I support Legislator Susan Parker’s resolution “Encouraging Best Practices for Overcoming COVID-19.” It was disgusting to see the Republican legislators put politics over the health of those they supposedly serve.

We’re almost two years into the pandemic, and across the country — and here in Chautauqua County — our health-care workers are exhausted and our system is strained.

At the beginning of the pandemic, we celebrated these doctors and nurses as healthcare heroes. But here is the current situation, as described in a recent news article:

“The nation’s frontline medical workers were running on fumes even before the arrival of omicron. Successive waves of illness and death have left them exhausted and numb; nearly one in five have left the profession over the past two years. And they are angry — at the patients who refuse to get vaccinated, at the hospital executives who won’t spend the money needed to maintain safe nurse-to-patient ratios, and at the political leaders who call them “health care heroes” while opposing mask and vaccine mandates that might blunt the tsunami of new infections.”

We all need to support our health care workers and health department as they work to keep us all safe.

We are all in this together, and the common sense suggestions in the resolution will allow our hospitals and health department to continue their important work caring for our neighbors.

Thank you to Legislator Parker for introducing this resolution and to our doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers for their continued efforts to keep us all here in Chautauqua County safe.

Joanne Kelley is a Fredonia resident.