2 Wednesday, August 4, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Vaccinated and masking up Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer¾s name, address, and phone number. Letters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond, or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is 10 a.m. Monday. In defense of McDonald’s To the Editor: I am writing this in defense of McDonald9s [regarding false reports of firefighters being turned away]. The people that work there are always cour- teous and treat us with respect, and believe me, we eat there more than we should. The help is always primarily young people that are trying to do what they are told to do. Some of them are from foreign countries and may not speak English as their first language. When the firefighters come in the morning, they are not charged for their breakfast. I know the manager would not treat them poorly. I9m sure there was some confusion by the young people as to what to do that close to closing with such a large group coming in. Granted, it was not the best response, but I9m sure they did not mean it to be disrespectful. I know the manager has received a lot of calls with people swearing at them. That doesn9t need to happen, and shows no maturity See LETTERS on page 24 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday August 4 • Sunny August 5 • Mostly Sunny August 6 • Partly Cloudy August 7 • Mostly Sunny 95/59 82/54 74/51 78/49 Sunday Monday Tuesday August 8 • Sunny August 9 • Mostly Sunny August 10 • Mostly Sunny 80/49 81/52 83/56 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Email: editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Editor in Chief: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Easterling Creative Director: Jess Draper Community Marketing Partner: Vicki Curlett Classifieds & Circulation: Angela Lund Proofreader: Kit Tosello Owner: J. Louis Mullen The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area. Third-class postage: one year, $55; six months (or less), $30. First-class postage: one year, $95; six months, $65. Published Weekly. ©2021 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is pro- hibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. assumes no liability or responsibility for information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper’s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts. Making music... Tony Furtado Trio played Sisters Art Works in the Sisters Folk Festival’s Summer of Festival Concert Series last Friday. The series wraps up later this month. PHOTO BY BILL BARTLETT By Cliff Brush Guest Columnist COVID-19 is going Delta and making a comeback. Here is how I9m respond- ing and trying to help get it under control. Please con- sider your own response. I accept the virus mutates and creates variants. Bomb- throwing accusations that a doctor or researcher lied because they said one thing earlier, and something else later, don9t help. In my teens, doctors operated on my right leg, already amputated below the knee, to straighten the femur. After seven months in a modified body cast, I could not walk. It was too painful. The knee carti- lage had disintegrated. The doctors didn9t lie when they said the operation would help me. They were right, at the time. But my body changed. We looked at the X-rays together. It was clear. I needed another amputation. It turned out for the better. This virus will change. We deserve straight, factual talk about Delta and other variants as they emerge. Which they will. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) needs to get its communications act together. The CDC9s message just went from masks off to masks back on. The data came later. That9s backward. The explana- tion should come before the action. The CDC9s lat- est message, a combination of higher vaccination rates and masking would flatten the infection curve in a few weeks. I read and try to under- stand the supporting data. But that9s not my job. The CDC needs to explain its findings and advice in ways the public can understand. Politicians aren9t doing any better 4 starting at the top. The former and current pres- ident sent misleading or con- fusing messages. COVID-19 will not magically disappear. The pandemic did not end July 4. Both took a vaccine. They should appear together, on camera, and encour- age eligible citizens to get the jab. Oregon has its own unsolved leadership issues. Meanwhile, there9s Delta to deal with. Information I rely on tells me the Delta variant is many times more infectious. One of my sources is Dr. Irwin Redlener, physician, pedia- trician, and founding direc- tor of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University9s Earth Institute. He9s careful to say what he knows today, not predict what he9ll know tomorrow. In an interview for the Daily Beast, Dr. Redlener reports someone infected with the original COVID-19 strain could infect another two or three people. Someone with the Delta variant could infect five to nine. On July 27, Oregon recorded 1,032 new COVID cases, roughly a recent week9s worth. Hospitalizations increased 25 percent overnight. Forecasts by Oregon Health & Science University and the University of Washington show Oregon9s winter infec- tion and hospitalization lev- els could match last year9s. Higher vaccination rates will help prevent that. Rates in this area are mixed. On July 30, the Daily Situation Update reported these per- centages of fully vaccinated citizens in local counties: Crook, 51; Deschutes, 72; Jefferson, 56. The tri-county area is highly mobile. So is the virus. I use two defenses: the jab, and the mask. Vaccines work. Reliable sources report 97 percent of newly hospitalized patients are unvaccinated. That9s the point. To avoid serious ill- ness and hospitalization. Vaccination does not guar- antee I won9t be infected. No vaccine is 100 per- cent effective. Masking is my second line of defense against an unlikely, but pos- sible, breakthrough case. There9s video evidence for masking. For exam- ple, on YouTube at bit.ly/ YouTubeMasks1 (includes brief reference to condoms); or at bit.ly/YouTubeMasks2 (includes brief appearance of adult beverage). You can skip the ads. Consider this: Should a surgical team feel free to leave their masks off? Why? Then should we feel free to leave ours off during a COVID breakout? I don9t want anyone to become a patient like the ones described by Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Brytney Cobia.