The December 5, front page featured three stories that were basically the same story: Covid 19.

Our county has lost years of expertise and dedication to the health and well being of the citizens of Grays Harbor with the resignation of Public Health Director Karolyn Holden. I suspect frustration with the attitude of some of our citizens has something to do with that decision, if my frustration with people who refuse to wear masks in public spaces is any indication.

New cases of Covid continue to climb as new outbreaks come to the surface complicating the job of mitigating new infections, according to the county’s Incident Manager Johnson. Johnson notes that the people in these clusters may not be forthcoming about all their contacts. Why wouldn’t a person want to prevent their friends, family and neighbors from being exposed to Covid?

And then there is the article on some of the economic impacts on businesses in the county that helps explain what we are up against. Why Shaver would attack the governor for keeping the citizens of Washington safe is beyond me. Does he think Inslee, who is following the lead of professionals who know what they are doing, is just randomly attacking bowling alleys? What part of lethal air borne pathogen do Murin, Shaver and Doolittle not get? Of course there is no warning when you are responding to real time, unpredictable human and pathogenic behavior.

Millions of people in this state and this country are suffering because of the pandemic. Children are going hungry, we are about to go off an eviction cliff, and bodies are stacked up in refrigerated trucks because Covid is the leading cause of death (yes, beating cancer, accidents and heart attacks, go unicellular team!) in this country. And still I see people maskless in public.

Two incidents from history are illustrative of what we need to know about pandemics. Typhoid Mary was the true founder of American public health policy because nearly everyone finally understood what damage one infected person can do. The Plague of Justinian in the 6th century, when the Emperor decided commerce was more important than citizens’ health and safety, caused societal breakdowns that lasted decades in Europe.

Yes, our current situation is just miserable. Get over it. Do what is right.

Diane Wolfe

Hoquiam