Dear Patient,

We, the Physicians and Advanced Practicing Providers of Shawnee, Tecumseh, Seminole, Okemah, Chandler and Mcloud, ask you to clear your minds and open your hearts. We ask you to hear us, now. We do our best to keep you healthy and take care of you as individuals. However, there are times when we are faced with a medical challenge that goes beyond our ability to treat an individual patient. There are times when the choices you make as individuals impact not only your health, but the health and lives of every person you see and touch. The SARS-CoV-2 virus with all of its variants is one of those challenges, and this is one of those times.

Each person in this community is depending completely on every other person in this community to rise up and protect themselves and protect each other from this virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes. A COVID-19 illness for many is a miserable week of fever, cough, congestion, nausea, body aches, chills, headaches and fatigue, sometimes with a side of nausea, stomach upset, and diarrhea. For far too many others, that week leads to more serious symptoms, hospitalizations, and even death. The vast majority of people will survive the illness and get back to “normal life.” For far too many people, the after effects of COVID-19 will be life changing.

For each individual who gets COVID-19, they act as a host to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. They have provided it a home to replicate and mutate into new variants. They have acted as an unwitting transportation vehicle to spread the virus to others. (The virus begins its period of highest transmission 12 hours before an individual gets their first symptom!) The cycle then repeats itself. This is happening hundreds of times a day in our community right now. We have seen this show before. It ends with our hospital filled with COVID-19 patients with no room to treat all of the other medical needs of our community. You can stop it. You can take a stand. You can protect yourself and your neighbors. The Oklahoma Standard is being called on once again. It is time to unite, stand together, and overcome the obstacles in our path. It is time to get a vaccine.

The signatories to this letter represent a broad range of political ideas. We cheer for different sports teams. We go to different churches. We come from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Some of us were born in Oklahoma, and some of us chose to move here. We all agree on this: The science behind the COVID-19 vaccines is sound and trustworthy. It is a modern day medical miracle. The COVID-19 vaccines save lives and prevent life changing complications.

COVID-19 has had a MASSIVE impact on everyone’s life. The impact has been so enormous that it is impossible to even list the direct and indirect ways it has altered everyone’s life. You know this. If we want to take control of our lives, we have to stop it. As long as the virus has hosts (people without antibodies), it will continue to spread and continue to have mutations that creates new variants. Some of these variants may be even worse. The time is now. You can make a difference. You can get vaccinated. We can stop this together.