As a retired physician assistant who devoted a long career to public health in Macon County, I am deeply concerned by the misinformation about vaccines being spread by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his appointees. 

After a spring lull, the coronavirus has returned with a vengenance, leading to a surge in Western North Carolina that experts didn’t expect. 

Harris Regional Hospital, Swain Community Hospital and Haywood Regional Medical Center, all owned by Duke LifePoint, will require the COVID-19 vaccine for all employees. 

The International Friendship Center, the Community Care Clinic of Highlands-Cashiers and Vecinos have hosted six weekly Latino COVID-19 vaccine clinics since mid-February, providing vaccines to several hundred of our Latinx neighbors, and plan more clinics in the coming weeks.