COVID-19: Pandemic is not over yet
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Earlier this week, Department of Health and Human Resources officials announced their regularly scheduled COVID report, with one wrenching detail. The updated death toll from the virus on Aug. 22 included a 13-year-old Nicholas County girl. In fact, there had been 17 addition deaths since the last update three days earlier. So far at least 7,251 West Virginians have died of the virus since the pandemic began.
"Today's COVID report is especially heartbreaking with the confirmation of a pediatric death," Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary, said. "We extend our deepest sympathies to these families and urge each West Virginian to get vaccinated and boosted."
As school began across the state, there were 14 children in the hospital because of COVID, and four of those kids were in the intensive care unit. One of them was on a ventilator.
And one family is suffering the loss of a 13-year-old girl.
This plague is still with us, folks. It is still killing people of all ages. There is no good reason -- none -- not to be doing everything we can to try to stop it. Anyone politicizing the virus by spreading fear and conspiracy theories in hopes of shoring up a voting base should be ashamed of themselves.
Get vaccinated and boosted. Get your kids vaccinated. Teach them by example to take all precautionary measures against spreading the virus. Stay home and get tested if you feel ill. Keep them home from school and get them tested if they are sick. We have a chance to start this school year with a determination to put a stop to this monster. Don't let it slip away.