In June, more than nine out of 10 Americans COVID-19 deaths were unvaccinated. People are still dying in our country at rate of almost 90,000 per year. Get vaccinated at your local pharmacy. Even if you don’t die from COVID, you may lose your sense of taste and smell. That is life changing. Don’t risk it, get vaccinated!

In Maryland, unvaccinated people were all of the reported coronavirus deaths last month, and most new cases and hospitalizations, States with below-average vaccination rates have almost triple the rate of new Covid-19 cases compared to states with above-average vaccination rates (data from Johns Hopkins University).

Locally, Essex County COVID cases are spiking with 2.7% positive.

Vaccines are effective. Period. Unfortunately, vaccinations, like mask usage, have become politicized. There is a tremendous amount of misinformation, especially on social media, about the effectiveness and supposed dangers of the vaccines.

Misinformation on vaccines is being spread. Per The Guardian, “The vast majority of COVID-19 anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories originated from just 12 people, a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a UK-US non-profit and non-governmental organization, …. these 12 online personalities they dubbed the “disinformation dozen” have a combined following of 59 million people across multiple social media platforms, ….. CCDH analyzed 812,000 Facebook posts and tweets and found 65% came from the disinformation dozen. … On Facebook, the dozen is responsible for 73% of all anti-vaccine content.”

Vaccines approved for use in the U.S. are safe and effective. You may still contract COVID after having been vaccinated, but the severity of the disease will be significantly diminished. The vaccines are about 95% effective. That means that without the vaccine you are 20 times more likely to contract the disease, have more severe symptoms, and possibly die. And, the more people not vaccinated, the more likely you are to be exposed to the disease.

While the number of cases is increasing in all 50 states, the most concerning outbreaks continue to occur in areas with low vaccination rates, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, said at a news conference Friday. “This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Walensky added. Jeff Zients, the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, said four states accounted for more than 40% of all new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. last week, with 1 in 5 cases occurring Florida.

North Country vaccination rate is still low. Please get vaccinated!

The national COVID-19 new cases per day is back where it was two months ago, 30,000 per day. And they are increasing faster than they decreased.

The New York state positive rate is higher now than anytime last summer!

Rich Shapiro lives in Saranac Lake.