I was heartbroken and horrified to read Claudia Cozens-Hoffman’s recent Forum letter (“DHMC staff start and end the day getting screamed at,”Aug. 12).
I had the privilege of working with her and many other caring professionals during my 29 years as a physician at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. These dedicated people deserve to be treated with respect and support, especially during what has been the most trying time in health care — and everything else! — in my lifetime.
I am also bemused by a group of protesters I saw waving flags at the corner of Route 120 and Centerra Parkway this week. They carry signs saying “Free DHMC,” among other things. Apparently, this is related to the recently announced requirement that DHMC employees receive a COVID-19 vaccination unless they have a legitimate medical or religious reason not to receive it.
How on Earth does this requirement — which prioritizes the safety and well-being of the many seriously ill and immunocompromised people who are cared for at DHMC every day — infringe on the freedom of employees?
If you are an employee, you have freedom of choice: Get a vaccine and continue working at your job at Dartmouth-Hitchcock.
Or, if you refuse to get vaccinated for whatever reason (that is not a legitimate medical or religious one), please feel free to find a job elsewhere. There are many open positions available throughout the Upper Valley. They may not have great benefits, but hey, that’s your choice.
Bless your hearts, good luck and try to be kinder.
FRANCES BROKAW
Hanover
After Joe Biden’s inauguration, he canceled much of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy, and the migrants came in droves. Every month the numbers grew. Many drowned and others died in the desert trying to get here. Yet Biden never visited the border, and he put his vice president, Kamala Harris, in charge.
In March 2020, the U.S. and Mexico closed the southern border because of the coronavirus. Harris traveled to Central America in June, stating “Do not come.”
Yet the border was never really closed and the numbers of migrants began rising. A record high number of migrants — 188,000 — were apprehended in June (and these are the ones who were caught or surrendered. How many didn’t get caught?) The Border Patrol in El Paso also reported a dramatic rise in fentanyl seizures over the last three years, from 1 pound in 2018 to 41 pounds so far in 2021.
Here in Vermont, Gov. Phil Scott ended the state of emergency in June because U.S. citizens wearing masks, social distancing and getting vaccinated had reduced infections, hospitalizations and deaths, and normal life began to open up again.
Since then, numbers have started to climb, various strains of the coronavirus have been introduced, originating from such countries as India and Peru. How did the variants from such countries get here? Who has been coming here from such countries?
My question to Biden and Harris is, when are they going to secure our border? How many more U.S. citizens have to die from this virus?
JOHN NELSON
Wilder
I’m sorry Dick Farrel, the South Florida talk show host who urged people not to get vaccinated, has died of COVID-19 complications (“Conservative radio host, vaccine critic dies,” Aug. 10).
But I believe there is another, more important issue that those who speak and act imprudently or unwisely fill people’s heads with, and that is misinformation on climate change.
The difference is, instead of leading to a single death (or perhaps more among those of Farrel’s listeners who took his advice not to get vaccinated), climate change deniers are urging the end of humanity.
Let’s be clear. Climate change is not threatening the planet. Earth will be here. Life as we know it will not.
Each year that passes will bring more fires, floods and heat waves that will basically cook people. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported, it will soon be too late to fix for us, our children and future generations (“Scientists warn of worsening warming,” Aug. 10). The worldwide effects of the searing sun will make it clear how horribly bad the science deniers’ advice has been.
The damage being done right now by human-made pollution cannot be fixed, and science says it will become universally deadly. Yet loud voices insist everything’s fine.
Those voices are arguing for an unimaginably worse outcome than one talk show host dead, mistaken about a vaccine. Everyone and everything will be dead.
Act now. Vote for leaders at all levels who are committed to reducing the causes — we all know what they are — of stripping away Earth’s protective ozone.
Do what you can on a personal level. The larger task of reducing pollution may seem overwhelming, but think of each action you take as adding a fraction of a second to humanity’s survival, and hope that billions of people are doing the same, rather than believing those who spout nonsense.
GENE CASSIDY
East Thetford