The Post-Journal article by Greg Bacon printed on October 2, 2023, with the headline “Legislature Prohibits Giving Away Gift Cards For Vaccination” is worth reading.

As noted in the article, almost two years ago the legislature did not support a $75,000 grant, acquired and submitted by the Department of Health, involving COVID vaccinations. During that time period, many in the country and the world were ill and many were dying. This current grant was submitted by the Office of the Aging, and approved, which is a positive for sure and deserves thanks and recognition.

At the time that the legislature did not approve the Department of Health’s grant, there was a mismatch between the committed hard-working Department of Health staff and a group of folks who presented themselves to the public meetings, denouncing public health and vaccinations. Having been an elected official myself n the past, I know that this is not an easy situation to contend with. Along the way, the overwhelmed pandemic working staff was receiving threats and harassment, me included. The unfortunate situation resulted in a scenario which included the request and receiving of copies of internal staff emails, shared with others without good intention and this resulted in a miscommunication of purpose and context. There had been clear intention of the health department staff to do their best. Their first thought understandably was for the health and wellbeing of those they cared for, and political savvy was and is not their driver. The big loss, in addition to the dollars afforded by the grant was the loss of excellent public health workers who were in key positions as well as others. I totally understand and value freedom of speech, expression, and so on, and value diversity, listening to all sides, and getting a better result because of it, but one does have to acknowledge the loss of talent to the department and the county. So, in explanation, while happy for the approval of this excellent current grant, it has brought back difficult memories for some.

I also want to acknowledge the work of the Office of the Aging during the pandemic, which helped the Department of Health and all the community, by assisting with appointments for individuals who had difficulty making appointments for COVID vaccinations, especially those without computer access.

I note that the “gift card” portion of the grant was removed. It is common for incentives to be used to encourage healthy behaviors. For one thing, in the days of communicable diseases, i.e., catchy diseases, everyone’s health affects us all.

Finally, on October 2, the same day as the above-mentioned article appeared in the Post-Journal, the Nobel Prize in Medicine was announced and awarded to Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman who worked for many years on mRNA. Their discovery led to a paper published in 2005 which was initially rejected by mainstream journals, but eventually accepted by the publication “Immunity”. Eventually biotech companies, Moderna in the US and BioNTech in Germany joined the effort, and for years various studies and other research including in Canada worked on the project with the result being the mRNA COVID vaccine that we now know. This technology is also being tested for other diseases and in cancer therapy. Of note, Dr. Kariko is the 13th female to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine since 1901. This vaccine was not quickly discovered and put together for COVID. It took many years of solitary lab work, study, non-recognition, building on other scientific research, and many studies, to get where science is today. It needs to be appreciated and respected. And hopefully public confidence will be restored.

Dr. Lillian Vitanza Ney is the retired medical director of WCA Hospital and a member of the Chautauqua County Board of Health.