Dr. Angela Dunn, executive director of the Salt Lake County Department of Health, is discussing a new vaccination campaign against COVID-19 to encourage unvaccinated residents to receive the shot in Salt Lake City on Tuesday. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY – Like many, Shelly Wenzbaur was frustrated throughout the pandemic when schools and businesses closed.
But when her husband was diagnosed with leukemia last December, “that changed our world,” said Wenzbaur, a high school biology teacher.
His voice was broken on Tuesday when he described the struggles his family has faced since then.
“We both had the vaccine and, in my husband’s particular type of leukemia, it was the white blood cells that would make the vaccine effective. So it didn’t really work for him: it was completely ineffective,” Wenzbaur said. on Tuesday to reporters at the Salt Lake County government complex, as leaders announced the launch of a new campaign to encourage more residents to get vaccinated.
Wenzbaur’s husband is now in hospital and receiving a bone marrow transplant. Although “things look great,” the teacher called for help from the community to save him.
“Because right now he has zero white blood cells,” he said. “His official count right now is zero, and that means he just can’t fight it, and there’s really no medicine or artificial help he can get to overcome that loss he has in his own immune system. -making masks and getting vaccinated as a community is the only thing that will really keep you safe. “
As a school teacher, Wenzbaur has to be in the classroom every day with the students. She would love to encourage them to get the vaccine, wear masks “and help keep our community safe,” she said, noting that not only does her husband face a serious pandemic risk of coronavirus.
Wenzbaur is one of several Utahns who share their stories in Salt Lake County’s new “The Truth About COVID” campaign. The ads that will run on television, billboards, the local traffic system, connected television, digital banners, and social media feature a wide variety of local people affected in some way by the pandemic, including health workers, people with COVID, “teachers and members of at – risk communities.
“The policy associated with this pandemic has overshadowed the scientific facts and human impact that COVID has had on our families, our friends and our communities,” said Dr. Angela Dunn, executive director of the County Department of Health. of Salt Lake.
The campaign, he said, shares first-person perspectives “from Utahns like us,” whose lives have been affected by COVID-19.
Dunn said leaders want unvaccinated Utahns to learn from these first-hand experiences “before it’s too late.”
“I have a broken heart that we continue to pose a health risk to our community and the challenges our community faces now,” said Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson.
People who have not been personally affected may “ignore it,” but many affected people have suffered “significant” losses, Wilson said.
Hospitals are now “underwater” with traditional cases and a higher rate of patients with COVID-19 than this time last year, he said.
“And, unfortunately, 85% of the people who died of COVID from January 1 to September 10 were not vaccinated, so there are 299 unvaccinated people who died during this time period,” he said. dir Wilson.
County leaders do not suggest that restaurants and other businesses close again, but urge vaccination against those who are not vaccinated and wear masks around others, as well as state and local policies that promote such measures. .
“So with that, we want to both educate and inspire people to intensify it, and people who may be in doubt, we feel that some of the real-world stories of the impact of COVID were important to tell,” Wilson said. .
He said that now his biggest concern is to preserve hospital capacity and he fears that lives will be lost due to accidents or other “unknowns” as health workers cannot respond as quickly as they usually do.
New Utah data
The Utah Department of Health on Tuesday confirmed 1,274 new coronavirus cases, as well as 13 deaths.
School-age children accounted for 290 of the last cases.
The continuous seven-day average for new cases stands at 1,626 per day and the mean positive percentage rate of those tested is 12.9%.
This story will be updated.