Hats off to Barton, law enforcement and 1st responders for well run clinic

Dear Editor:

Hats off to Barton Health management, staff, volunteers, local law enforcement and first responders for an incredibly well run mass vaccination event last Friday at Lake Tahoe Community College for 1,600 eligible locals.

That’s a huge number for our small community. We learned that Barton only had a week or so to plan, organize and staff this event. You would have thought they’d been doing this for months. Everyone at the event knew exactly what to do. They were friendly, professional and efficient.

What an amazing example of community spirit and commitment. Thank you.

Tom and Diane Taylor, Stateline

Great job by Barton at vaccination event

Dear Editor:

I would like to express my appreciation to the staff and volunteers at Barton Healthcare Network for the outstanding job they did at the Feb. 26 vaccine event at LTCC.

Could you please advise me on how to submit a letter to the editor, for consideration of publishing in the Tribune? I feel that it is a much deserved topic of recognition.

Randall Sumner, South Lake Tahoe

Lockdowns aren’t killing us congressman, policies are

Dear Editor:

(Response to Congressman Tom McClintock’s guest column on Feb. 19)

You are wrong, Tom McClintock, lockdowns are not killing us, the virus and the policies of the last administration are.

At the beginning of the pandemic, South Korea had more COVID cases than the US. As of today they have had 15,000 cases and 500 deaths whereas the US has had 28.3 million cases and over 500,000 deaths.

What did South Korea do differently? They employed policies developed by the US Center for Disease Control to institute containment and mitigation strategies until cases and deaths were practically non-existent. This brought the disease under control in three months. (that said, they did have a second spike in August)

Why were they able to control the disease so quickly? Because their citizens followed the protocols that their government set in place. This included quarantines, aggressive testing, contact tracing, social distancing and regimented mask wearing. In contrast, the US government downplayed the severity of the virus and did not encourage mask wearing or social distancing. The virus became an epidemic that could only be controlled by multiple lockdowns which have had a devastating effect on the economy. During the second quarter of 2020 the decline of the GDP in South Korea was 3% whereas in the US it was 9.5%

If the past administration had followed protocols set by the World Health Organization and the CDC, instead of withdrawing from the WHO and disbanding the Pandemic Emergency Response Task Force, we would not be in this place now. The virus did not miraculously disappear when the weather got warmer. People wear seatbelts in cars and helmets while on a motorcycle. Why won’t they wear a mask?

Fortunately, science has come to rescue the situation by developing effective vaccines. Now we can only hope that folks will take the vaccine so our country can attain herd immunity. Maybe life will get back to normal within the year, thanks to science and a federal government that believes in science.

Susan Chandler, chairperson for the South Lake Tahoe Democratic Club