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The unwilling are simply unwilling

Posted 12/8/20

To the editor, Back in late March and early April, when we all were seeing the terrifying images of refrigerator trucks full of corpses in New York City, the COVID contagion rate there was about 65 new cases per day per 100,000 population. For the last several days the contagion rate in Bedford County has averaged nearly 50% higher that the peak New York City rate, and our rate stands to increase substantially before we finally get a break. ...

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The unwilling are simply unwilling

Posted

To the editor,

Back in late March and early April, when we all were seeing the terrifying images of refrigerator trucks full of corpses in New York City, the COVID contagion rate there was about 65 new cases per day per 100,000 population. For the last several days the contagion rate in Bedford County has averaged nearly 50% higher that the peak New York City rate, and our rate stands to increase substantially before we finally get a break. This is despite excellent reporting about the pandemic and its local manifestation in our newspaper by senior reporter Terrence Corrigan and others. Most of our population simply isn’t paying attention or, influenced by Trumpism, doesn’t believe the facts. At the local Wal-Mart and Lowe's the staffers wear masks but essentially none of the customers do. At the grocery stores, maybe half or fewer of the customers are masked. We are a cesspit of contagion, by what seems to be the denialist choice of our Trump-following politicians and a majority of our citizens. 

According to the website of our local hospital (Tennova Shelbyville), the hospital has 60 beds. According to the Tennessee Department of Health website, 65 people in this county are hospitalized with COVID. I’m afraid the next few months will be very dark here. The unwilling will be dragged. So will the rest of us.

Stay safe and well,

William H. Woodruff,

Shelbyville