Editor, OBSERVER:

The recent commentary “Mixed messages on ‘best’ COVID practices” (Jan. 29) needs to be challenged. The writer makes the comment “The COVID vaccine does not prevent infection or transmission.”

This is true but it is incomplete. The function of a vaccine is to activate the body’s immune system to counter the infection by agents such as viruses or bacteria.

This occurs with polio, measles, smallpox and others like shingles. Thus the COVID vaccines have been marvelously effective in activations the immune systems of millions of people in the US and around the world to prevent the virus infection from overwhelming our body’s lungs, kidneys, or other organs to cause death or severe hospitalization.

People do not die due to virus presence. People die due to organ failure due to excessive cellular damage which results in failure of the organ such as the lung cells which can no longer supply oxygen to the body — thus the use of ventilators to keep people alive.

The vaccines have prevented millions of deaths by activating the immune system defenses of most vaccinated people, thus the 80% to 90% effectiveness values. Some individuals have insufficient ability to develop proper immune responses (immuno-compromised] or their immune systems are super effective against the COVID virus. The Salk polio vaccine took three shots to fully immunize people. Vaccines are not all identical as well as people are not uniform in the response to a vaccine.

The writer’s other opinions on masks, mandates, and pharmaceutical companies should be kept separate from health issues. Listen to the immunologists, and qualified FDA, CDC, and county health experts and get immunized by the vaccines available.

WAYNE YUNGHANS,

retired PhD, cell biology professor,

Fredonia