What is the cost of COVID, the price paid for failing to get vaccinated? The Pasco County school district can put a number on it: more than $11 million. That’s the deficit in its self-insured health policy, and 97 percent of the COVID-related claims last year came from staffers who said they weren’t vaccinated. That’s just the price tag. It doesn’t account for the pain of catching COVID or dealing with long-haul symptoms — or dying. Imagine how much lower all those costs would have been if state leaders had pushed for vaccinations and masks instead of against them?
Gov. Ron DeSantis claims it’s time to “close the curtain on COVID theater.” Actually, it’s time to pull the curtain shut on the pandemic, and the best way to safely get back to normal is to be vaccinated and to wear a mask when appropriate — not all the time, just in crowded spaces or around immunocompromised people. It’s really that simple.
Instead, the governor and his surgeon general are recommending that parents don’t get their healthy children vaccinated against COVID. The message is part of their generally blasé/tepid/nonchalant/chilly attitude toward the COVID vaccine and follow-up boosters. The governor has also taken to scolding people for wearing masks — calling it ridiculous. He and his surgeon general are wrong. Masks work — particularly N95s. Vaccines work. Ask your pediatrician, not a politician, for medical advice for your child.
