HARRY HURLEY OPINION EDITORIAL

We have spent the entire COVID-19 pandemic being as compliant as is humanly possible…along with being as responsible on-air as you can be to help educate the public by conveying important information on a daily basis.

We’ve also tried to do so without being hysterical about it.

Now is the time to pay close attention to the COVID-19 mutated Delta variant.

The Delta variant is about 6-8 times more contagious versus the Alpha variant.

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Of course, not everyone agrees with my approach, nor the seriousness of this disease.

In fact, last night at 6:32 p.m., a listener wrote me on Facebook Messenger.

I get very little time off. But, I still gave this listener 30 minutes of my Sunday night to address his comments that “I have been providing misinformation” regarding COVID-19.

During our back-and-forth, he actually wrote me this:

“No special virus going around just normal detoxification of the body, it being brought to our attention now for political reasons, something that happens every flu season that we or the media pay attention to.”

NOTE: The above quote is exactly how it was written to me. I didn’t want to be accused of “misrepresenting,” again.

First, simply WOW!

The annual flu does not lead to more than 600,000 American deaths in 1 1/2 years.

COVID-19 is real and it should command our respect. Especially when a significantly more contagious variant has mutated and presented itself in an aggressive manner.

I personally know multiple people who have died from COVID-19. I know many others who have had it and survived with various levels of lasting debilitating effects.

The fact that we have people among us who don’t even believe that COVID-19 is real … is almost beyond belief.

I have read and like a New York Post opinion editorial titled: “Ignore the hysteria: It’s time to move past COVID, America.

No doubt, we must get on with our lives.

The New York Post also wrote that President Joe Biden threw the nation “into a state of confusion last week with its scary, flip-flopping COVID rhetoric, but Americans should rest assured: America’s pandemic is over, slain by Operation Warp Speed.”

This is also true and regrettable … and, it was avoidable.

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Someone very close to me tested positive for COVID-19, (yesterday) despite being double vaccinated.

“He/She” is presenting with a headache, fever, and cough. It’s still too early to say if the case will be mild or worse. We’re all praying hard.

This case is one of the current trends of what’s called “breakthrough” infection … when someone who is fully vaccinated still contracts COVID-19.


The key still to all of this is the readily available vaccination.

If you’re vaccinated, you have a minuscule 0.08 percent chance of dying from COVID-19.

This, along with the spread of the more contagious Delta variant … should encourage more of the unvaccinated to get with your Doctor fast and make an informed decision that’s best for you, your family, friends, co-workers, and nation.

I have often commented that we can never achieve zero risks. That’s not humanly possible.

I’ve also both written and spoken on-air at length about the 1918 Spanish Flu, which infected 1/3 of the world population.

Believe it or not, the distant descendants of that virus still kill tens of thousands of people globally each year. Yet, we still get on with our lives.

In the immediate years following the Spanish flu, America saw an incredible increase in social and economic prosperity.

We can and must do this, too. We just need to be smart about how we deal with this potentially deadly virus.

The present and future are in our hands.

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