Community health is everyone’s responsibility. Have you done your part?
In-person events, from concerts to art shows to the upcoming Souhegan Lions Club Peanut Butter Chip Chase in Temple on New Year’s Day are coming back.
Students are in school. Businesses are open.
Yes, vaccines and masks are recommended or required in some places – and plenty of people wear masks because it makes them more comfortable. But, all in all, compared to last year and the early part of 2021, going out and doing things seems much less worrisome.
However, even as that is happening, Dr. Daniel Perli of Monadnock Community Hospital says the hospital is seeing more COVID patients than any other point in the pandemic, to the point where the lack of beds is forcing transfers of critically ill patients to Connecticut, Vermont and Massachusetts.
And not only is the hospital seeing more patients, they’re sicker, and more young people need care for COVID symptoms. All of this, even before we know what affect the Omicron variant will have.
With people feeling safe to engage in more activities even as cases and hospitalizations rise, it is more and more clear that while masks, social distancing and testing are important, if we’re going to get out of the current surge and resume making progress, vaccines are the key.
Vaccines are why organizations are willing to host live events again, and why it’s safer to attend.
Vaccines are also what is keeping the current surge from being worse. Perli explains that most of the hospitalized patients are unvaccinated, that vaccinated patients have milder symptoms and shorter stays and that from what he has seen, boosters have prevented hospitalization altogether.
Vaccines are safe, effective, free and available. Jaffrey Public Library is hosting a clinic Dec. 9 from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. New Ipswich Family Medicine is doing the same Dec. 11 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. People can get vaccinated at local drugstores.
The more people who get vaccinated, the better chance everyone has to avoid COVID, or avoid serious symptoms and death if they are infected.
Vaccines won’t just help us stay alive; they’ll help us live.