by Leslie Layton
posted Dec. 11
Butte County’s abysmal COVID-19 vaccination rate is a symptom of an anti-science movement that has cost lives, polarized communities, and contributed to a “climate of denial,” panelists said at a statewide media briefing.
Five Butte County residents made up a panel at a briefing sponsored by Ethnic Media Services earlier this week to discuss this region’s COVID toll. They reminded a Zoom audience of 62 people that the county has been ravaged by wildfires, its residents slammed by soaring housing costs. On top of all that, misinformation about the virus has further polarized communities.
The youngest of the speakers, a 16-year-old Chico high school student, issued a plea to end the silence around COVID, which she said has disappeared from much of the public discourse. Maya Klein, a junior at Inspire School of Arts & Sciences, said a “culture and climate of denial” evolved as COVID increasingly became part of Butte County’s political “conflict zone.” (Read Maya’s essay on ChicoSol here.)