There never seems to be much good news regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, but the information that new data shows the infection continues a gradual decline in the county should be encouraging.

State health officials reported cases locally have dropped for six consecutive weeks until the week ending June 13. After that a slight boost in cases was reported, but nowhere near the numbers we reached earlier this year.

That’s all good news, but more people need to get vaccinated. Vaccination remains the only reliable method to combat the virus.

Of course, no one — not the state or the federal government — can force anyone to get a vaccine if they don’t want one.

There remains plenty of people who remain skeptical about COVID-19 vaccines and no doubt are reluctant to get inoculated.

We believe everyone should be able to make their own choice regarding whether to get the vaccine. We also believe, though, that critical decisions such as a choice to get inoculated should rest on information, good information.

There are a host of conspiracy theories out about the vaccine and lots of misinformation. The key item for residents here — and anywhere else — should be to be able to make the best decisions possible with the information at hand.

There are a host of places — such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and your own health care provider — where a resident can go to acquire accurate information.

The sources are out there, and they contain the most up-to-date information available regarding COVID-19 vaccines.

Once a person does the research and contemplates the information, they are then armed appropriately to make a decision on getting a vaccine.

Misinformation, of one type or another, proliferates across the nation and has for many years. The advent of social media doesn’t make trying to get accurate information out any easier. Rumors spread on social media and then become “facts” all before a single piece of information can be double checked for accuracy.

That happened in the last two elections and is happening now with the vaccines.

Every person in the United States should be able to make a decision on their town about acquiring a vaccine. Yet, they should do so from a position of knowledge, not rumor and social media hype.

Doing the research is hard work sometimes and time consuming. But it is essential in this day and age when information often is touted as “facts” but in reality is just more nonsense.