Simple precautions can save us from COVID-19 heartbreak

With the pandemic touching every part of our lives, COVID-19 has turned us into fearful and angry things. Me? I’m just terrified for my mother, in critical condition following complications from coronavirus. Twice she came so close to death that my own heart stopped.

My entire family contracted COVID-19. Three weeks in, none of us is fully well. My hair is falling out and my legs sometimes refuse to hold me up. I’m 38 and healthy, but COVID-19 laid me flat. This is not the flu or a hoax. As a PH.D. candidate, I’ve tried my hardest to understand those who reject mitigation measures, but I’m at a loss.

I understand that people are suffering economically and therefore willing to accept high risk individuals as acceptable sacrifices in the name of returning to a strong economy. But why is my mother’s life worth less just because she’s vulnerable? A retired social worker who has served those most at risk faithfully for four decades, why is her community unwilling to do something so simple as wear a mask for her?

The lives of people with disabilities and disease are not worth less, and we should not be so ready to sacrifice them. So many continue to reject science’s best advice that we’re now seeing our steepest increase in cases to date. As a result, Adena Regional Medical Center has disallowed visitors, and I cannot comfort my mother.

I beg you: Protect your families from a similar fate. Wear a mask, wash your hands and for the love of God, practice social distancing.

Sarah Senff, Chillicothe

Don’t stick Ohioans with fruits of corruption: Repeal HB 6

Regarding Gov. Mike Dewine’s reaction to House Speaker Larry Householder’s arrest (“Gov. Mike Dewine won’t support HB6 repeal efforts despite bribery case,” Dispatch.com, Wednesday): I urge the governor and members of the Ohio House and Senate to repeal House Bill 6 as a result of Householder’s arrest for corruption. The people of Ohio do not deserve to pay for corporate malfeasance with unethical politicians.

I am disgusted with the comments from Ohio Republican officeholders about the “sad day for Ohio” as a result of Householder’s corrupt actions and the exposure of his bribery scheme with Firstenergy Corporation. If Ohio Republicans are serious about restoring trust with Ohio voters, they must support an effort to repeal HB 6.

Definitely now, no good reasons exist to take money from Ohio taxpayers to bail out Firstenergy’s aging nuclear and coal-fired power plants. I become even more angry when I am reminded that the efforts to repeal HB 6 by referendum were derailed by outrageous television commercials arguing that HB 6 would prevent the Chinese from taking over the American power grid.

I am extremely tired of political corruption in Ohio. I am fed up with big corporations trying to insult my intelligence.

Paul Burnam, Westerville