Dear Bond County Citizens,
I want to both thank and congratulate the people of Bond County for the caring, cautious, and responsible behavior shown by so many in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Your work has resulted in remarkably low numbers of cases, serious illness, and death in our community. A special thanks to those workers in health care and other essential jobs who helped keep us well, safe, fed, and supplied with a host of basic services so important in our daily lives. I also thank those who chose to accept and comply with public health advice in order to do what you could to keep our residents and your customers safe, even though it resulted in painful personal financial sacrifice I cannot possibly name all who have served so well, but I see you, and you are truly heroes.
As we move into another phase of reopening this coming Friday, I urge everyone to honor the work of these good people, and plead that we do not squander what they have given us. With increased activities of all sorts, we will be around each other more and more. The recommendations to maintain masking and social distancing are probably more important now than ever. Sheltering in place is no longer the protective norm, but masking and social distancing must be. You are already seeing that some states who “opened early” are having a marked increase in cases. Certainly some of those case numbers are due to increased testing but do not be misled. Statistics from many of these areas are showing increased COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. Those are not explained in any way by increased testing. This disease can and mostly likely will worsen if we abandon the simple precautions of appropriate masking and social distancing. I am tired of all this and I know you are as well, but I urge that we all continue to respect and protect each other by staying strong. I ask that we not allow our great progress to drift away.
Thomas D. Dawdy, M.D.
Chairman, Bond County Board of Health
