SooToday received the following letter from reader Abigail Obenchain in regard to wearing a mask and getting vaccinated this cold/flu season.
I am writing this letter to beg my fellow Saultites to please wear a mask when in public indoor spaces and to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu.
If you are one who denies COVID exists or is serious, you need to know that the healthcare system in Ontario is collapsing. We are feeling it less here in the Sault than in some other parts of the province, but make no mistake about it, the system is under unprecedented pressure.
Children especially are at risk. Hospitals across Ontario (and all of North America) are buckling under a deluge of children seriously ill with various respiratory viruses.
The Ottawa Citizen recently reported that the pediatric intensive care unit at the children's hospital in Ottawa is now at 186% capacity, with many surgeries being cancelled. And it’s not even winter yet.
If you won’t wear a mask or get vaccinated against COVID or the flu for yourself, do it for a kid waiting for cancer surgery. Or a senior whose loved ones would like them to be around a bit longer. Or a person with a compromised immune system. Or someone who’s been waiting months for a knee replacement.
Do it for our exhausted nurses and other healthcare workers. Canada has a dire shortage of nurses. The least we can do for the remaining ones who working so hard to keep the system afloat is take every possible precaution to reduce pressure on hospitals.
By wearing a mask and getting vaccinated, you place another brick in the wall of protection around our healthcare system; those who need surgery and other life-saving treatments or are immunocompromised; and our community as a whole.
Please help keep this wall strong for all of us. We are at our best as a community when we care for others. And right now, the healthcare system desperately needs our care and concern.
Sincerely,
Abigail Obenchain, Sault Ste. Marie