A little perspective on the vaccine

More than 10 times as many Americans have died from COVID-19, in 20 months, than died over 10 years in the Vietnam war. (58,202 Americans died in Vietnam and 626,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 … so far)

In World War II Americans were asked to make sacrifices to help the war effort. Some of these sacrifices included war rations of food, automobiles, tires, gasoline, fuel oil, firewood, nylon, silk, and shoes to name a few. Other sacrifices included asking stay-at-home mothers to leave home and take jobs in factories building airplanes and other essentials for our troops.

At the time, people did not complain about their freedoms being infringed upon. Sacrifices were made to support the war effort and to save American lives.

After 9/11 our country came together. For months you could not buy a flag because they were sold out. We were not Republicans or Democrats, Southern conservatives or urban liberals, we were Americans.

Please, let’s come together as we have in the past and make sacrifices in order to save American lives. First, get the vaccine as soon as possible. Second, if wearing a mask can help reduce the spread of the virus in crowded spaces, even a little, let’s make the sacrifice and wear a mask. It is worth it in order to save American lives.

— Mike Schultz, Chico