Editor:

Are you quite sure, Cathy Seitz (Mailbox, Aug. 25) that you "came out fine" after treating COVID-19 with "herbs and supplements?" I ask because 500 more Americans died from COVID yesterday. If we had vaccinated immediately — the way we did when the Salk vaccine ended polio — COVID might be history. But since we didn't, over 1 million Americans have died and the damn thing keeps mutating. You'll have to understand that your neighbors may see you not as a persecuted herbalist but as a disease vector.

Gordon Inkeles, Bayside

Editor:

I am glad that you came out fine, and protected the vulnerable by quarantining (Mailbox, Aug. 25). Had you also vaccinated and masked, you might have avoided COVID, at least until good treatments came out such as Paxlovid. Now that COVID will be with us like the common flu, we need to continue to follow the science, not only to protect ourselves, but others around us.

Yes, there is no need for further debate when the science is so clear about vaccination, masking and quarantines to limit the harms and importantly the spread of serious diseases. There are other serious viruses circulating now (polio and monkeypox) and there will be future pandemics. Let us follow the best medical advice based on science to keep ourselves and our community safe.

Den Whitcomb, Blue Lake