I am sounding the alarm and the need for action. The cuts to the Health and Human Services Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the elimination of $500 million in funds for mRNA vaccine research, pose a danger to you, your family and your neighbors. Why? These cuts will devastate the nation’s public health system and hurt disease prevention, research, and pandemic preparedness. Cutting mRNA research is being called the most dangerous public health decision made by the government. 

COVID-19 cases are once again on the rise. As many as 1 in 95 people is currently infected. Are you willing to chance inadequate COVID-19 protection?  In 2022, vaccinations prevented over 18.5 million hospitalizations and 3.2 million deaths in the U.S. No research has found that the side effects of vaccination outweigh the risks associated with having COVID. A recent Danish study of over 1.5 million people who got the updated vaccine reinforces this finding.  

We need to stand up and make our voices heard about this administration’s distortion of science, incompetence and moral depravity. Besides contacting our federal lawmakers, we can take steps to keep our community safe:

1. Be up to date with COVID-19 boosters. Encourage your family and friends to do the same. 
2. If you have respiratory symptoms:
3. Test for COVID-19.
4. Limit your contact with others.
5. Wear an N95 mask around others.
6. When seeing a health care provider, wear an N95 mask.

Margarete L. Zalon
Waymart, PA