To the Editor:

A week has passed since my last letter advocating the anti-COVID-19 virus inoculations [“A case vor vaccination against COVID-19, The Altamont Enterprise, Jan. 7, 2021]. The big limiting factor is the distribution of the vaccines.

It should change as the new administration takes control of the delivery of our anti-COVID-19 vaccine throughout the country. They must produce the vaccines in quantities to ultimately vaccinate the majority of people who can be properly immunized.

That is the majority of our population. Teachers and school personnel (such as school nurses, cafeteria workers, maintenance, and bus drivers) properly belong on the list of people that must be protected and immediately immunized.

The elderly should be immediately immunized. They have a disproportionate mortality rate from the COVID-19 virus and many thousands have sadly succumbed as this is being written.

The Veterans Administration recognizes the threat posed by the COVID-19 virus to older veterans. They have difficulty getting supplies to hospitals in order to administer the vaccination. We have lost many veterans to the COVID-19 virus who could have been saved with timely immunizations.

The elderly are moms, dads, grandparents, great-grandparents, and friends. They are living history; they lived through historic events (eg. The Depression, World War II, civil rights struggles, Korean war, and Vietnam).

The elderly are the anchors of many families and are the repository for family history. They often know the role that families played in historic events. This can add to a family’s pride.

I recently talked to my friends at Akwesasne (Mohawk territory containing  an excess of 10, 000 people to the east of Massena, New York along the St. Lawrence River). To our First Nations, loss of the elderly can be catastrophic to maintaining their culture.

The reason for that is they follow an oral tradition of history, way of life, and ceremonies. An elderly woman recently succumbed to the COVID-19 virus who was among the last people who are truly fluent in the Mohawk language.

When you lose a lot of elderly people, it is hard to maintain the oral tradition and culture. They are attempting to vaccinate by priority their elderly people and protect them. And not only protect families from loss of the elderly but also loss of their very distinctive culture.

We need to protect our people of original nations. This pandemic is a threat to all people of the world and we should work cooperatively to control it and then to protect ourselves as much as possible from it.

If we work to utilizing the scientific knowledge and ability of the world and not just one nation we will have better control on the COVID-19 virus and cut down tremendously on the mortality. Let’s hope the new president, Joe Biden, and his administration will lead to more cooperative work in controlling the COVID-19 virus in America and around the world.

Ward Stone

Troy