Area Health Care Providers Urge Vaccination

Nearly 200 local health care providers representing 12 Dubuque County medical organizations have issued a unified message endorsing the vaccine and urging Dubuque-area residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Here is their message:

Dear Dubuque Community Members,

We, the medical community of Dubuque County, would like to ask you to strongly consider vaccinating yourself, your children 12 years of age and older, and your extended family against COVID-19.

After living through a year where we lost over 200 of our local patients to COVID-19 – among them fathers, mothers and grandparents – we are in a situation where we can prevent severe disease, hospitalization and death from COVID-19 by vaccination. We are fortunate to have sufficient amounts of vaccine to give it to anyone who asks for it.

No one has to die of COVID-19, since the current vaccines effectively prevent hospitalization and death from COVID, including the Delta variant. As of June of this year, more than 99% of COVID-related deaths and disabilities were in unvaccinated people and are completely avoidable. The vaccines currently available have been extensively studied and closely monitored and are proven to be safe and effective.

The 12 - 29 years of age group is the least vaccinated group at this point in time. Although this age group does suffer the least from COVID-19 infection, they pose the greatest risk to others, as they can spread COVID-19 and its variants among themselves and their families, particularly to unvaccinated members of the community. Moreover, with congregating at the beginning of the school year, this group will significantly increase exposure to COVID-19 and its new variants, which can be brought home to friends and family of each student.

In addition, we have to anticipate further rise of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in the community. The Delta variant of COVID-19 has currently shown to be much more infectious than the original strain and leads to more hospitalizations. The current vaccines are effective against this variant of COVID-19.

Vaccination does not only protect the vaccinated person but also protects others, like family members (e.g. immunosuppressed people), by reducing the amount of the virus that is shed by an infected person in the community.

We, your medical providers in the Dubuque Community, endorse the vaccine and strongly advise you and your family to get vaccinated to break the cycle of COVID-19 infection and related death and disability. Let’s leave the pandemic behind us and return to a normal life.

Dubuque and the surrounding communities have done a great job so far with getting vaccinated and our vaccination rate is above average compared to the rest of Iowa and the U.S. However, we are not yet at a point where outbreaks or surges cannot reoccur since we do not have enough herd immunity in the community to shut the spreading of the virus down.

Please reach out to one of us or the Dubuque County Department of Public Health to talk about the COVID-19 vaccine. We’d be happy to help you protect yourself and your family.

Your healthcare providers of the Dubuque Medical Community.

The Dubuque County Health Department shared the image below from Sunday's Dubuque Telegraph Herald.

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