Lack of action by the people will lead to more virus-related restrictions

At a county commissioner retreat, one of the commissioners asked me what it would take for Robeson County to move up from being ranked 100th as far as healthy counties go. I said some things will take generations to improve, such as poverty rate and educational levels and others are driven by those forces such as the number of dentists and doctors and health facilities.

However, there are other factors that are within our control, such as diet, exercise, and being sedentary. We fail individually as well as systemically — no improvement can occur unless individuals choose to do things healthier.

Then we come to 2021. And the least healthy county in the state is also one of the least vaccinated counties for COVID-19. Free transportation and vaccine administration sites all over the county cannot overcome the usual shrug of the shoulders and it is not my fault attitude.

The healthiest counties in the state — Wake and Orange — have vaccination rates over 60% while Robeson County is half of that. Even our best crowd to get vaccinated, the people 65 and older, are at 68% compared to 96% in Wake and 97% in Orange. Dare County, on the coast, is over 99%. They are all willing to do something to help create a healthy county. Remember, we are talking about a very short clinic visit — not a sizeable commitment.

This is not about poverty rates and medical conditions, but it is about protecting yourself, your family and the greater community. Robeson County’s residents are generally poorly prepared for hurricanes — in fact, a survey showed that after Hurricane Matthew the number of people prepared was the same as before that devastating storm — that is, almost nobody did anything to better prepare for subsequent events.

This aversion to preventive measures extends into helping ease the effects of the pandemic. Couching lack of action behind governmental conspiracies, vaccine being created too quickly, microchips, long-lasting effects and citizens’ rights, merely masks the real culprit — you just do not care. Eventually more than 300 people will have died from the virus here and more than 18,000 have had a case. How many of those thousands still have effects months after acquiring the virus?

Because so many unvaccinated people will not look out for themselves, you are forcing the government to look out for the entire population and restrictions will occur. Unfortunately, that will affect those who acted responsibly, but as the unvaccinated would say, “Who cares?”