TNT letters to the editor, 4/17/2021
Pierce County rollback
Re: “Pierce County gets ‘gut punch’ rollback to Phase 2,” (TNT, 4/13).
Every weekday morning thousands of Pierce County residents head north to King County for work.
They can enjoy all the benefits of Phase 3 (breakfast, lunch, maybe dinner, recreation or shopping) while north of the border. The governor’s hypocrisy seems to ignore this fact.
We can’t control forest fires, floods, snow or other natural disasters, only develop controls to mitigate damage.
Other states that stayed open during the pandemic have had a lower infection rate and a faster economic recovery than Washington.
Our governor may have prolonged the epidemic and financially devastated many small businesses and families with the arrogant assumption that he, and science, can control nature.
The virus doesn’t care about county lines. Rolling Pierce County back to Phase 2 won’t do a darn thing but nail the coffin shut on the few surviving small businesses.
Darren McDonald, Puyallup
Vaccine passports
Re: “Why liberals (like me) should fear vax passports,” (TNT, 4/11).
To the writer of this guest TNT op-ed, I say: This isn’t a sci-fi movie. More than 560,000 Americans are dead.
People who don’t accept medical treatment as a religious doctrine have had to deal with the consequences of that choice all their lives. His reference to abortion is a self-serving tactic.
Why should anti-vaxxers who believe the COVID vaccine junk on social media be given consideration when they can fact check away the nonsense?
The writer’s drumming up the Tuskegee Experiment is shameful , QAnon-esque fearmongering aimed at a group that has been among the hardest hit by COVID.
When I received my Pfizer vaccination, I was given a card with the dates of the two injections recorded. No one told me what to do with it, but I carry it with me in my handbag and would support any business that asked to see it.
Penny M. Drost, Fircrest
Biden rhetoric
At his recently held first press conference, President Biden agreed the filibuster was a Jim Crow relic. Then why did Democrats use it more than 300 times compared to one time by Republicans in 2020?
Eliminating the filibuster is just a power grab to push Democrats’ radical tax-and-spend agenda.
Biden has also called Georgia’s new voting rights bill un-American and racist, without even having read it. Are the 35 other states that require a photo- or state-issued ID for an absentee ballot also racist?
The bill actually expands voter hours with mandatory Saturday and optional Sunday voting. Poll workers can hand out water and food to people in line, but political advocates cannot electioneer.
Corporate CEOs probably didn’t read the bill either, yet they caved to the Democrats’ race baiting and cancel culture.
If you disagree with Democrat policies and opinions, you’re automatically branded a racist. All Americans should reject this toxic rhetoric when voting in 2022.
Craig Chilton, Bonney Lake
Vaccine production
I am a caregiver to immunocompromised clients. The pandemic has been a vulnerable time for us all, but the COVID-19 vaccines have given us hope that things are getting better.
As a healthcare worker I was able to receive the vaccine, and my patients were as well. We are all thankful for the work done by the biopharmaceutical industry to quickly get these cures to market.
While I remind everyone that we must still mask up and social distance, I am starting to feel like our world is heading back to some sense of normalcy.
That these companies were able to develop three vaccines so quickly is testament not only to the industry but to their partnership with federal agencies and Congress.
I ask our leaders to continue to support the industries that got us out of this pandemic as they continue to develop new treatments and cures for our most vulnerable.
Laura Stump, Lakewood
This story was originally published April 17, 2021 at 3:42 PM with the headline "TNT letters to the editor, 4/17/2021."