ABOUT SINGER JASON ISBELL’S MESSAGE TO FANS

Four-time Grammy Award-winner Jason Isbell is requiring concertgoers to show proof of vaccinations or negative COVID-19 tests to get into his shows. And if the venue doesn’t adhere to those requirements, he said he plans on canceling the engagement. True to his word, he canceled a concert in Houston this week when the venue balked.

“I’m not saying anybody has to get a vaccine or a negative test, but if you don’t, you don’t get to come to the show,’’ he said during an interview on MSNBC this week. “I think that makes sense.”

Like Isbell, we wish more Americans would get vaccinated. And we cheer that Isbell is modeling behavior and communicating the importance of vaccinations for anyone who shares public spaces

— a message that too many Americans haven’t taken to heart. …

We wish to remind everyone who is on the fence to note that despite being developed in record time, the vaccines have been tested, millions of people have been vaccinated, side effects are extremely rare and credible medical sources can answer lingering questions a person might have about the vaccine. …

We also know that more than 500,000 people in the United States died before the vaccines were readily available, deaths are over 600,000 now and that the current surge of the virus is overwhelmingly among people who haven’t been vaccinated.

But we’ll let Isbell have the final words: “I’m all for freedom but I think if you’re dead, you don’t have any freedoms at all.”

Dallas Morning News Editorial Board