Government has no right to prevent businesses from doing their best

I'm beginning chemotherapy this month at Bonner General. I'm vaccinated, but chemo is known to impair the immune system. My chemotherapy will be delivered in a room with half a dozen or more other patients over a period of four-and-a-half months, each time for five hours. I will not know whether the other patients or the nurses and staff are vaccinated or not. I don't know whether they are even tested for COVID.

I'm scared.

Information is just beginning to be available about the spread of the new variant. Cases are starting to spike again in Idaho, and it seems not enough people are wearing masks, social distancing and getting vaccinated. It will likely get worse while I am still in treatment. We may need to have vaccine boosters, but they aren't available yet, and may not help people receiving chemo.

Health care facilities can only function safely if their employees are vaccinated. But right now Idaho Legislators are pressuring those businesses to relax preventative measures, especially vaccinations.

I hope that people around me protect me, protect all of us. We aren't at war with the virus. We are learning to live with it. It will probably not go away — it took 200 years for the small pox vaccine to eradicate the disease, and then only because individuals and groups of people made sure as many people as possible could get it — around the world.

And we're not at war with each other. There are no armies to belong to: the mythical one that wants to make everybody take vaccine, and the equally mythical one that doesn't want anybody to take it. There's just us trying to figure it out. We are all relying on our healthcare organizations to help.

I'm glad I'm fully vaccinated. Back in January, I had no warning that my own health situation would change in June, making me so vulnerable. How many of us will be surprised by the spread of COVID, or by our changing vulnerability? Will you?

Please, get vaccinated if you don't have a medical reason not to. Even if you are scheduled for chemo, talk to your doctor — it may help. Please contact your state senator or representative and ask them not to prevent hospitals from requiring vaccination for health care workers. The government has no right to prevent anyone from doing their best.

NANCY GERTH

Sagle