In response to Scott Dittrich’s diatribe last week against Judy Abel’s measured and thoughtful article on vaccine priorities for those with high risk medical conditions, I can only say it’s unfortunate we have not yet developed a vaccine to protect against dumb. In April 2020, Mr. Dietrich sent a letter to the editor of this newspaper asserting that the University of Washington model predicting 240,000 total U.S. COVID-19 deaths was “wildly inflated” and that 60,000 would be the likely final number. In that letter, he also mused that California in April 2020 already had herd immunity “as some [then] recent studies suggest.” In lieu of apologies and humility, Mr. Deertick continues to pollute this paper with ad hominem attacks based in willful ignorance. The sad reality is the current distribution system has, per the CDC, mostly vaccinated white females while COVID morbidity and mortality disproportionately falls on disadvantaged communities. That is not political, left/right, or “woke,” it’s just verifiable data.
As of Feb. 21, the LA County Department of Public Health website reports that more than 25 percent of Brentwood’s residents have been vaccinated, while the figure for Boyle Heights is just over nine percent. And yes, I know how to spell Mr. Dittrich’s name, but given his repeated misspellings of Ms. Abel’s and the governor’s in his letter, I thought I’d afford him the same respect.
Eric Bryan