This letter is addressed to anyone who has decided NOT to get the recommended COVID-19 vaccine to prevent more hospitalizations and deaths locally and around our state. My take on this is the same as refusing to wear helmets while riding motorcycles or veering off the marked trail when on a mountain hike — if you crash and receive a head injury while refusing to wear a helmet and/or if you fall down a treacherous cliff while mountain climbing, you should not expect a brain surgeon to come to the hospital on his/her day off to save your life — nor should you expect 8 or 10 rescue workers to risk their lives to air-lift you from a rocky ravine down a steep mountainside.

You choose the consequences when you make foolish decisions. Therefore, should you choose not to get the free COVID-19 vaccine, it seems only right to refuse to treat you and provide a ventilator to save your life (that you valued so little) once you contract COVID-19 when you didn’t believe the vaccine was worth your time and effort to get it and attempt to protect yourself.

So the moral of this story is “Listen to Dolly Parton” who donated $1 million to research to speed-up the vaccine development — and was then shown on video receiving her shot and suggesting that all her fans and everyone make a smart decision to get the vaccine (either Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson) when it becomes available to you.

—  Sandra Cody

Salisbury