directives has been in places like Shasta and Placer counties, which are now among nine Northern California counties experiencing more COVID hospitalizations than at any other time during the 18-month pandemic.

Many of the same overburdened counties also rank near the bottom for vaccinations, which offer the best defense for individuals and communities alike.

This week, 66 physicians and other health care workers in Mendocino County signed an open letter pleading with their patients — their neighbors — to protect themselves from the coronavirus.

“Never before have we seen such a surge of sick, young patients with COVID-19, and never before has our medical system faced such a challenge,” they wrote. “We can all do our part in this dire situation by getting vaccinated.”

With a population of 86,000, Mendocino County is averaging almost four dozen new cases each day. Emergency rooms and intensive care units at the three local hospitals are overwhelmed. “We struggle to find hospital beds even for the patients who are coming to the emergency department with strokes, heart attacks, or appendicitis.”

It’s the same story elsewhere in rural California.

In Crescent City, the Los Angeles Times reported, the mortuary brought in a refrigerated truck when it ran out of room for bodies. Helicopters are flying COVID patients to other counties — if hospital beds can be found — and state health officials dispatched doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists to help overwhelmed hospital staff, some of whom have contracted the virus themselves.

In Del Norte County, just 36.2% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated. The statewide average is 56.7%.

At 54.7%, Mendocino County is only slightly below average. But the highly transmissible delta variant is running rampant among the unvaccinated population — in Mendocino County, and elsewhere, limiting the resources available to help small rural counties that have limited health care options in the best of times.

There are breakthrough infections among the tens of millions of Americans who have been vaccinated, but only a tiny fraction result in hospitalization or death. Most vaccinated people who contract COVID suffer minor symptoms and recover quickly.

The development of effective coronavirus vaccines is among the most remarkable scientific breakthroughs. Ever. The first injections were delivered less than a year after the initial report of a virulent new respiratory infection. Previously, the quickest development of a vaccine — for mumps — took four years.

Unfortunately, misinformation continues to run rampant, including conspiracy theories about vaccines and a variety of kooky “cures.” The most recent is a veterinary drug used to treat parasites in livestock. If you want to stay healthy and end the pandemic, tune out the nonsense. Listen to North Coast physicians working to keep their communities safe:

“The data and the science are clear: the vaccine is safe and highly effective in preventing severe COVID-19 illness and COVID-related deaths. We are vaccinated. Getting vaccinated will not only protect you, but will also keep your loved ones and your community safe and out of the hospital.”

You can send letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com.