Serious job
The U.S. Health and Human Services secretary is in charge of our nation’s health care. That person manages Medicaid and Medicare; oversees the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health; and is in charge of preparing for and responding to public health and medical emergencies (i.e. pandemic preparedness and response). It’s a serious job that requires someone with serious experience and qualifications to hold it — and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has neither.
Not only is Kennedy wholly unqualified to lead HHS, he has a well-documented history of embracing quack science, spreading dangerous health disinformation about vaccines, and asserting conspiracy theories as facts while ignoring overwhelming scientific evidence.
He doesn’t have a medical or science degree, has zero executive experience and peddles false information to the masses without understanding the dangerous ramifications of his misinformed and unresearched ideas.
Kennedy has made millions of dollars profiting off of parents’ natural worries about the health of their children by advising them not to vaccinate them.
He is out of step with reality, and if he’s charged with safeguarding our nation’s health, it could mean a matter of life or death for countless Americans.
Kyarah Rippy, Chesapeake
Confirmations
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer and his cohorts are clamoring about certain cabinet nominees of President Donald Trump with the usual partisan application. When former President Joe Biden’s nominees were confirmed, many Republicans voted for them.
Looking back at the disastrous Biden administration, remind yourself why Trump was elected. Here are just four examples: former Attorney General Merrick Garland, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken and former Assistant Secretary for Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Rachel Levine.
Jon Palmer, Williamsburg
Bashing Trump
President Donald Trump won both the Electoral College and popular vote. It is obvious that the people writing in to bash him, before he’s barely taken office, have no respect for the institution of democracy.
Sam Jackson, Newport News
Losing
In addition to my news consumption I have read letters to the editor both before the election and since the election. The letters expressing the writers’ positive opinions regarding President Donald Trump have a common thread: confusion about the difference between leadership and dictatorship. A dictionary for those folks, perhaps?
Now, as the country goes forward, we are losing our democracy, our rights, our standing in the world and our dignity, and America will henceforth be known as Russia West. Too late for a dictionary, it seems.
Ina Friedman, Norfolk
Drugs in Mexico
President Donald Trump declared the Mexican drug cartels to be terrorists. He wants to invade Mexico using our military. What could go wrong?
Native-born U.S. citizens buy massive amounts of illegal drugs, including fentanyl, from native-born U.S. citizens. Native-born U.S. citizens sell illegal weapons to Mexican cartels so that the cartels can enforce their interests. Obviously, this is terrible. However, It is our fault that this has occurred, not Mexico’s.
Massive numbers of our native-born citizens consume fentanyl as well as other illegal substances. Much of this poison is purchased by native-born citizens from the cartels and resold to our folks. The cartels use weapons sold illegally to them by native-born citizens to protect their business interests.
So, native-born citizens of the U.S. buy the drugs, and native-born citizens sell arms to the cartels. This is not the fault of Mexico. Our actions have damaged Mexico. It is not Mexico’s fault that we have an insatiable demand for drugs, nor is it Mexico’s fault that we are unable to control sales of weapons to the cartels.
Michael Lewis, Onancock