To the editor:

The CDC rates Kansas last among the 50 states in vaccination rate. Douglas County reports at least 2,000 health care workers are yet to be vaccinated. My daughter, a physical therapist in a local nursing home, has just today (Jan. 5) been given the paperwork to receive the vaccine, with no date scheduled yet. And yet the governor says she’s “comfortable” with the vaccination process in our state. Whom are we to believe, the facts or the politician? Given the facts, might her comfort level be influenced by the fact that she and her husband and other state officials have already been vaccinated? Any Kansan who is satisfied with the governor’s comfort level as the standard for our health should heed the wisdom of C. S. Lewis: “If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort, you will not get either comfort or truth … and in the end despair.” Lewis wrote that right after British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned from Germany, proclaiming that the treaty he signed with Adolf Hitler would bring “peace in our time.” Less than a year later, Germany invaded Poland, precipitating the deadliest war in history, lasting six years. When we have leaders who are satisfied with comfort, we should prepare for despair.

Joe Reitz,

Eudora