Dr. Mark A. Keroack, MPH, president and CEO of Baystate Health recently conducted a press conference to explain the health provider’s status and to urge people who have not yet become vaccinated to do so.

Keroack stressed the majority of the COVID-19 cases (75 percent) the medical staff is seeing is with unvaccinated people.

“Baystate Health has really been hit unusually hard by the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. We went from four cases on the first of July to, last weekend, having over 100 cases,” Keroack during the press conference. “The last couple of days, things have gotten down into the 90s, and we hope that’s a good trend, but we’re really not sure.”

He stressed the importance of receiving a vaccination as Hampden County has been lagging behind in vaccination rates. He noted there are still about 1,600 employees of the healthcare giant that have not been vaccinated.

“We do expect to get the majority of those vaccinated,” he said. There is an Oct. 1 deadline imposed on the employees to become vaccinated.

I asked him how a group of healthcare professionals be in the position of not getting the vaccine. He said, “There are a wide variety of reasons.” He noted that some employees have had COVID-19 and believe they’re immune. Others actually believe in the misinformation that has flooded social media about the virus. Still others are frightened of needles.

I have to admit that last one surprised me.

Keroack is hoping to prevent resignations or terminations as the deadline looms.

It is distressing to me that some healthcare professionals honestly believe the unsubstantiated and sensationalistic claims that have been made for the past year-plus, but it is clear to me that even people within that industry are willing to entertain such notions.

In a way I get it. We have had decades of people undermining the creditability of government – something brought on through the gross incompetency of government coupled with the ideology that government is inherently wrong or evil.

After all, President Ronald Reagan set a new high in this type of thought when, as president, he said in 1986, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

So when you have a beloved president essentially setting a new standard for mistrust in government and that mistrust has been repeated ad nauseam for decades by talk show hosts, newspaper columnists and social media, I guess I can’t really blame people for looking at this issue and coming to a false and often deadly conclusion.

The fact President Donald Trump followed and expanded the Reagan message – government is bad, you can’t trust any aspect of government except for him – was perfect for a group of Americans who had been thinking this idea for many years.

Unfortunately the pandemic and efforts to control it ran straight into this ideology and it has deeply and negatively affected our daily lives.

What if we had 80 percent of the nation vaccinated at this point? What if there had been federal standards for wearing masks and social distancing from the beginning? What if people viewed taking precautions as a patriotic duty?

Well, there is little point to such speculation. We know our situation today.

Even at my advanced age, I remember receiving one of the polio vaccines from the family pediatrician. It was a drop of liquid on a sugar cube. The vaccines that developed helped wipe out a disease that affected many, many Americans. I had a friend with polio and saw first-hand what the disease could do. The vaccines were a blessing.

I look at the COVID-19 vaccines the same way: a blessing. I wish those who have steadfastly refused receiving it would reconsider. With their participation we could be in a better position to control this pandemic.