Lives hinge on vaccinations

This letter is a plea to everyone in Saskatchewan who has not been vaccinated against COVID -19 to please get the shot. Let's end this pandemic and get back to some type of normal. I understand that a small percentage of you cannot get vaccinated, such as for a medical reason. This letter is for everyone else.

Our province is in serious trouble. We're hitting the kind of COVID -19 records we don't want. Please get vaccinated to protect yourself and your family. Even if you survived the virus, you could end up suffering from “Long COVID” symptoms.

It's increasingly troubling to hear about COVID-19 tragedies that are preventable: People fighting for their lives in hospital, apologizing to their families for putting off vaccination; frightened patients who realize they're actually going to die of and leave family members to cope without them; unvaccinated parents who wind up hospitalized along with their children; young adults dying in the prime of life, unvaccinated.

Nineteen months into this tragedy, the fact that there are still so many unvaccinated people in our province is causing unnecessary suffering and death. In the end, don't we all want the same thing? Fewer people getting sick or dying? A return to normal, less stressful times? The pandemic no longer dominating our lives?

Vaccination is your opportunity to help us get there sooner. Your life — and the lives of the people you love — may well depend on it. Therese Jelinski, Saskatoon