Keep up the fight against COVID

It has been a tough year for so many Americans. Many have stayed close to home. 561,000 people have died of COVID. To date 130 mass shootings in 29 states including Washington have occurred. People are going hungr y, have lost their jobs and homes. The rise in COVID cases among people under 65 is rising.

There is some good news. The COVID infections, severe illness, hospitalization, and death in people over 65 has decreased. Now it is the younger generation’s turn to step up to the plate and roll up their sleeves. It is time to think about what getting the COVID vaccine can do. It is time to think about others and being part of helping stop the spread of COVID. It is about morality and doing one to others as you would want them to do for you.

In my work as a case investigator for COVID it seems to me that too many of the young people I speak to are confused. They mistake early COVID symptoms as allergies and avoid being tested. Even if they decide to get tested instead of waiting for the results, they visit friends, family or go to restaurants. Young people are gathering in groups and, it seems, feel invincible.

It must stop. I know people are exhausted though that is not an excuse to get complacent. Masks are necessar y and need to be worn. Social distancing is imperative. Washing your hands frequently is necessar y. It is our duty as a nation to come together and help one another and to stop being the selfish and divided nation that we have become.

To do the moral and right thing. promised many times while campaigning. Our continued presence in Afghanistan is not making us safer. In fact, prolonging it makes us a target and keeps our troops in harm’s way unnecessarily.

Withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan will give our diplomats a chance to do the hard work of building a peace agreement, rather than continuing with a failed strategy that not even top generals themselves believe in.