Letters for Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Madsen continues to cherry-pick
Sue Lani Madsen is cherry-picking again. Her recent column about persecution of Dr. Moon mentions the risks of myocarditis after vaccination (“Speaking freely has high cost for former local doctor,” March 28). What she fails to mention is what else causes myocarditis: COVID-19 infection. And it turns out that the risk of myocarditis is much higher after infection than after vaccination.
In young men, the highest risk population for this side effect, the risk of myocarditis after vaccination, was about 0.0001%. She says the risk of mortality in young people was “near zero,” but so is the risk of post-vaccination myocarditis.
I also find the comparisons to communist Czechoslovakia to be ridiculous and really tiresome. Dr. Moon has the right to say whatever she wants, but if she is going to teach medical students, she has a responsibility to deliver the evidence, the whole evidence, not just the evidence that supports her political view (and I mean political since everything COVID has become political these days).
I think it would be great if The Spokesman could find a “conservative” columnist who doesn’t cherry-pick and has a little perspective. But then I would be afraid I might be accused of wanting to send Ms. Madsen to Siberia.
Galen Goertzen
Spokane
Not an isolated event
While I certainly believe the majority of people in Coeur d’ Alene are not racist, and do not condone aggressive racism like that reported this week against the women’s basketball team from Utah, I suspect it happens more than is reported.
And not being reported may be a good thing in some cases. This particular case has received national attention, so whoever did it got what they wanted, attention.
A few months ago, three Black women who were working in the Spokane area (traveling nurses) for a short time and lived across the street from me decided to go to Coeur d’Alene for the day for lunch and shopping. As they were walking down the street, a middle-age man approached them and told them their kind didn’t belong in Coeur d’Alene and they should go find their car and leave.
They exchanged words with the man and weren’t particularly intimidated, but still it happened. They didn’t report anything, but they mentioned it to me and to others.
While I hope incidents like this in this area are few and far between I wonder.
Larry Reisnouer
Spokane
Is SCRAPS evaluation a can of worms?
I have to wonder if Al Merkel and the anti-SCRAPS folks are opening a can of worms.
Have they considered that after the evaluations they are demanding are completed that new contracts might cost much more for the same or fewer services than SCRAPS is currently providing?
Can they seriously expect SCRAPS to be fully staffed enough to be open every day?
Do they think SCRAPS can rehabilitate, train and indefinitely house every stray dog and cat in the county and beyond without euthanizing any animals?
There are a limited and finite number of kennels coupled with a seemingly unlimited and ever-increasing number of animals that desperately need help.
It is a never-ending cycle in which rescue groups are overwhelmed with homeless animals while the community continues to buy puppies from backyard breeders. The breeders continue to pump out more litters, knowing that the overflow they cannot sell will be dumped in shelters and rescue groups.
If the anti-SCRAPS people are really concerned about the pet overpopulation/sheltering crisis, I suggest they should be working on breeding bans. Perhaps they could start their own licensed shelter to take in all the animals for which SCRAPS does not have the available kennel space. They could also find a way to train and rehome all the dogs with bite histories and are too aggressive to be adopted out to the public.
Please let them try to care for the hundreds of animals to show the rest of us how easy it is to “save them all.”
Susan Tyler
Spokane