Vaccines Work, Delta Is Bad, Vaccinate the County

To the Santa Barbara County Supervisors:

I am a voter in District 2. I am writing to you as a private citizen and not on behalf of any organizations or institutions that I am affiliated with. I have not had the opportunity to attend the county supervisor meetings, as I have been working in the ER.

I am an emergency physician in our Santa Barbara community. I, along with so many others, have been in the trenches over the COVID19 pandemic. We have seen so many people from our community fall ill with COVID. I have put too many people on mechanical ventilators.

Please. We are exhausted. The vaccines work. They prevent hospitalizations and decrease transmission. The vaccines are safe. The vaccines are FDA approved and have held up to the rigorous scrutiny of science.

The Delta variant is far more contagious and impacts younger people with more ferocity. The Delta variant is bad. Please listen to scientists, health-care workers, and public health experts. We do not want another surge.

We have seen the impact radical individualism has on public health, fueled by misinformation, and the fear and anger of a crisis. Passively encouraging best practice behaviors has failed (look at Texas and Florida); in times of crisis it must be mandated.

We participate in the social contract. This is the worst pandemic in 100 years. If people are going to serve our community working for the county, the very government that protects our health and safety, they must be vaccinated.

History has its eyes on you. Do not cash in on the illusion of liberty for a body count. We in health care do not want another overwhelming surge of COVID that can be prevented with your leadership. Vote to mandate vaccines for county employees. Vote to keep our Santa Barbara healthy and safe.

I shouldn’t even have to plead with you to do this. Go where the numbers take you. Follow the science. Keep our community alive and healthy. You can deal with their misinformed anger later. Help us keep people out of our hospital.