Monday's letters: As deadly COVID reemerges, DeSantis plays politics

DeSantis risks lives with bad COVID advice

What possible explanation can Gov. Ron DeSantis and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo have for suggesting that Floridians under 65 should not receive the latest COVID-19 booster?

COVID-19 boosters have proven to save lives. According to NPR, researchers from Yale University who studied the pandemic’s effects on Florida and Ohio say that from the start, in March 2020 through December 2021, “excess mortality was significantly higher for Republican voters than Democratic voters after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults.”

CDC: Everyone should get updated COVID-19 vaccine

Does DeSantis think that his denial of this fact will help his flailing presidential campaign? Does our governor think that his experience as a military assistant urinalysis coordinator qualifies him to disagree with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration?

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The governor should stop playing with Floridians’ lives and concentrate on helping, not hurting, us.

Joseph Arena, Bradenton

Sage words on COVID from Opinion editor

Opinion Editor Roger Brown, in a column Sept. 14, bemoans the fact that Florida government, specifically Gov. Ron DeSantis, isn’t doing enough to rein in the new outbreak of COVID-19 variant (“COVID-19 is back in Fla. and state’s leaders still don’t care,” Sept. 14).

Brown continues to illuminate the varied despicable predilections of our governor in failing to do so. He then finally advises Florida residents to vaccinate if they wish, mask if they think it makes sense, and stay home if they feel ill. Sage advice from the editor.

Presumably the editor, in providing this excellent personal advice, would prefer the government to mandate those reactions to the virus, and what will no doubt in the future be further mutations of it.

He finally indicates that we should use our own common sense in reacting to it. Again, sarcastically indicating that personal responsibility is a bad thing.

Editor Brown, personal responsibility for our conduct is not a bad thing; it is in fact our only real defense against this and other communicable diseases.

Lee Hoffman, Lakewood Ranch

On COVID, listen to CDC, not governor

It’s very disturbing that our tyrannical governor, Ron DeSantis, and his surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, continue to put the health of Floridians at risk.

By recommending against the new booster shot for COVID-19, they are putting the health of many Floridians, especially those with various other health conditions, at significant risk.  All reputable medical organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Medical Association, are strongly urging children and adults to get the booster.

Here's a reminder of what COVID-19 looks like: loss of smell or taste, fever, cough, chills, loss of appetite and muscle aches.  In serious cases, your lungs and heart could be compromised, leading to hospitalization and even death.

Poetic justice might be having these symptoms occur in the lives of DeSantis and Ladapo or their friends and family. This, unfortunately, would be a preventable tragedy.

Randy Kraft, Bradenton

Division threatens fragile democracy

Not long ago, a nightly routine for the Republican president and the Democratic speaker of the House was to meet at the White House, share a drink and discuss how to bridge any gaps in their search to serve our country.

Where has that spirit of constructive political leadership gone?

Now, a small group of lawmakers has stopped our armed forces from improving its command structure and threaten not to pay for services already rendered (which Congress approved in the first place).

They may well bring our nation to a halt by refusing to approve the 2023-2024 budget. All in the name of refusing to compromise.

Democracies are fragile. All we need to do is look at the sad histories of many Central and South American countries. They won their freedom from their European masters and published founding documents promising freedom, justice and the rule of law.

Strong-minded men in many of these countries, who refused to compromise their own agendas, have destroyed the dreams of their people.

Now their people struggle to head north to America for a better life. Where will our grandchildren go when their dreams fail? Canada?

Ronald F. Cota, Sarasota

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Ignoring CDC advice about COVID, DeSantis again plays politics