Siskiyou County physicians plea for community to get vaccinated

YREKA, Calif. – Dozens of Siskiyou County healthcare providers are promoting vaccines as they see a massive surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths.

The following letter was written by Siskiyou County Public Health Officer Dr. Aaron Stutz and signed by 79 local healthcare workers and executives.

Dear Siskiyou County Community,

We are your local physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, hospital administrators, and other allied health professionals. You have honored us by entrusting your lives and wellbeing to us, as well as the lives of your families. We are your neighbors, your friends, and your loved ones.

The COVID environment surrounding our county indicates that we are likely to experience a large surge in hospitalized patients. Del Norte County, Humboldt County, and the counties north of us in southern Oregon are all experiencing record-breaking numbers of hospitalized COVID patients.

The majority of these patients are unvaccinated. In Del Norte County, this surge in COVID-related deaths has caused the local mortuary to fill beyond capacity, necessitating a mobile refrigerated morgue to prepare for the influx of the remains of expired COVID patients. Siskiyou County is currently experiencing record numbers of new COVID infections daily.

Please get vaccinated. We ask this from the bottom of our hearts. Though our hospitals are not overflowing with COVID patients yet, the local numbers suggest that they may be so very shortly. Much of this pain and death can be avoided by getting vaccinated.

We have studied the data, and we have seen the benefits of vaccination with our own eyes. The vaccines are well tested, very safe, highly effective, and freely available. Yes, masking and avoiding large gatherings must continue, especially with the highly contagious Delta variant. But nothing is as important as being vaccinated.

You’ve trusted us with every other aspect of your health. Please trust us with this. We are not asking you to do anything that we have not already done ourselves. Please, for the sake of our

community: get vaccinated.